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The continued growth for both smartphone usage and mobile applications (apps) innovations has resulted in businesses realizing the potential of this growth in usage. Hence, the study investigates the antecedents of customer satisfaction due the usage of mobile commerce (m-commerce) applications (MCA) by Millennial consumers in South Africa. The conceptual model antecedents were derived from the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The research made use of self-administered questionnaires to take a cross section of Millennial MCA users in South Africa. The sample comprised of nearly 5500 respondents and the data was analyzed via structural equation and generalized linear modeling. The results revealed that trust, social influence, and innovativeness positively influenced perceived usefulness; perceived enjoyment, mobility, and involvement positively influenced perceived ease of use; and perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were positive antecedents of customer satisfaction. Several usage and demographic characteristics were also found to have a positive effect on customer satisfaction. It is important for businesses to improve customer experience and satisfaction via MCA to facilitate a positive satisfaction and social influence among young technologically savvy consumers.

Mobile shopping application can provide retailers the opportunity for showcasing their brands and shopping experiences to the customers since the use of smartphones are increasing. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the e-service quality of mobile commerce applications (MCA) in enhancing customer loyalty intention behaviour to purchase the product via MCA among online shoppers in Malaysia through the use of the adapted SERVQUAL model. Additionally, the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between MCA service quality dimensions and customer loyalty intention behaviour was studied. A purposive sampling technique was used and 120 data were collected through an online survey. The results for direct testing demonstrate that all the SERVQUAL dimensions were significantly influenced customer satisfaction, except reliability, security and usability. Meanwhile, analysis results for the mediating effects demonstrate that customer satisfaction mediates the relationship of SERVQUAL dimensions (assurance, personalization, responsiveness and information quality) and customer loyalty intention. Even though the SERVQUAL dimensions tested in this study were significant, the effect size is rather small. Nevertheless, all these factors are important to be considered for the improvement of MCA, especially everyone is moving forward to a digital business environment and e-service is regarded to play an important role.

The rapid proliferation of mobile phones and other mobile devices has created a new channel for marketing. The use of Short Messaging Service to access customers through their handheld devices is gaining popularity, making the mobile phone the ultimate medium for one-to-one marketing. The present research investigates consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising and the relationship between attitude and behavior. An instrument for measuring attitudes toward mobile advertising is developed. The results of a survey indicate that (1) consumers generally have negative attitudes toward mobile advertising unless they have specifically consented to it, and (2) there is a direct relationship between consumer attitudes and consumer behavior. Thus it is not a good idea to send SMS advertisements to potential customers without prior permission.

Based on the concept of task/technology fit, a research framework and exploratory case study are presented that assess success factors and impacts of mobile business applications. Preliminary empirical evidence for the applicabilit y of the framework was obtained for a mobile electronic procurement system implemented at a Fortune 100 company. For different user groups, the relationships between the characteristics of technology and tasks, usage, and organizational impacts were analyzed. The results indicate a need for simple but highly functional mobile applications that complement existing information systems. The study provides a basis for further research to improve the design and management of business applications based on emerging technologies.

The rapid growth of mobile telephony has fueled the expansion of the mobile Internet as a foundation for mobile commerce. Proponents claim that mobile commerce will surpass electronic commerce in growth and scope, but there is as yet no commonly accepted framework for the study of interface design for mobile commerce. Using Rayport and Jaworski's 7C's--the seven design elements of a customer interface (context, content, community, customization, communication, connection, and commerce) --as a reference framework, interfaces for mobile commerce and electronic commerce are compared. Two new elements (2M's) are identified: mobile setting and mobile device constraints. These 2M's substantially affect the design of each of the 7C's. Therefore, the 2M's and 7C's are proposed as a new framework for mobile commerce interfaces. Based on this, previous research is analyzed and suggestions for future research are generated.

With the rapid proliferation of mobile devices, including mobile phones, PDAs, and handheld computers, mobile commerce is widely considered to be a driving force for next-generation e-commerce. Many attempted m-commerce applications have failed to meet expectations, however, with the notable exceptions of I-Mode in Japan and the explosive growth of Short Messaging Service in China. It is important to understand why promising technologies fail and what factors contribute to their failure. This paper proposes a fit-viabilit y framework for assessing the likely success or failure of m-commerce applications. For fit, criteria for measurement are identified based on task-technology fit theory. For viabilit y, financial and managerial criteria are identified. The papers in this Special Issue address factors related to the framework, and m-commerce applications in procurement and travel agencies, to demonstrate its value.

E-business is rapidly spreading in service industries. Firms that adopt this innovative way to sell or deliver services and manage customer relationships must make technological and strategic changes. Firms in the same industry adopt e-business at different rates. Why do some firms actively implement e-business, and others take a more cautious attitude? Drawing on several research streams (innovation adoption research, institutional theory, strategic orientation theory, and upper-echelon theory), this article proposes a multi-level model to explain e-business adoption by service firms. The model was empirically tested using survey and interview data from travel agencies in Taiwan. External competitive pressure, innovation orientation, financial slack, and IT resources were found to be associated with two measures of e-business adoption. CEO risk-taking propensity and firm size also had an interaction effect on e-business adoption. Interviews with CEOs indicate that most travel agencies in Taiwan are not yet ready to apply mobile technologies in their daily business. The slow progress of mobile e-business was largely attributed to the limited capacity of mobile devices and the misfit between travel product characteristics, consumer behavior, and current mobile solutions.

In this article, we deal with context-aware query processing in ad-hoc peer-to-peer networks. Each peer in such an environment has a database over which users execute queries. This database involves (a) relations which are locally stored and (b) virtual relations, all the tuples of which are collected from peers that are present in the network at the time when a query is posed. The objective of our work is to perform query processing in such an environment and, to this end, we start with a formal definition of the system model. Next, we formally define SQLP, an extension of SQL that covers the termination of queries, the failure of individual peers and the semantic characteristics of the peers of such a network. Moreover, we present a query execution algorithm as well as the formal definition of all the operators that take place in a query execution plan.

We document some early effects of how mobile devices might change Internet and retail commerce. We present three main findings based on an analysis of eBay's mobile shopping application and core Internet platform. First, early adopters of mobile e-commerce applications appear to be people who already were relatively heavy Internet commerce users. Second, adoption of the mobile shopping application is associated with both an immediate and sustained increase in total platform purchasing, with little evidence of substitution from the core platform. Third, differences in user behavior across the mobile applications and the regular Internet site are not yet so dramatic.