Master of Business Administration alumna Susan Lew and Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) academics Loh Xiu Ming and Hew Jun Jie were recently awarded the “Top Cited Articles” award by Technology in Society (Elsevier) for their research titled The Disruptive Mobile Wallet in the Hospital Industry: An Extended Mobile Technology Acceptance Model.

“This is a joyous moment for me because the award means so much to me. This acknowledgement is significant and I will cherish this achievement throughout my life. With that said, I would like to thank all my co-authors of this paper and for their support,” enthused Lew.

When asked of her inspiration to conduct this research, she explained, “In recent years, technology has evolved rapidly, especially in the field of mobile. Following that, mobile wallet is expected to become the primary payment method for various financial transactions in the future. However, it is surprising that it is not widely used in Malaysia as consumers prefer to pay with cash, debit cards or credit cards. Hence, this study focused on understanding the reasons that would facilitate Malaysians to use mobile wallet, particularly in the hospitality industry.”

The research, co-authored with UCSI academics Dr Garry Tan Wei Han and Prof Ooi Keng Boon, investigated the adoption of mobile wallet in the hospitality industry among consumers. It also extends the newly proposed mobile technology acceptance model with self-efficacy theory, critical mass theory and flow theory to explain the behavioural intention to adopt. Apart from technology self-efficacy and perceived critical mass; mobile usefulness, mobile ease of use, mobile self-efficacy, and perceived enjoyment were discovered to have a positive and significant association with the behavioural intention to adopt mobile wallet in the hospitality industry.

She also elucidated, “Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected many people around the world. In particular, this virus can spread when people are in close contact via small droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, and talking. However, mobile wallet can help to reduce the spread of the virus because of its contactless nature. It is therefore no surprise that mobile wallet is now more commonly used by the general public. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of cash was debated as the use of mobile wallet was increasing. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated this situation by pushing consumers to adopt contactless payments. Hence, the option of paying with mobile wallet serves as a business opportunity to stakeholders in the hospitality industry. This is because it is a competitive advantage to other businesses that do not accept this form of payment. Overall, this research provides insights and findings that can help stakeholders in the hospitality industry develop better strategies to encourage the use of m-wallet.”

Technology in Society is currently indexed with Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and has an impact factor of 4.192.