Near Field Communication - Its adoption process and technology acceptance

Abstract: NFC was often predicted in media as well as academic literature to become a de facto standard, which offers great value. Today there are more smartphones than personal computers and tab-lets combined, predicting that the mobile payment market to grow radically. NFC is often cited as a suitable technology for mobile payment solutions. This thesis aims to answer the research question why NFC has not become a standard for mobile payments as well as widely used and accepted. To answer this, we propose a research model based on extended TAM. Our findings suggest that there is a general positive attitude towards NFC, but the participants tend to lack awareness of its existence. In order to complement the findings of our research model, we dis-cuss the adoption process and value of standardization. We also conclude that Apple has a con-siderable share of the smartphone market and that they will play a key role for the future of NFC with whether or not the next generation of their products will support it. Furthermore, it is clear from historical examples that in the end, it will be the users that decide whether or not NFC will be the de facto standard for mobile payments.