The influence of individual differences on NFC-based mobile payment adoption in the restaurant industry

Purpose This study aims to identify the relationship between individual differences of customers and their intention to use Near Field Communication (NFC)-based mobile payment (MP) technology in restaurants. Design/methodology/approach Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) was used to collect the data of this study. A brief demonstration video of a NFC-MP system on how to use the technology was included at the beginning of the survey to make sure that all respondents had a sufficient understanding of the technology. A total of 410 valid online questionnaires were collected. ANOVA with Dunnett's C post hoc analysis was used to compare the groups' mean differences of gender, age, prior experience, income and education. Findings The findings indicated that there are significant differences in customers' intention to use NFC technology in restaurants for past experience, age and gender. However, unlike previous studies' statements, education and income did not play a significant role in restaurant customers' NFC MP adoption behavioral intention. Originality/value Food and travel experts believe that mobile payment will soon become the preferred method of payment in near future. Moreover, many restaurants in the USA are currently utilizing NFC-based MP systems because of its benefits. However, recent market research shows that NFC-based MP is still not popular among restaurant customers, as its rate of adoption is low. As little research has been conducted on MP in general and on consumers' NFC-based MP adoption behavior in particular, a better understanding of individual differences influencing the adoption of mobile payments should be acquired.