m-commerce technology adoption: Thematic and citation analysis of scholarly research during (2008-2017)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to consolidate the state of research in mobile commerce (m-commerce) technology adoption from 2008 to 2017. This study not only reviews the evolution of m-commerce literature but also highlights the significant contribution of authors and their productive collaborations in the development of this area. Design/methodology/approach A total of 184 peer-reviewed articles focusing on m-commerce adoption were obtained after applying search criteria on Scopus database. After using inclusion and exclusion criteria to achieve the objective of this study, 86 journals were shortlisted. The study further discusses the dispersion of various m-commerce applications being explored in m-commerce literature. In addition, dominating technology adoption theories and the most used keywords have also been identified and discussed in this study. Findings This study indicates that technology acceptance model and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology are the most exploited technology adoption theories. Moreover, the dominating constructs in literature are perceived usefulness, ease of use social influence/social norm on behavior intention, attitude intention followed by performance expectancy, facilitating condition and effort expectancy influence on intention. Originality/value This study presents a detailed association rule mining and community analysis to show the association among constructs such as usefulness, ease of ease, social influence and intention as dominant group in this area. The study also identifies lesser explored constructs and indicates possible future research to validate and strengthen their understanding further.