The use of non-coin currency has been existent for a considerably long period. However, the integration of technology in making payments has been a recent invention that has spurred economic growth and increased transactions without necessarily the physical presence of the parties involved in the transactions. Mobile money can be described as a wallet service operating electronically via technology.
The concept of mobile payment has seen consumers globally make purchases without primarily using credit cards, cheque or cash making it possible to buy hard and digital goods as well as a variety of services. Globally, different countries and mobile money service providers have put in place varied regulatory measures to ensure credibility, security, and efficiency of mobile wallets.
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Mobile transfers across regions
Transferring money using mobile payment platforms has varied affecting factors across regions. Studies by Jensen and Karoline (2017), the fact that technology has made it possible to initiate financial transactions using mobile money transfers have reduced regional barriers to trade. However, there are inherent challenges that have continued to lower the success rates of mobile money transfers. Notably, structural weaknesses, especially in rural villages, have acted to speed down the effectiveness of money transfers. While transacting money using mobile transfers, the users must have access to a mobile phone that has a SIM registered with a network offering mobile money services. It is worth noting that different areas do not have network coverage while others have poor coverage. The case of third world countries using mobile money, for example, Haiti and Kenya have proven that structural weaknesses exist that are continuously hindering the success of mobile money transfers (Taylor, & Horst, n.d.).
Accruing to studies by World Bank on mobile money transfers, it has been verified that the technological innovation has made it possible to make payments over long distances at reduced costs with high efficiency and security. Initially, money transfers were made using courier and parcel services that registered reduced success rates coupled with inefficiencies especially across regions. Global non-governmental organizations such as the Bill Gates Foundation, Mercy Corps among others have proven that indeed regional barriers are no longer valid when it is a question of mobile money transactions. Such organizations have successfully initiated helping programs in developing countries using mobile transfers.
Cultural landscape
It goes without saying that like all other technological innovations, money transfer is affected by cultural landscapes. Across many cultures, the concept of mobile money transfers is largely accepted by individual members of the societies acknowledging the input that the innovation has had on financial transactions. The non-conservative cultures have widely embraced mobile money transfers as repeated research has revealed. A case study of the Congo has revealed that a large part of the country has an informal economy characterized by constant bank defaults that have led to the reduced trust of traditional banking services (Namisango, Kafuko, & Byomire, 2017). Given the growing distrust of formal financial services providers, many users have embraced mobile money. Continued studies have acted to shed some light on the Senegalese culture of emigration. Given that emigrants are constantly sending remittances to their families in Senegal has seen an increased acceptance of mobile money transfers. In rural setups where rural folk has a distrust of formal banks, there exists a wide acceptance of using mobile money platforms both for saving and undertaking regular financial transactions.
Further research on mobile money transfer and cultural landscapes indicates that conservative communities that have not experienced financial inclusion over long periods are overcoming such cultural barriers in financial inclusion. Notably, in Pakistan, there have been challenges of financial inclusion given the high regulatory aspects of formal banks and a lack of credit facilities (Ibtasam, Mehmood, Razaq, Webster, Yu, & Anderson, 2017). Many Pakistanis have turned to mobile money transfers to help undertake their financial transactions.
Diffusion
Spatial diffusion
Diffusion of mobile money transfer as an innovative idea has been witnessed largely in the world. According to Mobile Money - Cross-Border Transfers Enabled (2017), the idea of mobile money has had spatial diffusion given that varied mobile money transfer companies have grown from their countries of origin to be used globally. The adoption of various service providers in the mobile money transfer services displays a trend of globalization.
Contagious diffusion
Contagious diffusion is an adoption concept of an idea or innovation that seems to spread irrespective of boundaries. The concept of mobile money transfer and its adoption has followed contagious diffusion where people who have come into contact with the idea have learned and adopted it as a way of making financial transactions.
Stimulus diffusion
Considering that mobile money transfer is to an extent affected by cultural landscapes, the idea has been affected by stimulus diffusion where different service providers have tailored mobile money transfers to suit local cultures. An example of the Pakistani service providers who have introduced credit facilities mobile money services serves to show stimulus diffusion of the innovation to suit local needs.
Distance decay
The concept of distance decay seeks to show how distance affects ideas on different cultural interactions. The idea of mobile money transfer has been to an extent immune to distance decay. The interaction of the innovation and its end users have had no significant change brought about by distance (Jensen & Karoline, 2017). Users of mobile money transfer from the point of origin of the idea have a similar experience to the end users where the innovation has diffused to.
References
Ibtasam, S., Mehmood, H., Razaq, L., Webster, J., Yu, S., & Anderson, R. (2017). An Exploration of Smartphone-Based Mobile Money Applications in Pakistan. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development - ICTD '17 . doi:10.1145/3136560.3136571
Jensen Alnes, & Karoline. (2017). Mobile Money Adoption in East Africa: A cross-country study of best- and least-performing countries . Lunds universitet/Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen.
Mobile Money - Cross-Border Transfers Enabled. (2017). Africa Research Bulletin: Economic, Financial and Technical Series , 54 (8), 21826A-21826A. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6346.2017.07883.x
Namisango, F., Kafuko, M. M., & Byomire, G. (2017). The understanding user experience of mobile money services in emerging markets. 2017 IST-Africa Week Conference (IST-Africa) . doi:10.23919/istafrica.2017.8102305
Taylor, E. B., & Horst, H. A. (n.d.). The Aesthetics of Mobile Money Platforms in Haiti. The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media . doi:10.4324/9780203434833.ch42
