Liza Rybina

Mobile payments are developing at a rapid pace in the modern world, affecting most areas of business, economics, and consumer life. Mobile payment services in Kazakhstan have emerged recently driven mostly by young and tech-savvy consumers. The current study applies the modified Technology Adoption Model to investigate the factors that influence the usage of mobile payments by young consumers in Kazakhstan. The data were collected from 351 respondents through an online survey using a structured questionnaire. The results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, transaction security, and trust are important determinants of mobile payment usage intention. These findings call for improvements in the technological development of mobile payment services to deliver usefulness, ease of use, and security, as well as marketing communications to build trust. On the other hand, no support was found for the effects of usage cost and availability of alternatives on behavioral intention to use mobile payments in Kazakhstan.

The Great Silk Road offers a high potential for the cultural and heritage tourism development as more travelers are interested in the past and culture of the others. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between patriotism, cultural openness, ethnocentrism and outcomes of tourism in the context of the Central Asia. The study uses a quantitative approach. A survey method was applied to collect data from 146 local residents living in the heritage tourism areas. The analysis included descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. The obtained results demonstrate that patriotism had a significant positive impact on ethnocentrism of local residents, while cultural openness had a negative impact on ethnocentrism. The ethnocentric attitudes of residents were significantly related to the positive and negative outcomes of tourism. Recommendations are provided for addressing problems related to cultural differences and regional cooperation for better understanding, tolerance, and social interactions between people living in the countries of Central Asia. This study contributes to the academic literature by integrating ethnocentrism and its antecedents with positive and negative outcomes of cultural tourism. It is of value to tourism practitioners and local policy makers in the Silk Road countries.