Users Acceptance of Mobile Finance Service in Bangladesh and the impact of COVID-19: Extended UTAUT2

Abstract

Population of Bangladesh is 164 million, but there are 165 million mobile phone subscribers. Mobile phone usage is one of the fastest growing phenomena of the country. Globally, among many mobile based services, Mobile Financing is one of the most rapidly expanding sector. Bangladesh is yet to see a significant growth in this arena. There have been numerous studies conducted on the types of Mobile Financing Services (MFS) and their reach in Bangladesh. But not too many studies were conducted on the factors that influences users to adopt MFS and their behavioral intension. Moreover, the recent crisis of COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have an impact on the usage of MFS which is also another unexplored research domain. This study analyzes the factors influencing MFS users of Bangladesh and also explores the impact of COVID-19 on the user’s behavioral intension. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model in combination with Entrepreneurial Potential Model has been modified and adopted in this study. This study explores the correlation of Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Conditions (FC), Price Value (V) on Behavioral Intention (BI) on MFS users. It also studies the moderation effect of COVID-19 on the relationship between MFS users’ Behavioral Intension and Use Behavior. The correlating factors effect positively on the MFS users’ behavioral intention. But the COVID-19 impact was found ineffective in moderating their use behavior. The framework of this research is a novel one and can be adopted for similar studies.