School of Economics and Management, Chang'an University, Xi'an, 710064, Shaanxi, China.
School of Economics and Management, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology (SUST), Weiyang District, Xi'an, 710021, Shaanxi, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 May;30(22):61271-61289. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-17437-y. Epub 2021 Nov 13.
Access to financial services is regarded as one of the most pressing issues confronting communities worldwide sequel to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, FinTech applications such as mobile financial service (MFS) play an essential role in building resilience during the pandemic. Hence, the aim of the study is to investigate the role of MFS platforms in economic resilience by empirically evaluating the determinants that influence the intention of Bangladeshi users toward adopting MFS platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, through an extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Using the core structures of the UTAUT, the theoretical model was constructed based on the consumption attributes of financial services such as perceived value, as well as additional situational factors from the extended valence framework, including risk and trust. To test the model, data was obtained from 227 potential MFS users in Bangladesh with the aid of a structured questionnaire survey. Subsequently, the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that social influence, perceived trust, and perceived value are strongly related to the intention of users to adopt MFS platforms, whereas, perceived risk, performance expectancy, and effort expectancy were observed to influence users' perceived value of the MFS platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, the study results indicated that the users' perceived risk did not influence their intention to adopt MFS platforms during the pandemic. Therefore, the suggested adoption of the MFS framework during and after the pandemic could contribute to the existing research on the adoption of information technology (IT) through the expansion of the UTAUT, in which the performance and effort expectancy of users influence their intention to indirectly adopt MFS through perceived value. Finally, the significant policy implications and future research directions are further addressed.
获取金融服务被视为全球社区面临的最紧迫问题之一，这是由于 COVID-19 大流行的影响。在这方面，金融科技应用，如移动金融服务 (MFS)，在大流行期间发挥了至关重要的作用，有助于建立韧性。因此，本研究旨在通过实证评估影响孟加拉国用户在 COVID-19 大流行期间采用 MFS 平台意愿的决定因素，来探讨 MFS 平台在经济韧性中的作用，该研究通过扩展技术接受和使用统一理论 (UTAUT) 来实现。本研究使用 UTAUT 的核心结构，根据金融服务的消费属性（如感知价值）以及扩展价值框架中的额外情境因素（包括风险和信任）构建了理论模型。为了检验模型，本研究通过结构问卷调查，从孟加拉国的 227 名潜在 MFS 用户中获取了数据。随后，使用结构方程模型 (SEM) 方法对数据进行了分析。研究结果表明，社会影响、感知信任和感知价值与用户采用 MFS 平台的意愿密切相关，而感知风险、绩效期望和努力期望则会影响用户在 COVID-19 大流行期间对 MFS 平台的感知价值。有趣的是，研究结果表明，用户的感知风险不会影响他们在大流行期间采用 MFS 平台的意愿。因此，建议在大流行期间和之后采用 MFS 框架，可以通过扩展 UTAUT 来为信息技术 (IT) 的采用研究做出贡献，其中用户的绩效和努力期望会通过感知价值间接影响他们采用 MFS 的意愿。最后，本研究进一步探讨了显著的政策意义和未来研究方向。
