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Top1. Introduction
Mobile payment (m-payment) is conceptualised as a contemporary payment method that is processed via mobile devices such as smartphones or personal mobile devices (Xin, Techatassanasoontorn, & Tan, 2015). M-payment is considered as a subset of the broad area of electronic commerce (e-commerce) or mobile commerce (m-commerce) which performs electronic payments for consumers. With the advance of communication technology and digital personal devices, m-payment helps consumers to conduct payment transactions quickly, conveniently, and accurately without concerns about the location and time. M-payment global usage is predicted to grow 28% by 2022, and will possibly exceed the usage of cash and credit cards, therefore m-payment plays an important role in promoting the development towards the forthcoming cashless world (MerchantSavvy, 2019).
Despite the advance of mobile technologies, the popularity of mobile devices, and the benefits of m-payment such as usefulness, convenience, security, more effective administration of financial expenses, and improvement of the customer experience (Silva, 2018), the penetration and adoption of m-payment are still lower than expected (Patil, Rana, Dwivedi, & Abu-Hamour, 2018). This leads to a need to study the factors influencing m-payment adoption (Gao & Waechter, 2017; Qasim & Abu-Shanab, 2016; Yan & Yang, 2014). In addition, there is a substantial development of m-payment in many developing economies which drives a lot of economic activity while many developed countries are in the beginning stage (BBVA, 2015; Clark, 2017). Consequently, research on m-payment adoption in developing countries is significant for both practice and theory.
Culture plays a crucial role in consumer technology adoption because it may cause and explain a discrepancy in consumer behaviour in acceptance as well as intention to adopt a new system or technology (Choi, Lee, Sajjad, & Lee, 2014; Goodrich & de Mooij, 2011; Xu-Priour, Truong, & Klink, 2014). Many previous studies have suggested the significant impact of culture on technology adoption (Ebrahimi, Singh, & Tabrizi, 2010; Huang, 2017; Olasina & Mutula, 2015; Srite & Karahanna, 2006). Consequently, the influence of culture on e-commerce in general and in m-payment in particular has been highlighted and needs to be investigated further (Hallikainen & Laukkanen, 2018; Nguyen, Dick, & Pham, 2020; Xu-Priour, 2015).
In the context of technology adoption as well as m-payment adoption, performance expectancy (PE), behavioural intention (BI), and customer trust are recognised as vital drivers. PE and BI have been adopted widely and are considered as the best predictors in technology adoption based on the reviewing studies using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) as the theoretical background (Williams, Rana, & Dwivedi, 2015). The models of technology use and acceptance which was developed in developed countries need to be verified further in different contexts (Venkatesh, Thong, & Xu, 2012), such as non-Western context or developing countries (Al-Qeisi, Dennis, & Abbad, 2015; Baptista & Oliveira, 2015; Tarhini, El-Masri, Ali, Serrano, & People, 2016; Yoon, 2009). Consumer trust (CT) is important and necessary because it helps consumers feel confident and safe, thereby overcoming their concerns about risks and uncertainty when using a new technology (McKnight, Choudhury, & Kacmar, 2002). Many previous studies have empirically proven the significant role of CT in technology adoption and m-payment adoption (Li & Li, 2008; Pavlou & Gefen, 2004; Piao, Wang, & Yang, 2012; Xin et al., 2015; Zhou, 2014). Consequently, this study adopts PE, BI and CT as representative and reliable factors for models of technology use and acceptance in the context of m-payment adoption.