Adoption of mobile banking at the bottom of the pyramid: an emerging market perspective

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the factors that affect mobile banking adoption among the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) group in an emerging market.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 332 bank customers in the BoP group through a questionnaire based on previously validated scales. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied using SmartPLS 2.0 to analyze the data.FindingsIt was found that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEoU) influence the attitude toward mobile banking positively whereas the perceived risk (PR) and perceived deterrents (PDs) influence the attitude negatively. The subjective norms (SNs) and the attitude positively affect mobile banking adoption. Knowledge of mobile banking has a strong effect on the PEoU, but it does not influence the PU of mobile banking.Originality/valueThis research makes an original contribution to the extant research and fills the gap by exploring the factors that affect the mobile banking adoption among a distinct BoP group (migrant workers) in an emerging market. The authors make use of knowledge of mobile banking and PDs as novel and important constructs in the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explore the factors that affect mobile banking adoption among the BoP.