Understanding the mediating role of attitude in the adoption of close-range contactless communication in financial services: an emerging market perspective

Due to the high smartphone penetration rate in emerging markets, mobile financial services are becoming crucial in facilitating swift financial service delivery. Resultantly, mobile financial services supported by close-range contactless communication (CRCC) have great promise to further enhance financial service experiences. The challenge stems from the lack of embracing this innovation by consumers, adding to the undesirable financial services’ operating costs. Interestingly, smartphone users are more prone to utilise CRCC for bank service transactions, yet sparse research has been conducted on the precursors of CRCC adoption in an emerging market. We investigated the precursors of CRCC adoption, by underpinning the Mobile Technology Acceptance Model (MTAM) and attitude as a mediating variable between the predictors of CRCC adoption and actual CRCC adoption. A quantitative research approach was employed, utilising a purposive sampling technique, with n = 237 respondents. PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. The findings indicate that attitude, mobile information quality, mobile ubiquity and mobile usefulness influence CRCC adoption, mobile ease of use did not influence attitude towards CRCC adoption. While all precursors of CRCC adoption and actual adoption of CRCC were mediated by attitude, except for the relationship between mobile ease of use and CRCC adoption.