Mobile payment adoption process: a serial of multiple mediation and moderation analysis

Purpose Global digital payment transactions increase continuously. Due to the inconsistencies that occurred across the research findings, past researchers have called for further investigation to verify and empirically test the mobile payment acceptance model. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative model that is derived from the multiple technology acceptance models (TAM)’s a theoretical framework and past literature to understand how consumers decided to adopt mobile payment. By simultaneously testing mechanisms, namely, ease of use, usefulness and risk, the current study will be able to advance scholarly knowledge of the underlying consumer’s attitude and behavior that link social influence to intention to use. Design/methodology/approach A total of 370 valid responses were collected using self-administered questionnaires distributed via online platforms, a representative for Thai consumers. An ordinary least square regression and bootstrap analyzes were conducted through PROCESS Macro to analyze the moderated serial-multiple mediation model in the consecutive inducing of social influence, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived risk toward the consumer’s intention to use mobile payment. Findings Within the context of consumers evaluating a mobile payment, statistics significant were found for the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness on an intention to use. The results showed that Thai consumers’ intention to use mobile payment was significantly affected by their attitudes in terms of usefulness and the less complication in using the applications. It is confirmed that social influence indirectly affects intention to use via the increase of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The study also found a significant interaction between perceived risk and perceived usefulness toward intention to use. Practical implications It is recommended to service providers to continue improving the user-friendliness, navigation, integrity and furnish the system with more value-added activities within the mobile payment application. It is also essential for the company to deliver tutorials and clear and easy-to-follow instructions to customers. At the same time, the marketer should develop marketing strategies to promote the usefulness and simplicity of using the applications to the consumers. When consumers experienced the easiness and usefulness of the applications, these could overcome the resistance feeling to use due to the concern on any potential risk. Originality/value The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on consumer usage behavior and TAM by integrating all important variables and developed a parsimony framework to explain consumers’ usage adoption on mobile payment. Moreover, the current study was the very first that proposed and tested a serial of multiple mediations of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, moderated by perceived risk, in the relationship between social influence and consumers’ intention to use mobile payment and discovered a moderating role of perceived risk toward the relationship between perceived usefulness and mobile payment usage intention.