Effect of gratification on user attitude and continuance use of mobile payment services: a developing country context

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the gratifications driving the attitude and continuance use of mobile payment services in developing country context, such as Ghana. Also, the moderating effect of income and education on gratifications and attitude of users is explored. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected from conveniently sampled 361 users of mobile payment services in Ghana. A questionnaire, which mainly contains five-point Likert scale questions, was used to collect the data. The study adopted the Uses and Gratification (U&G) theory, where income and education were used as moderating factors. The data was analysed with SmartPLS for Structural Equation Modelling. Findings Among the other factors from the U&G theory, integrative, ease of use and usefulness gratifications were found to significantly influence attitude towards the use of mobile payment services in Ghana. In addition to this finding, user attitude significantly influences the continuance use intention of mobile payment services. Furthermore, the study revealed various effects of the moderating factors. These findings suggest that promoting mobile payment technology inclusiveness by creating a favourable environment would enhance the use of mobile payment services in Ghana. Research limitations/implications Given that this study was conducted in Ghana, a developing country, it is difficult to generalize the results to encompass the developed economies. In future, similar research should compare the developed and developing economies by considering culture as a moderating effect. Practical implications This study intends to provide information on the gratifications that drive the attitude and continuance use of mobile payment services in Ghana. The findings seek to augment mobile money service providers’ capabilities by providing them with an understanding of user gratification experience on mobile payment services. Additionally, the study will serve as a guide to policymakers in the government, telecommunication companies and mobile banking providers, to improve customer intimacy and gratification through their user behaviour. Originality/value Previous studies on user gratification have primarily focussed on the functional benefits derived from mobile payments and how they influence the service’s adoption. This study has contributed to literature by considering both the functional and non-functional benefits of mobile payment in developing country context. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to consider income and education as moderating variables to study the gratification levels of mobile payment users in Ghana and among few in Africa.

Understanding in-store interactive technology use: a uses and gratifications theory (UGT) perspective

“…Regarding in-store technologies, Acuti et al (2020) showed that the type of communication of QR code influences the perceived value of the product: when the message content is hedonic, it generates a greater perceived value of products. Alhassan et al (2020) have also shown that ease of use and usefulness gratifications significantly influence attitudes toward the use of mobile payment services. Roux (2020) has also identified four gratifications related to the use of wayfinding screens in shopping malls (convenient process, interactive process, informational content and entertaining content).…”

“…Moreover, the UGT approach has been mobilized to explore the adoption factors of online technologies such as chatbots (Rese et al, 2020) and in-store technologies such as QR codes (Acuti et al, 2020) and mobile payment services (Alhassan et al, 2020). The findings of Rese et al (2020) highlighted that utilitarian and hedonic factors have a positive impact on the acceptance of chatbot software programs.…”

“…These studies examine the barriers to the adoption of autonomous shopping systems (De Bellis and Johar, 2020), while others measure consumer acceptance of chatbots in communication (Rese et al, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, few studies have investigated the uses and gratifications of offline or out-of-home technologies except for Roux (2020), who identified a set of gratifications related to the use of wayfinding screens in shopping malls, Alhassan et al (2020), who revealed the gratifications sought when using mobile payment services and the work of Acuti et al (2020) on the impact on product value perception of hedonic and utilitarian communication delivered through smart technologies such as QR codes. Our research contributes to the extant works on technology and SST use (Mukerjee, 2020;Park et al, 2020), which generally employ an information system perspective rather than a media perspective (UGT) to examine the gratifications expected by consumers when using these technologies.…”

The cognitive-affective nexus on mobile payment continuance intention during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Furthermore, several past studies on mobile payment continuance (e.g. Alhassan et al, 2020;Shao et al, 2019) only included a few direct antecedents of continuance intention in their research models. Therefore, the research objectives of this study are (1) to determine the antecedents that affect continuance intention to use mobile payment and (2) to develop a multi-dimensional model based on the cognitive-affective-conative (CAC) framework.…”

“…Furthermore, several past studies on mobile payment continuance (e.g. Alhassan et al. , 2020; Shao et al.…”