Users Acceptance of Mobile Finance Service in Bangladesh and the impact of COVID-19: Extended UTAUT2

Abstract

Population of Bangladesh is around 166
million, but there are almost 175 million mobile phone
subscribers. Mobile phone usage is one of the fastest
growing phenomena of the country. Globally, among many
mobile based services, Mobile Financing is one of the most
rapidly expanding sector. Bangladesh is yet to see a
significant growth in this arena. There are numerous
studies conducted on types of Mobile Financing Services
(MFS) and their reach in Bangladesh. But not too many
studies were conducted on the factors that influences users
to adopt MFS and their behavioral intension. Moreover, the
recent crisis of COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have an
impact on the usage of MFS which is also another
unexplored research domain. This study analyzes the
factors influencing MFS users of Bangladesh and also
explores the impact of COVID-19 on the user’s behavioral
intension. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of
Technology (UTAUT) model in combination with
Entrepreneurial Potential Model has been modified and
adopted in this study. This study explores the correlation of
Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE),
Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Conditions (FC), Price
Value (V) on Behavioral Intention (BI) on MFS users. It also
studies the moderation effect of COVID-19 on the
relationship between MFS users’ Behavioral Intension and
Use Behavior. The correlating factors effect positively on
the MFS users’ behavioral intention. But the COVID-19
impact was found ineffective in moderating their use
behavior. The framework of this research is a novel one and
can be adopted for similar studies.