Why do people use and recommend m-wallets?

In recent years, mobile wallets (m-wallets), a special form of mobile payment, have garnered much attention in various emerging markets. M-wallets were designed to offer customers swiftness, ease of use, efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accessibility. Despite these benefits, usage intentions and adoption of m-wallets in most emerging markets have been low, and they have not received widespread acceptance. Notably, existing research related to intentions to use (IUs) mobile payments has largely focused on developed economies and mobile payments in general. Additionally, few studies have examined intentions to recommend (ITRs), even though researchers have recognized that word-of-mouth is an important driver of consumer behavior. In the present study, we addressed the lack of specific findings on use and recommendation intentions in the context of m-wallets by conducting a large cross-sectional survey of 1256 smartphone users based on diffusion of innovation theory (DOI). Results revealed that relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and observability were significantly associated with participants' intentions toward m-wallets. However, trialability had no association with participants’ intentions to use and recommend m-wallets to others.