Mobile payment services adoption across time: An empirical study of the effects of behavioral beliefs, social influences, and personal traits

Mobile payment is an emerging and important application of mobile commerce. The adoption and use of mobile payment services are critical for both service providers and investors to profit from such an innovation. The present study attempts to identify the determinants of pre-adoption of mobile payment services and explore the temporal evolution of these determinants across the pre-adoption and post-adoption stages from a holistic perspective including behavioral beliefs, social influences, and personal traits. A research model that reflects the characteristics and usage contexts of mobile payment services is developed and empirically tested by using structural equation modeling on datasets consisting of 483 potential adopters and 156 current users of a mobile payment service in China. Our findings show that behavioral beliefs in combination with social influences and personal traits are all important determinants for mobile payment services adoption and use, but their impacts on behavioral intention do vary across in different stages. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are presented.

► Behavioral beliefs, social influences, and personal traits are salient factors of adoption and use.
► Perceived fee no longer has an affect on behavioral intention in post-adoption stage.
► Social influences no longer has an indirect impact on behavioral intention in post-adoption stage.
► The impacts of PIIT on behavioral intention are stronger for users than potential adopters.
► The results yield interesting implications for managing of mobile payments adoption and use.