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The adoption and use of digital technologies remain topics of much interest and contemporaneity in academia (e.g., Abdelfattah et al., 2023; Alkhwaldi, 2023; Bravo & Ostos, 2023; Changchit et al., 2023; Nguyen, 2023; Qiu, 2023; Sabani et al., 2023). Mobile services—those relying on internet technologies and mobile devices to provide individuals and businesses with new communication channels and commercial opportunities—are among the technology-mediated services deserving attention in this regard, particularly since new features emerge continuously and users from different regions of the world hold different cultural and attitudinal archetypes (Changchit et al., 2023).
In the early 2000s, m-payment services, i.e., buyer–seller transactions of goods and services effected through mobile devices (Thakur & Srivastava, 2014; Mantri & Feng, 2011), emerged as a topic in the business and the academic communities, and multiple m-payment applications were soon made available in the global market (Dahlberg et al., 2008). M-payment was particularly revolutionary in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) countries, which brings together the most important developing nations in terms of political and economic power (BBC, 2024). In China, for instance, m-payment progressed rapidly and ended up accounting for an increase in 42.3% of revenues in 2018 as compared to the previous year (Lu & Lu, 2020). India and Brazil have witnessed similar trends (The Economist, 2023; Kearns & Mathew, 2022). Not surprisingly, companies operating in the m-payment sector thus enjoy great prestige all over the world. One evidence comes from The South Summit (the self-defined “best global showcase for the world’s leading companies, startups, investors, and institutions that want to accelerate innovation, build lasting relationships, identify opportunities, and generate business,”)” in which two m-payment companies (Payflow and Uelz) won the 2022 and 2023 competitions for the best start-up business plans (The South Summit, 2022, 2023).
In the present study, m-payment is framed as a technological innovation, since it involves new modalities of payment that make it easier and more convenient for consumers and vendors to perform their financial transactions (Kaur et al., 2020). M-payment indeed conveys unique opportunities to trade goods and services regardless of place, time, and distance in a way that offers flexibility, familiarity, and convenience (Phonthanukitithaworn et al., 2016) by relying on a pool of technologies such as smartphones, near-field communication, and QR codes (Dahlberg et al., 2008). However, m-payment still faces adoption and use issues (Kaur et al., 2020). Innovation adoption takes place gradually, since several aspects need time and understanding to mature, including the very nature of the innovation, the characteristics of the potential adopters, and the process of communication, as described in Rogers’ (2003) innovation diffusion theory (IDT). Moreover, in the case of m-payment, its value depends on the number of consumers using it (Wang & Lai, 2020) and whether dealers/merchants accept it (Możdżyński & Cellary, 2022) and appropriate it (P. H., 2023).