Abstract
The introduction of social distancing measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and support the stabilization of the social economy has motivated consumers to do contactless activities, including mobile money service (MMS). Although this service remains beneficial to consumers, the adoption rate is still at its formative stage in Togo. The socio-economic background and peoples' inclination are hesitant for such rising digital transactions, seemingly due to risk perception. Therefore, the study develops a model to capture multidimensional perceived risk regarding the adoption decision. A total of 275 respondents were tested using a hybrid structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) approach through a multilayer perceptron (MLP) with feed-forward back-propagation (FFBP) algorithm. The ANN model is found to seize better performance and high prediction accuracy than SEM regarding nonlinearity and linearity. Our results suggest that perceived privacy risk (PRR) stands out as the most critical antecedent of the perceived overall risk (POR), in which the latter negatively affect the behavioral intention (BI) to use MMS. This research remains one of the first to test the acceptance of MMS empirically during the COVID-19 crisis and contributes both theoretically and practically toward understanding factors influencing its widespread adoption. To promote citizen's trust, service providers must provide instructions on using MMS safely and coping with privacy breaches and security problems if they arise. The SEM-ANN methodology will aid fulfill the current literature gap of MMS acceptance and provide practical guidance for evidence-based decision-making.
Highlights
The world has already experienced pandemics during its history through the great plague and across 1918 influenza pandemic Taubenberger et al (2019)
Our results suggest that perceived privacy risk (PRR) stands out as the most critical antecedent of the perceived overall risk (POR), in which the latter negatively affect the behavioral intention (BI) to use mobile money service (MMS)
It has been reported that mobile money service (MMS) usage during the pandemic has grown by 6% across the globe, with West Africa experiencing the most significant upsurge of MMS usage Reuters Staff (2020)
Summary
The world has already experienced pandemics during its history through the great plague and across 1918 influenza pandemic Taubenberger et al (2019). This study develops and empirically validates a research framework that can examine the relationship between the multidimensional perceived risk (i.e., privacy, time, security, and monetary risk) and perceived overall risk (POR) into a model It presents the relation between POR and consumers' behavioral intention (BI) towards MMS adoption. Under the numbers of COVID-19 cases that upsurge, many people are choosing cashless payments to prevent direct contact and potential hygiene concerns due to banknotes, which may facilitate the spread of the COVID-19 This situation increases the call of digital payments, predominantly mobile money – a service in which the mobile phone is employed to access financial services – to those who have not considered this transaction method. Despite the disruption in the global economy, it is crucial to note that mobile money has proven to be a valuable tool in enabling safe and efficient financial transactions throughout the pandemic
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