Institutional and firm-level factors for mobile money adoption in emerging markets–A configurational analysis

Abstract

Mobile money is a widespread innovation throughout emerging countries. Since neither country-level institutions nor firm-level factors alone offer satisfactory explanations for mobile money's success, we draw on institutional theory to uncover how firms interact with institutions in target markets and explain the adoption of mobile money services. We perform a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on 110 mobile money services from 46 emerging countries revealing four recipes for widespread adoption. In configuration 1, providers with high market power reach high adoption–irrespective of enabling institutions–if institutional voids are large. However, configurations 2 and 3 suggest that in most cases either enabling regulation or sufficient mobile and educational infrastructure are key for successful adoption. In these three configurations, providers are part of multinational telecommunication firms operating in markets with financial market voids. Configuration 4 suggests that certain fintech firms reach high adoption rates in more developed financial services sectors because they offer a broad scope of services. We highlight the usefulness of a configurational lens for institutional theory to understand phenomena at the intersection of innovation, society, and business – especially in emerging markets with complex institutional settings.