Technology readiness, mobile payments and gender- a reflective-formative second order approach

This study examines the formation of technology readiness among lower-income urban consumers and its influence on the acceptance of mpayment apps for digital money. Using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), we analysed 625 survey responses collected in four Colombian cities. We found that perceived usefulness is the main direct antecedent of intention to use, but gender differences were observed. For women, two hypotheses were not significant: TR's influence over perceived ease of use and perceived ease of use over the intention to use, leaving a more straightforward but narrow pathway for influencing intention to use. Men presented a more comprehensive range of pathways, with all hypotheses significant. This is an important finding because women from lower-income households are the main target of government financial inclusion strategies. Innovatively, we evaluated the technology readiness construct in an aggregated way, isolating the importance of each dimension. We found optimism to be more relevant, which indicates that the users are less insecure about technology, akin to the Rogerian concept of innovators. Therefore, managers should develop market penetration strategies based on optimism rather than security conditions and develop app attributes that are link to perceived ease of use before focusing on usefulness.