IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v12y2025i1d10.1057_s41599-025-05313-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Unified Payments Interface (UPI) adoption and usage through the interplay of UTAUT factors

Author

Listed:
  • K Padma Kiran

    (Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (Deemed to be University))

  • Naga Sailaja Vedala

    (Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (Deemed to be University))

Abstract

The advent of digitization of financial transactions has positioned the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a transformative, paperless and cashless digital payment system for consumers in India. Its user-friendly design, robust security features, and broad adoption across small businesses, roadside vendors, and unorganized sectors have established its dominance in facilitating daily digital payments in the Indian market. Over recent years, UPI usage has experienced exponential growth across India. This study examines the factors influencing the intention to adopt UPI with a focus on add-on services, perceived promotional benefits, and perceived trust with the integration of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Employing the survey responses of 416 UPI users, this research applies partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to validate the hypothesized model developed for this study. The findings revealed that facilitating conditions, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, perceived promotional benefits, and perceived trust significantly influence the users’ intention to adopt UPI, which further influences its usage behavior. Interestingly, add-on services by UPI did not affect the intention of users to adopt UPI, questioning its role in UPI adoption. However, add-on services had a significant impact on performance expectancy and effort expectancy. Additionally, perceived promotional benefits impacted facilitating conditions for UPI usage. Demographic attributes further moderated these relationships: age and occupation significantly moderated the impact of performance expectancy on the intention to adopt UPI, while gender and income did not exhibit any profound moderating effects. The findings offer valuable insights for service providers and policymakers aiming to improve UPI adoption among consumers. Customized strategies considering demographic variations can optimize the platform’s accessibility and appeal to a broader audience.

Suggested Citation

  • K Padma Kiran & Naga Sailaja Vedala, 2025. "Assessing Unified Payments Interface (UPI) adoption and usage through the interplay of UTAUT factors," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-05313-w
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-05313-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-05313-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-025-05313-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anh Tho To & Thi Hong Minh Trinh, 2021. "Understanding behavioral intention to use mobile wallets in vietnam: Extending the tam model with trust and enjoyment," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1891661-189, January.
    2. Neena Sinha & Nidhi Singh, 2023. "Moderating and mediating effect of perceived experience on merchant's behavioral intention to use mobile payments services," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(3), pages 448-465, September.
    3. Waseem Ahmad Khan & Zain Ul Abideen, 2023. "Effects of behavioural intention on usage behaviour of digital wallet: the mediating role of perceived risk and moderating role of perceived service quality and perceived trust," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Hamzah, Muhammad Iskandar & Ramli, Faten Aisyah Ahmad & Shaw, Norman, 2023. "The moderating influence of brand image on consumers' adoption of QR-code e-wallets," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Abeer F. Alkhwaldi & Esraa Esam Alharasis & Maha Shehadeh & Ibrahim A. Abu-AlSondos & Mohammad Salem Oudat & Anas Ahmad Bani Atta, 2022. "Towards an Understanding of FinTech Users’ Adoption: Intention and e-Loyalty Post-COVID-19 from a Developing Country Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, October.
    6. Md. Sharif Hassan & Md. Aminul Islam & Mohd Faizal bin Yusof & Hussen Nasir & Nasrin Huda, 2023. "Investigating the Determinants of Islamic Mobile FinTech Service Acceptance: A Modified UTAUT2 Approach," Risks, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, February.
    7. Ethan Ligon & Badal Malick & Ketki Sheth & Carly Trachtman, 2019. "What explains low adoption of digital payment technologies? Evidence from small-scale merchants in Jaipur, India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-22, July.
    8. Chakraborty, Debarun & Siddiqui, Aaliyah & Siddiqui, Mujahid & Rana, Nripendra P. & Dash, Ganesh, 2022. "Mobile payment apps filling value gaps: Integrating consumption values with initial trust and customer involvement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Cheng-Chia Yang & Shang-Yu Yang & Yu-Chia Chang, 2023. "Predicting Older Adults’ Mobile Payment Adoption: An Extended TAM Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Yang, Xiaoping & Yang, Jingshan & Hou, Yilin & Li, Shuyang & Sun, Shiwei, 2023. "Gamification of mobile wallet as an unconventional innovation for promoting Fintech: An fsQCA approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    11. Savita Gupta & Ravi Kiran & Rakesh Kumar Sharma, 2023. "Embedding Technology Interface and Digital Payment Drivers in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 Model: Transforming Behavioral Intention to Sustained Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-18, August.
    12. Sharma, Sujeet Kumar & Sharma, Manisha, 2019. "Examining the role of trust and quality dimensions in the actual usage of mobile banking services: An empirical investigation," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 65-75.
    13. Muhammed Basid Amnas & Murugesan Selvam & Mariappan Raja & Sakthivel Santhoshkumar & Satyanarayana Parayitam, 2023. "Understanding the Determinants of FinTech Adoption: Integrating UTAUT2 with Trust Theoretic Model," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-23, December.
    14. Rabindra Jena, 2023. "Factors Impacting Senior Citizens’ Adoption of E-Banking Post COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study from India," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-20, August.
    15. Munish Gupta & Sanjay Taneja & Vikas Sharma & Amandeep Singh & Ramona Rupeika-Apoga & Kshitiz Jangir, 2023. "Does Previous Experience with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Affect the Usage of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-23, May.
    16. Verma, Anuj & Chakraborty, Debarun & Verma, Meenakshi, 2023. "Barriers of food delivery applications: A perspective from innovation resistance theory using mixed method," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Md. Jahidul Islam & Shahedul Hasan & Ather Yeasir Fahim, 2024. "Influence of consumption values on adoption of cashless society in emerging economies: the mediating effect of cashless readiness," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 1432-1444, December.
    2. Ashwarya Kapoor & Rajiv Sindwani & Manisha Goel, 2024. "Decoding the conundrum: exploring complex interlinkages between mobile wallet adoption inhibitors among unorganised retailers," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 1487-1502, December.
    3. Arghya Ray & Muskan Jain & Lan Ma & Khalid Hussain Alhamzi & Ananya Ray & Long She, 2024. "The impact of personality traits, barriers and gamification on Gen X continuance intention for mobile credit bill payment apps," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(3), pages 1154-1174, September.
    4. Felix Friederich & Ramon Palau-Saumell & Jorge Matute & José Luis Sánchez-Torelló, 2024. "Investors’ acceptance and use of investment-based crowdfunding platforms: an integrated perspective," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 1291-1303, December.
    5. Shagun Tyagi & Ashulekha Gupta & Nabila Ansari, 2024. "Adoption and perception of banking customers towards green mode of banking: a demonstration of structural equation modelling," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(3), pages 826-842, September.
    6. Tianyang Huang & Gang Wang & Chiwu Huang, 2024. "What promotes the mobile payment behavior of the elderly?," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Wang, Ziwei & Wei, Xia & Tang, Xiaomeng, 2024. "The effects of QR-pay scanning modes on consumer product evaluations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Muhammad Iskandar Hamzah, 2024. "Fear of COVID-19 disease and QR-based mobile payment adoption: a protection motivation perspective," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(3), pages 946-963, September.
    9. K Padma Kiran & Naga Sailaja Vedala, 2025. "Exploring behavioral intentions of consumers towards different digital payment services through the interplay of perceived risks and adoption factors," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Hassana Hilale & Abdellatif Chakor, 2024. "Do users' pro-environmental personal norms hold significance in electronic payment adoption context?," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 1589-1608, December.
    11. Efrain Boom-Cárcamo & Schneyder Molina-Romero & Cesar Galindo-Angulo & María Mar Restrepo, 2024. "Barriers and Strategies for Digital Marketing and Smart Delivery in Urban Courier Companies in Developing Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(4), pages 19203-19232, December.
    12. Zhong, Junying & Chen, Tiao, 2023. "Antecedents of mobile payment loyalty: An extended perspective of perceived value and information system success model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    13. Sujeeth Ungratwar & Dipasha Sharma & Satish Kumar, 2025. "Mapping the digital banking landscape: a multi-dimensional exploration of fintech, digital payments, and e-wallets, with insights into current scenarios and future research," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, December.
    14. Vu, Khuong & Rohman, Ibrahim Kholilul & Bohlin, Erik, 2024. "Promoting the adoption of digital technology: Strategic policy insights from a network effects model," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(10).
    15. Syed Imran Zaman & Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan & Sahar Qabool & Himanshu Gupta, 2023. "How digitalization in banking improve service supply chain resilience of e-commerce sector? a technological adoption model approach," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 904-930, June.
    16. Liu, Chih-Hsing & Dong, Tse-Ping & Vu, Ho Tran, 2023. "Transformed virtual concepts into reality: Linkage the viewpoint of entrepreneurial passion, technology adoption propensity and advantage to usage intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Chankook Park & Wan Gyu Heo & Myung Eun Lee, 2024. "Study on Consumers’ Perceived Benefits and Risks of Smart Energy System," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(3), pages 288-300, May.
    18. Khondaker Sazzadul Karim & Mohammad Ekramol Islam & Abdullah Mohammed Ibrahim & Shin-Hung Pan & Md. Mominur Rahman, 2023. "Online Marketing Trends and Purchasing Intent Advances in Customer Satisfaction through PLS-SEM and ANN Approach," Advances in Decision Sciences, Asia University, Taiwan, vol. 27(4), pages 24-54, December.
    19. Khwanjira Ponsree & Phaninee Naruetharadhol, 2025. "Unveiling the determinants of alternative payment adoption: exploring the factors shaping generation Z’s intentions in Thailand," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-34, December.
    20. Eun Young Oh & Shuonan Zhang, 2022. "Informal economy and central bank digital currency," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1520-1539, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-05313-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/palcomms/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.