The Effect of Adoption Readiness and Perceived Risk on Use Behavior of e-wallets in Pakistan under UTAUT framework: The Complementary Effect of Perceived Trust, Perceived Service Quality and Personal Innovativeness

Through behavioral intention, this study examines the e-wallet usage factors in terms of adoption readiness and perceived risk for the Karachi region. We infer that factors of adoption readiness such as 1. Perceived usefulness (PU), 2, Perceived ease of use (PEU), 3. Facilitating conditions (FC), and 4. Social influence (SI), positively affects BI, whereas factors associated with perceived risk i.e. 1. Security risk (SR), 2. Privacy risk (PR), and 3. Monetary risk (MR), negatively influences BI. The research also examines perceived trust (PT), service quality (PSQ), and personal innovativeness (PI) as moderating elements in the above-mentioned relationships, as well as the effect of BI on use behavior (UB). The researchers utilized UTAUT and PMT theories to design a quantitative study implementing a correlation research methodology. Data collection occurred through purposive sampling of respondents who completed a 5-point Likert-scale survey, and PLS-SEM served as the analytical method. The result indicated that BI positively significant effect on UB. FC as well as MR have positively significant effects on BI, whereas PU has a positively significant effect on BI. Additionally, BI significantly mediates the relationships among PU, FC, and UB, while its mediation effect remains negatively insignificant for PEU, SI, SR, PR, and MR. Regarding moderation, PT significantly moderates the relationship among BI and UB, as well as FC and BI, but has an insignificant moderating effect among PU, PEU, SI, SR, PR, and MR on BI. PSQ negatively moderates the relationships among BI and UB, as well as PU and BI, while positively moderating SI and BI. PI positively moderates BI and UB but shows an insignificant moderating effect in other relationships. Consequently, the findings indicate that while isolated perceived risks do not directly prevent usage, increasing personal innovativeness and perceived trust plays a major role in increasing user engagement. Therefore, practitioners should emphasize the strategies of stimulating trust and encouraging innovative behaviors to promote the behavioral intention and actual usage of e-wallets. Also, the research findings contribute important knowledge about the elements that affect e-wallet adoption and present valuable recommendations for increasing user acceptance.