Moderating Effects of Gender on Mobile Money Services Adoption in Ethiopia

Abstract

The major objective of the study was to identify the moderating effect of users’ gender in their intention to continue the usage of mobile money services in Ethiopia; particularly in Adama City and Adama District. A cross-sectional quantitative research approach was used. The research design for this study was explanatory or cause-effect research design. The sampling unit for the study is individuals who were users of mobile money services delivered as M-Birr and Hello-Cash. The sample size, 406 mobile payment services users, was conveniently and purposively selected from M-Birr and Hello-Cash mobile money system users. SEM was used to test the proposed study model. In view of that, the study results show that gender has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived usefulness and continuous usage of mobile payment services. Similarly, gender significantly moderates the relationship between perceived ease of use and intention to continue the usage of mobile money services. The study also found that perceived usefulness is a more important factor for male users in predicting their intention to use m-money, while perceived ease of use is a stronger factor in influencing female’s intention to use mobile money than that of male users. The study is novel that it has not only identified the moderating effect of users’ gender on adoption of mobile money, but also it has identified that perceived usefulness is more important for male users than female users in predicting their intentions to use mobile money services. On the other hand, the study has found that perceived ease of use is more important for female than male in affecting the intention to use the services. The study methodology is also unique as it has applied both Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) using two techniques: chi-square-based comparison between constrained and unconstrained models of different groups, and pairwise tests of path coefficients comparison of the predetermined groups.