AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING THE USE OF E-WALLET BY THE UNIVERSITY ACADEMICS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

In recent years, due to advancements in financial technology, there has been a considerable growth in cashless transactions. Most consumers are moving away from cash-based transactions to cashless transactions as fin-tech solutions such as e-wallet. There were problems in cash-based transactions like inefficient, insecure, tempting and even with the covid situation using cash for transaction makes the people insecure with the health etc. The present empirical study aimed to investigate the significant predictors of intention on e-wallet adoption and obstacles. Therefore the main objectives are to examine the factors that influence in adoption to use E-wallets by university academics in Sri Lanka, identify which factors from identified factors affect more in adaption to use e-wallet by academics and to determine the obstacles that affect to use of e-wallets by Underpinning Theories of TAM, UTAUT and UTAUT2. The model was tested empirically among 187 government University academics using a structured questionnaire to carry out the study further; five variables are considered for the research framework of this study which is namely Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, Social Influence, Trust, Environment Concern which are used to measure the multidisciplinary factors and its impacts on factors affected in Adoption to the E wallet. The present study follows the quantitative approach to gathering data from respondents. This study adopted a practical research design to the online survey method. The sample in this study is University academics with a total sample of 187 respondents; collecting data through questionnaires using a Likert scale with analysis techniques using correlation and regression analysis with the help of SPSS 26. Results of the study reveal that there is a high level of correlation between PU towards the Adoption to use E-wallet and a moderate positive correlation between PEOU, TR, EC towards the Adoption to use E-wallet as well as a low positive correlation between SI towards the adaption to use E-wallet. Hypothesis testing shows that Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, Trust, Environment concerns have a high impact in Adoption to use E-wallet while Social Influence shows an insignificant impact in Adoption to use E-wallet. As a developing country, e-wallet provides the latest digital payment avenues to users while offering bankers and service providers exclusive opportunities to market their products and services by understanding the latest perception patterns and behaviours of the potential users.