An empirical investigation of the drivers and barriers of mobile banking application adoption among Millennials in South Africa: a Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use (UTAUT) perspective

Abstract: Mobile banking is growing rapidly and is renowned for its state-of-the-art banking services in developing countries such as South Africa. One of the most recent developments in mobile banking technology is the introduction of mobile banking services through a mobile device – commonly called “mobile banking applications”. Retail banks are therefore promoting the adoption and use of this innovation among different generational cohorts. Millennials are the most tech savvy generation and are thus more likely to adopt mobile banking applications. Despite this, there is limited research into the adoption of mobile banking among millennials in a developing country. This study has developed and tested a model that investigated the impact of the UTAUT factors on the intention to adopt and the use of mobile banking apps among millennials. Data for the analysis was obtained from 352 users of the m-banking services of major retail banks in South Africa. The findings of this study suggest that performance expectancy and facilitating conditions are the drivers of mobile banking apps adoption. The managerial implications of these findings are presented in the last section of this paper