Usage, Image, Value, and Risk Barriers in Mobile Payment Adoption: An Extended IRT Model with Moderators

This study examines consumers’ intentions to adopt Mobile Payment Systems (MPSs) through the theoretical lens of Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT), emphasizing how situational factors can alter the effects of innovation barriers. Drawing on IRT, the study investigates how key resistance factors (usage, image, value, and risk barriers) affect MPS adoption, and how these relationships are moderated by two contextual influences: the perceived threat of COVID-19 and digital literacy (DL). Data collected from 437 participants in Turkey were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that usage, image, and value barriers significantly hinder MPS adoption intentions, while the risk barrier has no significant effect. Furthermore, both situational moderators play significant roles: the perceived threat of COVID-19 weakens the negative impacts of barriers, encouraging adoption under health-risk conditions, whereas higher DL enhances adoption intentions and buffers the negative influence of value barriers. Beyond the immediate pandemic context, the study’s insights hold post-COVID relevance by illustrating how crisis-induced behavioral shifts and increased digital literacy (DL) can sustain long-term engagement with mobile payment technologies. By integrating situational moderators into the IRT framework, this study extends the theory’s explanatory power and provides a richer understanding of technology resistance in crisis contexts.