Past, present and future of mobile financial services: A critique, review and future agenda

Abstract

Mobile financial services (MFS) have been a powerful innovation to provide cost-effective services and wide coverage to the unbanked population of the world. The topic has gained considerable attention from researchers but lacks a clear guideline or directions for future prospects. Therefore, this article presents a systematic literature review on MFS adoption. Using the Web of Science database, the paper reviewed 118 articles and revealed significant models, conceptual frameworks, antecedents and variables that explain consumers' adoption of MFS. The paper also outlines highly cited authors, studies and journals utilizing international platforms such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate and SCImago Journal Ranking. The findings of the systematic literature review indicate the technology acceptance model (TAM) followed by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) as the leading conceptual framework, and MFS adoption antecedents can be organized into six different categories, viz. Cognitive determinants, affective determinants, social-based determinants, trust-based determinants, barrier-based determinants and consumer-based determinants. The paper concluded with an agenda for future studies with corresponding gaps in the literature.