(In)formality in Africa: Exploring the social and cultural factors influencing mobile payment non-adoption by informal traders in Cape Town

This research explores and identifies the various reasons for which informal traders in Cape Town, South Africa, do not adopt mobile payment technology and prefer cash. In the informal economy, a cash preference creates challenges such as financial exclusion (Bromley, 2006; Donner & Tellez, 2008; Blanco et al., 2009; Bick et al., 2009; Kendall et al., 2014). Recently, with the mobile phone's ubiquity, mobile payments have emerged as one of the ways to enable access to finance for underbanked or unbanked people, primarily because mobile payments are considered low-cost and easy to use (Donovan, 2012; Mbogo, 2010; Maurer, 2012). However, research reflects low adoption of mobile payments in South Africa (Pew Research Centre, 2015). In light of this low adoption, this research is interested in asking: 'Why don't informal traders in Cape Town, South Africa use mobile payment facilities?' This research explores this question through the critical social theory perspective. This qualitative study was conducted in four trading locations in Cape Town's inner city over June to September 2015. Primary data was collected through semi-structured face to face interviews with twenty informal traders, and participant observations. The empirical findings demonstrate that social and cultural factors influence non-adoption. The theoretical contribution made in this paper is the contributes to the development ofmodification of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM, 1989). The modified model places social and cultural factors as central to the determinants of adoption. This modified TAM contributes towards the field of mobile technology acceptance research in South Africa, and is a response to the call for information systems research exploring social and cultural explanations for adoption or non-adoption (Lee, 2003; Bagozzi, 2003; Ventakesh, 2007; Dahlberg et al., 2008; Donner & Tellez, 2008; William et al., 2009; Crabbe et al., 2009; Morawczynski, 2009).

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Research of GSB

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Nteta, Zarina

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ngwenyama, Ojelanki

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24921

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24921