Adoption of UPI among Indian users: Using extended meta-UTAUT model

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has grown rapidly in recent times. It has increased its user base, volume, and transaction value through a variety of mobile applications. Various models have been used to study the reasons for UPI adoption. Earlier studies neither measured ‘Use Behavior’ (UB) as the outcome variable nor examined the influence of attitude on UPI adoption behavior. This study fills the gap by integrating UB into the model and using the extended meta-UTAUT model to explore the UPI adoption behavior of Indian urban users. The model included four exogenous and three endogenous variables. The data were collected from 894 UPI urban users using the purposive sampling method. Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) was applied for hypotheses testing. The study explained 82.7 % and 84.1 % of the variance for attitude and use behavior, respectively. The results of this study found that performance expectancy significantly impacts use behavior; attitude significantly affects behavioral intention; and trust affects the attitude. The results of the study will be useful in improving the features of UPI so as to increase customer base. The findings will help in smoothly introducing Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) among urban masses in India. The results provide future research scope for moderation and mediation. A future study can also be carried out on Indian rural users.