An innovative study of e-payment systems adoption in higher education: Theoretical constructs and empirical analysis

Examining the adoption of e-payment systems is not a new research topic. Nevertheless, studying the factors affecting the adoption of epayment systems in higher educational institutions is a new research trend. Thus, this study is considered one of the few that attempts to investigate the factors affecting the e-payment systems adoption in six different universities in the United Arab of Emirates (UAE). A total number of 289 students took part in the study. This study proposed a new research model in which the students' intention to use the e-payment systems are affected by five different factors including perceived benefit, performance expectancy, perceived risk, perceived security/ privacy, and trust. The partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to validate the research model. The empirical results suggested that perceived benefit and performance expectancy have a significant positive relationship with the students' intention to use e-payment systems, whereas perceived security/privacy and perceived risk exhibited a significant negative relationship. However, the results triggered out that trust has an insignificant relationship with the students' intention to use e-payment systems. The results acquired from this research provide a fresh and an up-to-date information on the e-payment systems adoption in the higher educational institutions.