Smartphone banking usage in Nigeria: Gamification, technology acceptance and cultural factors empirical perspectives

Abstract Several studies have been conducted within the domain of technology adoption, yet, less attention has been paid to how gamification can be employed to elicit fun that can accelerate the rate of smartphone banking usage. Equally, the cultural peculiarities of smartphone banking users have been largely ignored by the majority of the previous studies. This study, therefore, identified the potential influence of the utilization of gamification, hedonic motivation, and cultural factors in the usage of smartphone banking. This is achieved through the conceptualization of a framework that empirically tested the influence of six exogenous variables on smartphone usage using data from 388 respondents from Nigeria, and having employed Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural Equation Modeling as a technique of analysis. The findings of the study reveal that gamification, hedonic motivation, and cultural factors along with the Technology Acceptance Model core variables are strong determinants of Smartphone Banking usage. Practitioners can draw significant insights on how to effectively design smartphone banking using gamification and hedonic techniques, especially that the trend is moving largely towards these directions in the financial industry and through which value can be created for users.