Exploring resistance barriers in travelers' word of mouth for mobile payment systems: Mediating effects of trust and usage intention

Emerging technologies, such as mobile payment systems (MPS), continue to affect people from all walks of life, including travelers' behaviors. Following the innovation resistance theory (IRT) framework, the current study examined the link between innovation resistance barriers (i.e., usage, value, risk, tradition, and image) and word of mouth (WOM) for MPS usage in the travel industry. Specifically, we integrated trust theory and examined how these innovation resistance barriers affect trust, which then affects MPS usage intention and subsequently affects WOM for MPS. Following the two-study research design, multi-wave data were collected from 403 participants in Study 1 and 378 participants in Study 2. The results supported the serial mediation of trust and MPS usage intention for the relationships between usage, value, and tradition barriers and WOM for MPS. Our findings contribute to travel and consumer behavior theory and practice by explaining how and why specific innovation barriers negatively influence WOM for MPS usage in the travel industry.