Antecedents of Adoption of Pro-poor Innovations in the Bottom of Pyramid: An Empirical Comparison of Key Innovation Adoption Models

Most research into innovation adoption has been done within economically advanced countries. However, there is a growing need to understand consumer evaluations of innovations in “Bottom of the Pyramid” (BOP) markets (Nakata and Weidner 2012; Prahalad 2010) in light of their size, potential for growth and the development benefits of “pro-poor” innovations (Ramani et al. 2012). This research aims to provide guidance to managers and policy makers on influencing adoption of pro-poor innovations in BOP markets. Prior research has developed a range of models to provide guidance here, but these have typically been validated on consumers in economically advanced economies. Following a procedure similar to Venkatesh et al. (2003), this research contributes to the literature on innovation adoption and the BOP by empirically comparing seven existing consumer-based innovation adoption models in Bangladesh, a country often associated with the BOP. It does this through the development of a consumer survey (n = 311) based around existing consumer innovation adoption models and consumer evaluations of bKash, a mobile banking innovation. Interestingly, it was found from this research that affective constructs, such as enjoyment of using the technology, have the strongest influence on adoption intention relative to more utilitarian constructs such as perceived usefulness, perceived value and perceived ease of use. Therefore, it seems that consumers in the BOP don’t just look for functional, utilitarian benefits but are also concerned about affective and hedonic gratification. The results also show BOP consumers evaluate the compatibility of a new product within the context of their existing lives and are heavily influenced by their social setting, in light of their collectivist nature. Given the various internal and external constraints (e.g., low literacy rate, poor health, lack of infrastructure, political instability, and economic constraints) constructs such as perceived behavioral control were also found to be important in their adoption decision. Constructs such as perceived usefulness, perceived value, and perceived ease of use were also found to be important in the evaluation of a new product but were less important than originally anticipated. This means that even though a product may be useful, usefulness alone is not sufficient as a driver for innovation adoption in the BOP; if governments and corporations cannot enhance the hedonic attributes of a new product, and reduce the internal and external constraints related to adoption of that product, then adoption by BOP consumers will be lower. Finally, this research suggests that the Value-based Adoption Model and the Consumer Acceptance of Technology model perform best when predicting adoption intention of BOP consumers.