Mobile financial services in Bangladesh: Understanding the affordances

Mobile financial services (MFS) have the potential to impact developing countries by making financial services more accessible. To realize this potential, it is imperative to illuminate why and how people use these new platforms to accomplish their goals. Using affordance theory as a guiding tool, this study aims to uncover the underlying goal directed affordances and actualization techniques used by MFS users in Bangladesh. The data are collected through in-depth interviews with MFS users and analyzed using thematic analysis to uncover affordances along with actualization techniques that are embedded in everyday social contexts of the users. The study finds that users in their attempts to accomplish specific goals uncover various latent affordances of MFS platforms such as financial services accessibility, self-controlling ability, spatial and temporal mobility, disintermediation ability, self-sustainability, secrecy maintainability, and networkability, and employ several techniques to actualize those affordances. These results have implications for utilizing MFS platforms to promote ICT4D goals.

Automated summary

By utilizing affordance theory, this study explores the underlying goal-directed affordances and actualization techniques used by MFS users in Bangladesh. Users discover various latent affordances of MFS platforms, such as financial services accessibility and self-controlling ability, and employ multiple techniques to actualize these affordances in their everyday social contexts.