Institutionally Contingent Technology Adoption Hierarchies: A Conceptual Framework for Trust, Utility, and Infrastructure in Digital Finance

Technology adoption theories developed in institutionally mature contexts assume stable hierarchies among determinants, with perceived usefulness typically dominating. This paper qualifies this assumption by proposing that adoption hierarchies are institutionally contingent. Drawing on institutional voids theory and digital finance research, the paper develops a framework identifying three adoption regimes that function as ideal types which may overlap within contexts: (a) institutional trust dominant, where strong market supporting institutions enable usefulness-centered adoption; (b) vendor trust compensatory, where institutional voids elevate vendor-specific trust to primary importance; and (c) infrastructure-constrained, where basic access functions as a direct behavioral determinant. The framework extends technology acceptance theory by specifying when hierarchies change, theorizing trust as a compensatory mechanism, infrastructure as a hard constraint based on physical feasibility rather than perceptions, and a digital leveling effect explaining selective cultural influence. We derive propositions and outline a research agenda for cross-country and longitudinal validation, with implications for technology acceptance theory and digital financial inclusion practice.