Understanding Adoption of PELNI Mobile: Effects of Barriers, Quality, Trust, and Value

Abstract

The increasing number of PT PELNI passengers, reaching 5.15 million in 2025, has not been matched by a shift toward digital ticketing: PELNI Mobile is used by only about 10% of the national passenger base, indicating resistance among prospective users' adoption intention toward maritime mobile ticketing. This study examines effects of Usage Barrier, Risk Barrier, and Information Quality on Trust; Information Quality on Perceived Value; and Trust and Perceived Value on Adoption Intention, integrating Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT) with information quality dimensions to explain trust formation in early adoption of a historically conventional maritime service. Data were collected via purposive sampling from 281 national respondents who use PELNI's sea services, are aware of PELNI Mobile, but have not used it, analyzed using SEM-PLS 4. The model explains 62.7% of variance in Trust, 72.5% in Perceived Value, and 71.7% in Adoption Intention, with good predictive relevance (Q²predict > 0); six of seven hypotheses were supported. Information Quality was the strongest predictor of Trust (β = 0.688; p = 0.000), while Risk Barrier was a significant barrier (β = -0.239; p = 0.000), far more influential than Usage Barrier, which had no significant effect (β = -0.011; p = 0.852). Perceived Value was the most dominant predictor of Adoption Intention (β = 0.666; p = 0.000). These results show that in early digital maritime adoption, transaction-security concerns shape trust more than usability complexity, a novelty distinguishing this study from other transport-adoption research, with implications for IRT and PELNI's digital adoption efforts.