PurposeThe study builds on studies in online shopping. Existing studies in online shopping proved that it is an attraction to shoppers. In Nigeria's emerging economy the increasing Internet penetration does not equate with intention to use online shopping because it is not really used by users for online shopping. Consumers are considering it unattractive because of serious concerns that border on product quality of online shops and poor know-how on e-tech. The study sought to explore factors that could mitigate challenges to successful online shopping in Nigeria's emerging economy.Design/methodology/approachOnline survey method was used to sample 246 respondents. Measurement items were adapted from related literature. Confirmatory factor analysis and content validity were used to check the reliability and validity. A set of fit indices were used to check the goodness of fit. Data was analysed using structural equation model.FindingsResults indicate direct effects of consumer attitude, perceived usefulness and social influence on intention to use online shopping with consumer attitude shown to have a greater degree of importance towards intention to use online shopping. Thus, consumers' attitude of browsing online and going offline for purchases is dependent on attitude of like or dislike. Perceived ease of use, social influence and perceived usefulness had an indirect positive effect on consumer attitude to intention to use online shopping. Social influence is indicated to have a direct positive effect on perceived ease of use. Also perceived ease of use had a positive and direct effect on perceived usefulness.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size is not large enough and the use of snowball sampling limits representativeness.Practical implicationsThe study indicated vital factors African emerging economies like Nigeria can use to improve consumer confidence towards intention to use online shopping and drive cashless policies. Several studies have missed the indirect effect of referents (social influence) on adoption of technology. The study proved that it can produce indirect effect as well as direct effect on intention to use online shopping.Originality/valueSeveral studies have missed the indirect effect of referents (social influence) on adoption of technology. The study proved that it can produce indirect effect as well as direct effect on online shopping.

mHealth innovation is health innovation that is gaining adoption in developing countries. The COVID-19 impact and the brain drain of health practitioners in Nigeria are indicating higher importance of the innovation. However, while the literatures on adoption are rising there is paucity of literature on intention to recommend mHealth innovation particularly with gender context. The study considered determinants of end-users’ behavioural intention to recommend mHealth innovation by considering multi-group analysis. Theory of reasoned action was modified with variables from health belief model and unified theory of acceptance and use of innovation to structure the intention to recommend mHealth model. Structured questionnaire with adapted items from extant studies were scaled on 7 point likert scale while snowball sampling technique was adopted in data collection. A total of 291 questionnaires were used in the analysis which was done through IBM Statistics version 23 and AMOS 23. The study used descriptive statistics, structural equation model and an invariant analysis to check the difference between the groups. The model showed good fit using a set of fit indices and coefficient of codetermination that indicates high predictive capacity. The SEM analysis show that subjective norm is the most vital factor that influences end-users’ intention to recommend mHealth innovation to others. Generally, it indicates that male users have higher intention to recommend mHealth innovation than female users of mHealth innovation. The result of the analysis also show that the correlations between the exogenous factors are positive and at least moderate across gender thus indicating the direction for adoption of marketing communication strategies to deepen the awareness of the innovation and encourage recommendation to others. The recommendation suggested center on marketing communication strategies that involves use of role models, influencers, celebrities, health practitioners and other referents to encourage the awareness and intention to recommend the innovation. The key limitation of the study is on sample size and the use of cross-sectional survey design which could pose danger in generalisation of the findings. However, it is concluded in the study that male users of mHealth innovation have higher intention to recommend the innovation than the female users of the innovation.