Modeling the Acceptance of Waqf Blockchain Ecosystem among Millennial Alumni of Public Universities in Malaysia: A Conceptual Framework

Purpose: This study aims to propose a conceptual framework for the acceptance of a blockchain-based waqf management system (“Waqf blockchain”) among millennial alumni of public universities in Malaysia. The framework employs the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) with four exogenous latent variables which are Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI) and Facilitating Conditions (FC), extended with a domain specific construct, Smart Contract (SC), and a moderating variable, Voluntariness of Use (VoU), acting on the relationship between the exogenous constructs and Behavioural Intention (BI) to adopt Waqf blockchain.
Theoretical framework: Waqf, as an Islamic endowment institution, continues to be constrained in Malaysian public universities by low efficiency, transparency and accountability in fund management. Blockchain technology, through its immutable and decentralised ledger and self-executing smart contracts, has been advanced in the literature as a mechanism to restore trust and accountability in waqf administration (Anshari et al., 2020a; Mohaiyadin et al., 2021, 2022). Building on the original UTAUT model of Venkatesh et al. (2003), which identifies performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions as determinants of behavioural intention, this study extends the model by embedding Smart Contract as a fifth, domain-specific predictor and repositioning Voluntariness of Use one of UTAUT’s original moderators as the sole moderating variable, following the same logic used by prior UTAUT extensions that substitute a single theoretically salient moderator for the original four (e.g., religiosity in Soomro, 2019).
Design/methodology/approach: Consistent with a positivist research paradigm, this study adopts a deductive, quantitative, cross-sectional survey design. The unit of analysis is the individual millennial alumnus (born 1981–1996) of a Malaysian public university, residing or working in the urban Central Region (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Negeri Sembilan). A multistage cluster sampling technique geographical clustering, institutional clustering and individual selection is proposed to obtain a representative sample, with a targeted final sample of 600 respondents for the field study, preceded by a pilot study of 100–150 respondents to refine the ten-point Likert-scale survey instrument.
Findings: As a conceptual paper, this study does not report empirical results. It instead proposes nine hypotheses: five direct-effect hypotheses (H1–H5) linking PE, EE, SI, FC and SC to BI, and four moderation hypotheses (H6–H9) in which Voluntariness of Use is proposed to moderate the relationships between SC, PE, EE and SI, respectively, and BI. The proposed model is intended to be validated using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via AMOS, following exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model.
Research, Practical & Social implications: The proposed framework offers university administrators, State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRC) and waqf and endowment (WAE) units an evidence-based basis for designing Waqf blockchain platforms that respond to users’ performance, effort, social and infrastructural expectations, while treating the perceived voluntariness of adoption as a factor that can strengthen or weaken these relationships. Socially, the framework supports Malaysia’s policy agenda under the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015–2025 and the UniTP Purple Book to diversify university income through waqf, by clarifying the behavioural drivers of alumni participation in a digitalised waqf ecosystem.
Originality/value: While UTAUT has been widely applied to fintech, mobile banking and, more recently, waqf-blockchain adoption (e.g., Mokthar et al., 2023), very few studies combine a domain-specific Smart Contract construct with Voluntariness of Use as a moderator in the context of institutional (university-based) waqf. This study addresses that gap by proposing an integrated, testable conceptual model tailored to the millennial alumni segment of Malaysian public universities a population identified in the literature as digitally literate, socially conscious and central to future university income diversification.

Waqf Blockchain; Waqf blockchain; Smart Contract; Voluntariness of Use; UTAUT; Public Universities; Conceptual Framework.

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