Why Do People Pay the Way They Do: The Case of Cards, Cash, and Internet Banking in the Context

Transcription

1 Why Do People Pay the Way They Do: The Case of Cards, Cash, and Internet Banking in the Context of Danish Society Xiao Xiao, Jonas Hedman, and Emma Runnemark Department of IT Management, Copenhagen Business School Copenhagen Business School. Panel n, Titel 1

2 Panel n, Titel 2

3 Why Do People Pay the Way They Do: The Case of Cards, Cash, and Internet Banking in the Context of Danish Society Xiao Xiao, Jonas Hedman, and Emma Runnemark Department of IT Management, Copenhagen Business School Introduction and summary There is a proliferation in payment instruments, including all emerging payment technologies like MobilePenge, SMS payments, contact less cards (e.g. Rejsekort), izettle, PayPal, and embedded mobile payments solutions (e.g. DSB app). These innovations have created a lot of attention and talk about new ways of paying and a cashless society. However, people in Denmark do most of their payments with cash, payment cards or over internet banks. There are many ways to pay, so what factors influence a person s way of paying? Is it the perceived benefits or value of the payment instrument that determines the payer s choice? Most payment related studies aimed at explaining how consumers make the payment choice focus on social-economic factors such age, education and income (for instance Borzekowski et al. 2008). Type of purchasing, and costs associated with a certain payment, are also among the factors that are found to be associated with the payment choice made by different people (see for instance Klee 2008 and Worthington et al. 2007). However, little or none effort has been spent on exploring how people s perceptions of each payment instrument will influence their payment behavior. In this study, we explore factors that influence the use of payment instruments and the fundamental question that we pose is: Why do people pay the way they do? By doing so, we aim at increasing the understanding of what drives consumers (payers ) use of payment instruments in the context of Denmark. More specifically, we strive to figure out whether the use of payment instruments are determined by different values or perceived benefits that a certain payment instrument can offer, or whether convenience of paying is the only thing that matters, or whether people pay out of habit. We focus on three well-established payment methods: cash, cards, and internet banking. To understand the role of perceived value and benefit, develop a theoretical model that we present in the next section. Theoretical Framework Our research framework builds upon three theoretical perspectives: theory of consumption values, theory of service convenience, and theory of habit. These three theories have previously been applied in consumer behavior studies and we motivate our choice below. Theory of consumption values is a synthesis of several consumer behavior models and has been applied intensively in the marketing literature to study consumer behavior, especially how consumers make decisions, such as to use or not to use or buy or not to buy a product or service. Consumption values address extrinsic and intrinsic reasons and motives that drive decisions (Seth et al. 1991). Therefore, we assume that it is also valid and relevant to investigate payment behavior by applying this theoretical framework and examine how consumers perceptions of each payment instrument impact their payment choice. Theory of consumption values identifies five consumption values that influence consumers choice behavior (Seth et al. 1991). 1. Functional value stems from an alternative s perceived utility for accomplishing a specified task or achieving a practical goal. It follows economic utility theory, assumes economic rationalism, and relates to attributes such as performance, price, and reliability. Consumer decisions to use 3

4 cash, card or internet banking are based on the attributes of the focal object and how well they fulfill the consumers utilitarian needs. 2. Social value involves highly visible products, services and/or objects to be shared with others (such as gifts). According to the TCV, such an item may be chosen more for the perceived social image it conveys than for its functional performance. Essentially, social value is derived from the symbolic importance of an artifact. 3. Epistemic value stems from novelty, from the ability of the product or service to arouse curiosity, a desire to learn, or the urge to experiment with something new. For instance, beta testers of the new Google netbooks running Chrome OS volunteer because they want to experience something novel. 4. Emotional value influences decisions because of a product s potential to arouse emotions that are believed to accompany the use of a service. Aesthetics, such as beauty and artistry, can add emotional value to a product. 5. Conditional value applies to products or services for which the value is strongly tied to use in a specific context. A temporary functional or social value arises when the circumstances create a need. Service convenience is an important concept in service economies (Berry et al. 2002). It measures the time and effort consumers spend on obtaining the service. Service convenience is proven to impact consumer behavior as well as satisfaction with the service (Berry et al. 2002). In the context of payment choice, we think service convenience is also relevant. For instance, Humphrey (2010) identified convenience as one of the most important payment characteristics that influence people s use of instruments. Hence, we argue that the level of service convenience associated with each payment method will be correlated with people s usage of that certain payment instrument. Another theoretical constructs we have included is habit (Polites and Karahanna 2012). Sometimes, payment choice is not made as a conscious decision but out of habitual behavior, which is especially the case with well-established payment instruments such cash and card that have been integrated into part of people s lives. In this sense, we also would like to test the relationship between habit and payment choice for each payment method. Methodology To answer our research question we constructed, based on our theoretical framework, a survey which was conducted through Danish Statistic. Our respondents come from the same sample as used in the annual payment study by the Danish National Bank. The process of survey development and survey conducting was rolled out in the following five steps. Focus Group We began our survey development with focus group to get a broad understanding of people s payment behavior. Though theory of consumption values has been applied intensively in the marketing literature to study why or why not consumers purchase a certain product, but it has never been adopted to investigate the payment choice behavior. In other words, we have no reference points to identify the five different values associated with each payment method. To solve the issue, we first took a more exploratory approach. During the we discussed: 1) what are the functional value, emotional value, social value, epistemic value, and conditional value of cash, payment cards, internet banking, separately? 2) how people make the payment choice in general? The participants of the focus group are students and faculty members of Copenhagen Business School. A discussion outline was developed first and then distributed to the participants before the focus group 4

5 to familiarize them with the topic and discussion questions. In the end, six people, excluding three focus group facilitators, participated in the study. We recorded the whole discussion session. We analyzed the recording of the focus group discussion, and developed the initial items of the functional value, emotional value, social value, and conditional value for cash, card and internet bank respectively. In the item development process we were inspired by Seth et al. (1992). Epistemic value did not get any support for cash, card, or internet banking, so it was decided to exclude the construct. However, we think it will be relevant to consider epistemic value when we study for instance new payment technology in the future. As for the other two constructs, we adapted the measurement of service convenience for each payment method from Seiders et al. (2007), and the instrument to measure habit was adapted from Polites and Karahanna (2012). We also included the construct of risk aversion in the survey as a control variable, as privacy and security concerns came up as highly relevant when people make payment choices under certain circumstances. Risk aversion was measured by a five-item instrument adapted from Meertens and Lion (2008). Age and gender are the other two control variables that we also collected information about in the survey. At end of this step, we developed a survey for each of the three payment methods, cash, card, and internet banking. Figure 1 summarizes the theoretical framework and main theoretical constructs included in our survey. Figure 1. Theoretical Framework Functional Value Social Value Emotional Value Payment Behavior Conditional Value Service Convenience Habit Pilot Study 1 After the three survey drafts were developed, we conducted a pilot study with CBS students as the sample to test the validity of the constructs we have developed. In the pilot study, we collected information regarding how frequent people use each payment method as the dependent variable. Demographic information such as age and gender were also collected. The study was rolled out online, and an average of 20 responses was obtained at the end for each group (cash, card, and internet banking). Based on the results, we made further adjustments to the surveys. 5

6 Translation A research assistant who is a native Danish speaker was hired to translate the surveys into Danish. This was an iterative process that involved frequent discussions and negotiations between the translator, the researchers and Danish Statistics so as to capture and clearly reflect the essence of each question in the Danish version. The translation was from English to Danish. Pilot Study 2 Danish Statistics was in charge of the actual data collection. Before the formal study, they conducted another pilot study with 20 respondents through phone interviews. After the pilot study, a meeting was held between Danish Statistics and the researchers to further refine the survey based on the feedback from the interviews. Please see Appendix for the final survey instruments in both English and Danish. Final Data Collection The final data collection was conducted by Danish Statistics through two channels: online and phone interviews. The sample was from the same sample used by Danish Statistics for the annual payment study conducted by the Danish National Bank. In the end, a total of 644 complete responses were collected, among which 219 responses for the group of card, 224 responses for the group of cash, and 201 responses for the group of internet banking. Findings Table 1 summarizes the sample descriptive of three groups as well as the overall sample. As shown in Table 1, the ratio between female and male respondents is about 1:1 across all three payment instruments, and the average age of the respondents is around 48. Table 1. Descriptive of the Sample Groups Gender Age Female Male Minimum Maximum Mean Card (N=219) Cash (N=224) IB (N=201) Overall (N=644) Overview of Payment Behavior Table 2 provides an overview of the payment behavior of the sample regarding the use of cards, cash, and internet banking. As expected, cards are the most frequently used payment instrument in the Danish society (cf. Kass Jacobsen and Truls Nielsen, 2011). However, people still pay with cash fairly often, suggesting that we have a long way to go moving towards a cashless society. Unexpectedly, besides using internet banking mainly as a tool to pay bills and make transfers, around 30% of the respondents also pay with internet banking when they shop online. Finally, it is also interesting to note that the maximum number of cards possessed by a person is 10 while the average is about 2, and the maximum amount of cash carried by a person is Danish Krone while the average is around 750 Danish Krone. 6

7 Table 2. Descriptive of Payment Behavior (in percent) Use of Cards Use of Cards Online Use of Cash Use of IB Use of IB for Online Shopping Frequency More than 7 times a week times a week times a week Once a week times a month Less than monthly or Never Group comparison Table 3 shows the descriptive of all the independent variables across three groups. Note, a lower mean is a stronger evidence of influence 1. Card and Internet Bank provide a higher perceived risk protection (1.76 and 1.78) than cash (2.0). They provide about the same service convenience. Internet bank has slightly better functional value than card and cash. There is limited social and emotional value attached to the different payment instruments. The biggest variance in means between card, cash and Internet bank is related to conditional value. Habit plays a minor role. Table 3. Descriptive of Independent Variables1 Card Cash IB Variables 2 Mean Std. Deviation Mean Std. Deviation Mean Std. Deviation Risk Aversion Service Convenience Functional Value Social Value Emotional Value Conditional Value Habit Average mean We ran simple linear regressions within each group to test the theoretical framework we proposed. Table 4 presents the results of the analysis. 1 For Card Use, Card Use Online, Cash Use, IB Use, IB Use for Online Shopping, the measurement scale is from 1 to 5, where 1 stands for most frequent usage (more than 7 times a week) and 5 stands for least frequent usage (less than monthly or never). The reason for this reversed scaling is common in Denmark. 7

8 Table 4. Comparison of Results among Groups Factors Card Use Cash Use IB Use Gender +** +*** Age Risk Aversion -** Service Convenience +** Functional Value -* +* Emotional Value -* Social Value +* Conditional Value -** +*** -* Habit +*** Note: *: p<0.10; **: p<0.05; ***: p<0.01 Card Use As we can see from Table 4, the most important factor that drives the use of cards is service convenience, suggesting that people choose to pay with cards more often due to that fact that it requires less time and effort. Emotional value, which stands for the negative feelings associated using cards such as pain of paying and feelings of losing money, is negatively associated with the frequency of card use. Such relationship implies that people who associate less of such negative feelings with paying with cards are likely to use cards as the payment instrument more. Conditional value is negatively associated with card use, meaning that the less people care about the environmental factors, such as how familiar and/or comfortable they are with the purchasing environment, the more likely they are to pay with cards. Such effect once again implies the importance of situational factors in affecting people s payment behavior. Surprisingly, functional value negatively influences people s card use, even though the effect is marginally significant. It is also shown that card use is negatively related to people s risk aversion. In other words, people who are less willing to take risks in their lives pay with cards less frequently, which reflects that security and privacy related issues are still important concerns for people when it comes to card payments. Cash Use From Table 4, we can see that habit and conditional value are significant factors that influence the frequency of people s cash use, and functional value and social value also drive people s use of cash to some extent. First of all, unlike card use or internet banking use, people pay with cash as a function of habit, rather than conscious decision making. Second, however, sometimes, people do consciously choose the cash payment when they are not familiar or comfortable with the purchasing environment. Thirdly, among the people who use cash more frequently, they do recognize the functions or utilities of the cash payment (such as universal acceptance) more. Finally, paying with cash can also be driven by the social norms or how people would like to portrait themselves through the payment behavior. Interestingly, the positive association between gender and cash usage suggests that female pay with cash much more frequently than male. Internet Banking Use Table 4 shows that payment behavior related to internet banking is only significantly associated with people s perception of the conditional value of paying with internet banking. Similar to the behavior of card use, people who care less about the online environment (i.e., how familiar they are with the pur- 8

9 chasing website) are associated with more frequent use of internet banking payment. Another interesting finding is that female pays with internet banking much more frequently than male. Comparison among Groups If we compare the results across the three groups, we can conclude that payment usage related behavior is influenced by different factors when it comes to different payment instruments. For instance, service convenience is the most important factor that drives the frequent use of cards, whereas people who pay with cash more frequently are doing so out of habit. Moreover, four types of consumption values of each payment method also exert their effects on payment behavior associated with different payment methods in different ways. People s perceptions of the functional value of cards are negatively related to their usage of cards, but such relationship is positive in the case of cash. People s perceptions of the emotional value are negatively influence the frequency of card usage but not cash usage, while perceptions of the social value are only showing an effect on people s cash usage. Finally, people s perceptions of conditional value are influencing people s usage behavior of all three types of the payment instruments. Though the directions of such relationship are different, positive for cash whereas negative for cards and internet banking, if we consider the wordings of the actual statements, they all suggest that situational factors such as familiarity with the purchasing context (online or offline) matter to people s payment usage. In other words, people who feel less concerned about the conditions of the purchasing environment are associated with more frequent use of cards and internet banking, and less frequent use of cash, and vice versa. References Berry, L. L., Seiders, K., and Grewal, D Understanding service convenience. The Journal of Marketing (66), Borzekowski, R., Elizabeth, K. K., and Shaista, A Consumers use of debit cards: patterns, preferences, and price response. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, (40:1), Humphrey, D.B Retail Payments: New Contributions, Empirical Results, and Unanswered Questions, Journal of Banking & Finance (34:8), pp Klee, E How people pay: Evidence from grocery store data. Journal of Monetary Economics, 55(3), Meertens, R. M., and Lion, R Measuring an Individual s Tendency to Take Risks: The Risk Propensity Scale1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology (38:6), Polites, G. L., and Karahanna, E Shackled to the status quo: the inhibiting effects of incumbent system habit, switching costs, and inertia on new system acceptance. MIS Quarterly, (36:1), Seiders, K., Voss, G. B., Godfrey, A. L., and Grewal, D SERVCON: development and validation of a multidimensional service convenience scale. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, (35:1), Sheth, J. N., Newman, B. I., and Gross, B. L Why we buy what we buy: a theory of consumption values. Journal of business research, 22(2), Worthington, S., Stewart, D., and Lu, X The adoption and usage of credit cards by urban-affluent consumers in China. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 25(4),

10 Appendix Survey Instruments in English and Danish Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree Nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree Helt enig Enig Hverken enig eller uenig Uenig Helt uenig Cards Cards Mean Std. Deviation Missing Values 3 Service Convenience It is quick and easy to determine whether cards are accepted at the vendor. Man kan hurtigt og let vurdere, om forretningen modtager betalingskort. One is able to initiate payment quickly and easily using cards. Man kan hurtigt og let gå i gang med kortbetalingen. Cards make it quick and easy to pay. Kort gør det hurtigt og let at betale It is quick and easy to solve issues of refunds when using cards. Det er hurtigt og let at få pengene refunderet, når man har brugt kort Functional Value I think, cards are widely accepted. Jeg synes, betalingskort er bredt accepteret I don t think that paying with cards require additional effort such as going to an ATM. Jeg synes ikke, betalingskort kræver ekstra indsats som fx at skulle hæve penge I think, paying with card allows you to access all your money in the account. Jeg synes, betaling med kort giver én adgang til alle sine penge på kontoen på én gang I think payment cards are easy to carry. Jeg syn0es, det er let at have betalingskort med sig

11 I think paying with cards allow one to track payment transactions. Jeg synes, det er let at holde styr på betalinger når man betaler med kort I think paying with cards ensures tax compliance. Jeg synes, at man ved at betale med kort sikrer, at den forretningsdrivende betaler skat Social Value Paying cards would improve my image. Det giver mig et godt image, at betale med kort Paying with cards helps me feel socially accepted. Betaling med kort hjælper mig til at føle mig accepteret socialt People who are important to me think I should use cards. Mennesker, der er vigtige for mig, synes, at jeg skal bruge betalingskort People who influence my behavior think that I should use cards. Mennesker, der har indflydelse på min adfærd, synes, at jeg skal bruge betalingskort Emotional Value Paying with cards makes me feel guilty of spending. Betaling med kort giver mig dårlig samvittighed over at bruge penge Paying with cards makes me feel bad. Betaling med kort giver mig en dårlig fornemmelse Paying with cards is painful. Betaling med kort gør helt ondt indeni Paying with cards makes me feel like I am losing money. Betaling med kort får mig til at føle, at mine penge forsvinder Conditional Value I only pay with cards when I am familiar with the purchasing location. Jeg betaler kun med kort, hvis jeg kender stedet I only pay with cards when I am comfortable in the purchasing atmosphere. Jeg betaler kun med kort, hvis jeg føler mig godt tilpas i forretningen

12 I would not pay with cards when there is a transaction fee associated with the payment. Jeg undgår at betale med kort, hvis der er gebyr for det Habit Choosing to pay with cards requires little mental effort. Når jeg skal betale, betaler jeg med kort uden at tænke over det Paying with cards is an unconscious. Det er et ubevidst valg, når jeg betaler med kort Risk Aversion Security first. Sikkerhed er vigtigst I do not take risks. Jeg tager ingen chancer I prefer to avoid risks. Jeg foretrækker at undgå risici I really dislike not knowing what is going to happen. Jeg kan ikke lide uvished om, hvad der kommer til at ske Cash Cash Mean Std. Deviation Missing Values Service Convenience It is quick and easy to determine whether cash is accepted at the vendor. Man kan hurtigt og let vurdere, om forretningen modtager kontanter One can initiate payment quickly and easily using cash. Man kan hurtigt og let gå i gang med betalingen ved hjælp af kontanter Cash makes it quick and easy to pay. Kontanter gør det hurtigt og let at betale It is quick and easy to solve issues of refunds when using cash. Det er hurtigt og let at få pengene refunderet, når jeg har brugt kontanter

13 Functional Value I think paying with cash helps one stay anonymous. Jeg synes, betaling med kontanter sikrer anonymitet I think cash is accepted everywhere. Jeg synes, de tager kontanter alle steder I think paying with cash enables immediate settlement. Jeg synes, betaling med kontanter sikrer øjeblikkelig afregning I think paying with cash allows for better control of one s finances. Jeg synes, betaling med kontanter giver overblik over ens økonomi Social Value Paying with cash would improve my image. Det giver mig et godt image, at betale med kontanter Paying with cash helps me feel socially accepted. Betaling med kontanter hjælper mig til at føle mig accepteret socialt People who are important to me think I should use cash. Mennesker, der er vigtige for mig, synes, at jeg skal bruge kontanter People who influence my behavior think that I should use cash. Mennesker, der har indflydelse på min adfærd, synes, at jeg skal bruge kontanter Emotional Value Paying with cash makes me feel guilty of spending. Betaling med kontanter giver mig dårlig samvittighed over at bruge penge Paying with cash makes me feel bad. Betaling med kontanter giver mig en dårlig fornemmelse Paying with cash is painful. Betaling med kontanter gør helt ondt indeni Paying with cash makes me feel like I am losing money. Betaling med kontanter får mig til at føle, at mine penge forsvinder

14 Conditional Value I pay with cash when I am not familiar with the purchasing location. Jeg betaler med kontanter, hvis jeg ikke kender stedet I pay with cash when I am not comfortable in the purchasing atmosphere. Jeg betaler med kontanter, hvis jeg ikke føler mig godt tilpas i forretningen I pay with cash whenever I have cash. Jeg bruger kontanter, når jeg har kontanter I prefer to pay with cash when the amount is less than 50kr. Jeg foretrækker at betale med kontanter, når beløbet er under 50 kr. Habit When I pay with cash it requires little mental effort. Når jeg skal betale, betaler jeg med kontanter uden at tænke over det To pay with cash is an unconscious choice Det er et ubevidst valg, når jeg betaler med kontanter Risk Aversion Security first. Sikkerhed er vigtigst I do not take risks. Jeg tager ingen chancer I prefer to avoid risks. Jeg foretrækker at undgå risici I really dislike not knowing what is going to happen. Jeg kan ikke lide uvished om, hvad der kommer til at ske

15 Internet Banking Internet Banking Mean Std. Deviation Missing Values Service Convenience It is quick and easy to determine whether one can use Internet Banking to make a payment. Man kan hurtigt og let afgøre, om man kan betale via netbank One is able to initiate payments quickly and easily using Internet Banking. Man kan hurtigt og let gå i gang med betaling via netbank Internet Banking makes it quick and easy to pay. Netbanken gør det hurtigt og let at betale Paying with Internet Banking enables one to know quickly and easily whether the payment is successful or not. Betaling via netbank gør det muligt hurtigt og let at vide, om betalingen er gennemført It is quick and easy to solve issues of refunds when using Internet Banking. Det er hurtigt og let at få pengene refunderet, når man har betalt via netbank Functional Value I think Internet Banking is secure to pay with. Jeg synes, det er sikkert at betale via netbank I think one can pay bills using Internet Banking anywhere. Jeg synes, at man kan betale regninger via netbank uafhængigt af hvor man befinder sig I think one can pay bills using Internet Banking at any time. Jeg synes, at man kan betale regninger via netbank på alle tider af døgnet I think Internet Banking enables you to be in charge of your personal finance. Jeg synes, at netbank gør én i stand til at holde styr på sin økonomi It is easy to keep track of my transactions made by Internet Banking. Jeg synes, det er let at holde styr på de betalinger, der foretages via netbank

16 Social Value Paying with Internet Banking would improve my image. Det giver mig et godt image, at betale via netbank Paying with Internet Banking helps me feel socially accepted. Betaling via netbank hjælper mig med at føle mig accepteret socialt People who are important to me think I should use Internet Banking. Mennesker, der er vigtige for mig, synes, at jeg skal bruge netbank People who influence my behavior think that I should use Internet Banking. Mennesker, der har indflydelse på min adfærd, synes, at jeg skal bruge netbank Emotional Value Paying with Internet Banking makes me feel guilty of spending. Betaling via netbank giver mig dårlig samvittighed over at bruge penge Paying with Internet Banking makes me feel bad. Betaling via netbank giver mig en dårlig fornemmelse Paying with Internet Banking is painful. Betaling via netbank gør helt ondt indeni Paying with Internet Banking makes me feel like I am losing money. Betaling via netbank får mig til at føle, at mine penge forsvinder Conditional Value I only pay with Internet Banking when I am familiar with the vendor. Jeg betaler kun via netbank, hvis jeg kender forretningen I only pay with Internet Banking when I feel secure about the transaction. Jeg betaler kun via netbank, hvis jeg føler mig sikker i betalingsforløbet I avoid paying with Internet Banking when there is a transaction fee associated with the payment. Jeg undgår at betale via netbank, hvis der er gebyr for det I would pay with Internet Banking when I need proof of the payment. Jeg betaler via netbank, hvis jeg behøver bevis for betalingen

17 Habit When I pay with Internet Banking it requires little mental effort. Når jeg skal betale, betaler jeg via netbank uden at tænke over det. To pay with Internet Banking is an unconscious choice. Det er et ubevidst valg, når jeg betaler via netbank Risk Aversion Security first. Sikkerhed er vigtigst I do not take risks. Jeg tager ingen chancer I prefer to avoid risks. Jeg foretrækker at undgå risici I really dislike not knowing what is going to happen. Jeg kan ikke lide uvished om, hvad der kommer til at ske

18 Footnotes 1 For the independent variables, the measurement scale is from 1 to 5 where 1 stands for strongly agree and 5 stands for strongly disagree. The reason for this reversed scaling is common in Denmark. 2 The variables that are measured by multiple items, their value is the composite value (average in this case) calculated from the scores of all the items. 3 Missing values stand for the number of respondents who answered I don t know or I prefer not to answer to a certain question. 18

19

20 Panel n, Titel