Introduction
In recent years, digital mode of payment has changed the behaviour of the community, which was originally done through personal payment transactions and carrying a nominal amount of money, but now can be processed quickly without limit of distance. [1] This change in payment systems is due to several factors such as economic changes, easy access to the Internet and the availability of smartphones. As smartphones are now economical, consumers benefit from the ease and convenience of paying for goods and services when using this new payment channel. [2] And the growing popularity of smartphones in developing countries have created enormous opportunities as well as significant challenges for traditional payment systems dominated by traditional banking and use of cash.[3] Furthermore, using a mobile phone to process transactions has been reported to be more secure from the perspective of customers.[4] The effect of this perceived security, quick feedback, comparative less effort, and social influence on the user’s behavioural intention not only to use the digital mode of transaction but they also recommend mobile payment technology to others is significant (Oliveira, Thomas, Baptista, & Campos, 2016).[5] This change in the traditional use of the payment system drastically reduced the use of cash and simultaneously use of wallets. This research paper aims to enquire about the transformation of behavioural patterns associated with wallet use in terms of privacy and security that came because of this transition. For this enquiry we Interview 8 participants with an open ended semi structured questionnaire. And proper interview protocols were used to reduce the biases of forced perspective on the matter. And provide the participants with a more natural and comfortable environment during the interview. This paper contributes to the understanding of how and what are the current trend behaviours that can be observed in the young generation of India from different backgrounds and status. This paper is motivated in understanding the paradigm change that goes around the use of physical wallets as an effect due to the introduction of digital wallets.
Research goals
In our general observation, since its introduction, digital wallet has become quite successful in replacing the economic, cultural and social use of physical money, especially, due to the lockdown during COVID-19 and demonetisation of cash which left a large section of the population cashless. These consecutive events lead to the stark use of digital wallets in the last five years. Apart from these events, the government of India also pushed for the use of Digital transactions as part of their 2015 policy, Digital India. As part of their initiative they made a lot of taxation and charges of commodities digitised like booking tickets, toll taxes, land taxes, electricity bills, etc. This sudden shift of cash to digital money changed the behavioural pattern of the population in the use of wallets. Through this research, we aim to understand and inquire about these behavioural changes in the context of security and privacy. People have been found to be more comfortable with online transactions and with this change in attitude, they have become comfortable with less use of their wallets to a point where they even sometimes leave them behind at home.
Methodology
3.1 Participant details:
Participants for the research included both from IITB and non IITB communities. The sample included graduate and postgraduate students from technology, design and medical backgrounds, practising designers, art director, rickshaw driver etc. People from various fields of work were consciously chosen to get an understanding of their varying needs and usage of wallets. This variety in background helps to understand the behavioural patterns that they develop as they adapt their wallet usage to accommodate with their specific daily routines and practices that various fields of work may demand. Participants were targeted from the age group of 18-28 due to their exposure to the shift from only cash transactions to cash and digital transactions to understand it’s impact on the usage of wallets as well as their awareness and concerns towards privacy and security associated with its usage.
3.2 Ethics Proposal:
IRB ethics proposal has been prepared and attached as an appendix to this paper. The purpose of our research was informed to all the participants. Consent for audio recording and clicking photographs were taken from all the participants before starting the open ended semi structured interview. Everyone wholeheartedly agreed and supported the process.
3.3 Interview Protocol:
Based on the requirements set for the sample, people available were identified, approached and asked for consent to take part in the research. Upon getting consent, the researchers explained the purpose of the research and the interview protocols. The participants were free to say no to any questions at any time. They were free to discontinue the interview at any point. And the participant’s data will not be used for purposes other than the research and writing the research article/paper. Prior permission was taken to record audio of the interviews. An open-ended semi-structured questionnaire was prepared for the research to understand the participant’s experiences surrounding wallets, pattern of usage and preferences, changes over time and more. Since the study included participants from a variety of backgrounds, a semi structured questionnaire was preferred to accommodate the diverse use scenarios that the participants could bring to the study, upon which further prompts and follow back questions could be included to probe deeper understanding. Questions were improvised based on the participant responses and at the same time following the basic structure of the questionnaire. Beginning with questions on the participant’s idea of a wallet, their usage and things they carry in it, the questionnaire progressively moves to more complex areas such as habits the participants have picked up around their usage, their take on privacy while using a wallet and so on.
3.4 Data collection method:
The researchers took notes while actively listening to the responses and asked follow up questions. Along with notes, the audio of responses were recorded on smartphones with the participant’s permission. These audio recordings were later used to transcribe the entire interview in detail to carry out the analysis. If the participants agreed, photos of their wallets were also collected. A total of 8 in depth interviews were conducted. Each interview was transcribed for the analysis. The interviews were transcribed mostly in the same language they were conducted in, except for one interview in which a regional language was used because of the participant’s request. The interview conducted in regional language was translated to English by the researcher at the time of transcribing for further analysis. Braun and Clarke’s method was used for analysing the data. All the transcribed interviews were brought together and read among the researchers to get familiarised with the data, followed by coding of transcripts by each researcher. The codes were then collectively organised by the researchers to form themes. The themes arrived at this stage were reviewed among all the researchers in order to further refine them.
3.5 Thematic Analysis
To answer our research question and identify the behavioural patterns associated with privacy and security in wallet use, we took a bottom-up strategy where we tried to find new meanings and construct our theories around wallet use. Our coding was description focused where we identified specific behaviours, social and cultural settings, recurring or rare phenomena and experiences. In our coding strategy we did purpose driven coding, where we coded our data based on its effectiveness to identify values and evaluations done by our research participants to use any particular type of wallet,we also identified elemental values like how our participants described the wallets in their natural setting and identified in-vivo codes to ground their arguments and beliefs. For synthesis or second cycle of coding, focussed coding and clustering was done around our recurring theme of security and privacy concerns which showed cause and relationship with our sample or subject behaviour pattern. Once the codes were formed from the data and put together, it was possible to identify similarities among them such that they could be brought under a single title. Similar codes such as motives to or not to use a certain type of wallet were clubbed together to form a single cluster of code and so on. Similarly the various preferences of participants in terms of wallet configuration, mode of payment etc. This clustering of codes further helped to identify themes that came up in each interview responses.
Discussion
In addition, the study also went about identifying emotional aspects associated with both physical and digital wallets. There is a higher factor of emotional value associated with physical wallets and the physical mode of transactions carried out with the help of it. Physical wallets are considered to have a wider purpose which is not just limited to storing and safekeeping of cash. More than a means of storing cash, is an entity to store a variety of things ranging from things of regular needs such as ID cards, banking cards, driving licence etc, along with things of anticipated needs such as passport size photographs of oneself, carried specifically for the need if they have to get a form filled without prior notice, as well as souvenirs from the past including old currency notes or coins, photographs of family, handwritten notes to oneself and more items of interest. Even though ID cards are considered as the most important item in the wallet, it is the souvenirs and items of personal interest that contribute towards the associated emotional factor. If these very items are removed, the wallet in itself does not have any significance in itself, unless they have a personal connection to it such as if it was gifted to them or it was the first wallet they bought for themselves or so on. Above that, participants tend to associate emotion value to the method of payment as well. Payment by digital wallets like GooglePay is considered to be robotic, stating that it is stripped of the emotional factor that human interactions can bring. While paying by cash one can convey gratitude, satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the way the cash is handed over to the recipient. It was said to add an additional level of information to the payment, more than if the payment was successful or not. This direct communication between individuals gets the message across with more impact when compared to communicating through a note tagged to a digital transaction. Even though there is a choice of physical and digital mode of payments in most cases, many at times people have to choose between the two modes based on their convenience, mainly because of the uncertainty that surrounds digital payment.
Conclusion
The purpose of carrying a wallet has never really been thought over but has been somewhat replaced by online wallets due to the shift towards UPI and Netbanking. The cash is replaced with digital money in online bank accounts. The physical documents like ID cards and bills have been replaced by scanned versions of IDs and online receipts of bills. Credit and Debit cards also have been converted into digital NFC tags. In this study, we had intended to question the need to carry a wallet, if its purpose has been eliminated or shifted and its further scope in this era. The study shows evidence of behavioural patterns developed as a result of the advent of digital mode of payment in favour of the use of digital wallets but this also makes clear that physical wallets cannot be replaced as It has penetrated multiple cultural aspects of Indian society .
Reference
[1] Sukaris, Sukaris & Renedi, Wiki & Rizqi, Maulidyah & Pristyadi, Budiyono. (2021). Usage Behavior on Digital Wallet: Perspective of the Theory of Unification of Acceptance and Use of Technology Models. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 1764. 012071. 10.1088/1742-6596/1764/1/012071.
[2]Iviane Ramos de Luna, Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas, Juan Sánchez-Fernández, Francisco Muñoz-Leiva, Mobile payment is not all the same: The adoption of mobile payment systems depending on the technology applied, Technological Forecasting and Social Change
[3]Madan, K. and Yadav, R. (2016). Behavioural intention to adopt mobile wallet: a developing country perspective, Journal of Indian Business Research, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 227-244. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIBR-10-2015-0112
[4]Alaeddin, Omar & Altounjy, Rana & Zainudin, Zalina & Kamarudin, Fakarudin. 2018. From physical to digital: Investigating consumer behaviour of switching to mobile wallet. Polish Journal of Management Studies. 17. 10.17512/pjms.2018.17.2.02.
[5]Sunny, Prajod & George, Ajimon. (2018). Determinants of behavioral intention to use mobile wallets - A conceptual model. Tamil Nadu: IAEME Publication
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