Customers’Risk Perceptions of Electronic Payment Systems 客户对电子支付系统的风险观察论文
Introduction
Technological development has led to the gradual
installation of various electronic fund transfer systems
(EFTS) worldwide. While many other Western countries
are still experimenting with a nationwide electronic fund
transfer at point-of-sale (EFTPoS) system, Hong Kong
was among the first in the world to introduce a single fullscale
operational EFTPoS system (commonly known as
Easy Pay System in Hong Kong and the two terms will be
used interchangeably in this article). The system is
supported by all banks issuing automatic teller machine
(ATM) cards in Hong Kong and is viewed as an
alternative payment method to other conventional retail
payment methods such as cash and credit card. The
vendor of the EPS service asserts that the service
provides potential benefits of more flexible, convenient,
fast and secure services to the consumers.
However, despite the huge amount of resources invested
and the potential benefits, it does not guarantee that
EFTPoS can follow the same success story of the ATMs
in the territory. The adoption rate of EPS service by
consumers as a substitute for cash and credit card
payment is relatively slow. Currently, about 85 per cent of
retail purchases are paid by cash and 10 per cent by credit
cards (Kwok, 1993). Only a few per cent of potential
EFTPoS users (i.e. ATM cardholders) have ever used the
easy pay system (EPS) service. One reason for such low
usage of EFTPoS is that consumers may perceive
EFTPoS has a higher level of “risk” than other traditional
payment methods.
The objective of this study is to gain more insight into the
reasons why ATM cardholders accept or reject EFTPoS
and how they view the risk of EFTPoS when compared to
credit cards and cash. Earlier related empirical studies on
EFTS usage mainly focused on issues such as
demographic and psychographic profile of ATM users
(e.g. Ho et al., 1989; Wiley and Richard, 1974), and users’
prior experience of using other new financial services and
its relationship with EFTS adoption (e.g. Swinyard and
Ghee, 1987). Yet very few studies have reported on how
customer motivations, fears and behaviours are
associated with specific EFTS services such as EFTPoS.
This study makes use of a concept in consumer behaviour
and perceived risk to study the differences of consumers’
risk perceptions among alternative payment methods. It
also examines whether the amount of purchase has an
effect on the level of perceived risk of alternative payment
methods and whether users of EFTPoS perceive the risk
of EFTPoS differently from non-users.
The authors believe that EFTPoS adoption has its |
