Study of Emotional Factors Influencing Professionals' Adoption to E-Payment in Sri Lanka

Introduction

The worldwide proliferation of the Internet has given birth of Electronic payment system which is “the use of credit and debit cards on the Internet or other electronic devices to perform day to day transactions which include paying for goods and services, bill payment and transfer of money at any time of the day”, mentioned Gholami et al. (2010) with Andam (2003). Simply Electronic payment systems refer to various innovative applications and approaches, including the use of credit card, debit card, Automated Teller Machine(ATM), Electronic Fund Transfer(EFT), online payment that are used to facilitate the customer’s decision to pay for a product or services (Vassilious, 2004).

E-commerce can be simply described as all electronically mediated information exchanges between an organization and its external stakeholders. (Chaffy, 2009) That means e-commerce includes other activities, “such as businesses trading with other businesses and internal processes that companies use to support their buying, selling, hiring, planning, and other activities” (Schneider, 2011; Zwass, 2003). Eastin (2002) in an article entitled “The popularity of e-commerce: analysis of acceptance four e-commerce activities,” mention 4 activities reviewed include online sales, online banking, online investing and electronic payment. So e-payment can be identified as a most important sub element of E-commerce.

The growth of information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized traditional systems of payment. Individuals can now carry out many kinds of modern methods of payment for goods and services instead of traditional methods of cash and cheques. This phenomenon of cashless payment is known as e-Payment. Electronic payment is a financial exchange that takes place online between buyers and sellers, the content of this exchange is usually some form of digital financial instruments (such as encrypted credit card numbers, electronic checks or digital cash) that is backed by a bank or an intermediary. (Ingenico, 2012) The cashless society has been predicted for decades or else we can denote as barter system and then paper-based payment instruments such as cash and checks continue to remain a dominant form of payment in Sri Lanka. But present, innovations such as e-cash, micro-payments, and smart cards which have introduced potentially powerful new technology in the banking industry have gained significant commercial adoption.

In this study researcher attempts to identify the emotional factors which affect professionals’ adoption of electronic payment methods in Sri Lanka, in order to validate and to test the reliability of instruments used, the researcher went through a pilot test by taking a sample of 50 undergraduates. According to the results of the pilot test the researcher was able to identify 7 factors which affect individuals’ emotions to adopt e-payment methods. This result may differ from the actual result of the research because of some inherent limitations of a pilot test.