Perceived transaction cost and its antecedents associated with fintech users' intention: Evidence from Pakistan

Chunling Li; Nosherwan Khaliq; Leslie Chinove; Usama Khaliq; Mirzat Ullah; Zoltán Lakner; József Popp

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15140

Perceived transaction cost and its antecedents associated with fintech users' intention: Evidence from Pakistan

Heliyon. 2023 Apr 3;9(4):e15140. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15140. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Chunling Li¹, Nosherwan Khaliq¹, Leslie Chinove¹, Usama Khaliq², Mirzat Ullah³, Zoltán Lakner^{4

5}, József Popp^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China.
² Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610000, China.
³ Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, Mira 19, 620002 Yekaterinburg, Russia.
⁴ Department of Agricultural Business and Economics, Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
⁵ Faculty of Agriculture, University of Science and Technology, Aliero, Nigeria.
⁶ John von Neumann University, Hungarian National Bank - Research Center, Izsáki út 10, 6000 Kecskemét, Hungary.
⁷ College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa.

Abstract

Researches depict a considerable degree of acknowledgment of financial technology improvement in Pakistan. However, the costs blocking clients' intention to utilize financial technology remain dubious. Building upon Transaction Cost Economics and Innovation diffusion theory, this paper hypothesizes that consumers' transaction cost of fintech is affected by nine antecedents: perceived asset specificity, complexity, product uncertainty, behavioral uncertainty, transaction frequency, dependability, limitations, convenience, and economic utility. Transaction cost has a negative relationship with consumers' intentions to use fintech for online buying or availing services. We tested the model using data gathered from the individuals. The results show that factors that are positively related to consumers' perceived transaction cost, among them product uncertainty (β = 0.231) is the greatest of factors, followed by behavior uncertainty (β = 0.209) and asset specificity (β = 0.17), those that are negatively associated are dependability (β = 0.11), and convenience (β = 0.224). The study is limited in scope, focusing primarily on cost factors. Future research may analyze additional cost-related elements and the actual use of financial technology by using samples from different countries.

Keywords: Cost antecedents; Fintech; IDT; Perceived transaction cost; TCE.