Consumer preferences of attributes of mobile payment services in South Korea

The widespread diffusion of mobile devices has led to a new method of value transfer that retains the features of mobile devices: mobile payments. Many researchers have investigated consumers’ responses to mobile payment services, which is a key indicator of the success of a service, and have examined determinants of consumer adoption. Although many studies have addressed consumer adoption of mobile payment services, only the general and abstract factors affecting adoption (e.g., perceived usefulness) have been intensively investigated. However, these studies have rarely examined the idiosyncratic and concrete aspects of mobile payment services. To improve our understanding of why consumers adopt certain mobile payment services, this study investigated consumers’ evaluations of the explicit attributes of the services. Three hundred seventy-three consumers of mobile payment services participated in an online conjoint survey. Their preference structure was generated from a conjoint analysis including five service attributes (mobile payment platform, assurance policy, mileage program, authentication method, and affiliated stores), which were identified through a literature review and focus group discussion. The results showed that an assurance policy is the most critical factor influencing consumers’ choices, and a mileage program is considered to be as imperative as the platform. We also compared the findings by two consumer clusters (safety seekers vs. platform adherers), which were classified by preference. Because this study examines concrete and specific attributes of mobile payment services beyond abstract and general adoption factors, it provides insights into consumers’ actual adoption of services.