Factors that affect individuals in using digital currency electronic payment in China: SEM and fsQCA approaches

Abstract

While China's Central Bank digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) presents certain advantages over third-party payment platforms like WeChat and Alipay, its promotion faces bottlenecks and research gaps. This study employs the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to construct a research model that identifies the various factors influencing individual adoption of DCEP. By gathering 401 surveys, this study validates the hypotheses and relationships between variables using the Structural Equation Model (SEM). Additionally, it employs the fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method to explore the factors that impact adoption intention. The SEM results reveal that perceived security, perceived usefulness, and comparative advantage significantly and positively influence the willingness to use DCEP, while perceived security and perceived usefulness also positively influence comparative advantage. Furthermore, the study finds that comparative advantage serves as an intermediary in the relationships between perceived security and usage intention, perceived security and usage intention, and perceived usefulness and usage intention. Interestingly, the fsQCA analysis reveals that privacy concerns, while commonly regarded as an important factor in affecting electronic payments, did not significantly impact usage intention in the SEM analysis. However, combining privacy concerns with other variables significantly influences usage intention. This study suggests that the analysis of factors influencing DCEP usage should be wider than single-factor analysis and account for the effects of multiple-factor combinations.