Consumers' Stickiness to Mobile Payment Applications: An Empirical Study of WeChat Wallet

WeChat wallet incorporates compelling features facilitating users to conduct financial transactions more conveniently. The authors' survey discovered that most users appreciate WeChat wallet services. Previous studies, however, inadequately address critical factors that motivate consumers' stickiness to this promising technology. Scholars concentrate only on the technological features and considers societal traditional practices. This work establishes a psychometric theoretical model that integrates novel constructs, which balances technological features and traditional values, predicting WeChat wallet customers' stickiness. To this end, a questionnaire, with Likert scale items, was administered to 450 Chinese and foreigners in China. The authors measured their model's reliability and validity using composite reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The study applied the common latent factor approach to test the common method bias. Structural equation modeling and SPSS were used for data analysis. The study reveals that perceived availability of merchant support, convenience, social influence, and red envelope (traditional Chinese culture for sharing monetary values during festivals and special events) preference promote consumers' stickiness behaviors to WeChat wallet. In addition, perceived security insignificantly moderates the relationships between convenience/social influence and consumers' stickiness. This study gives scholars an important research avenue to explore further the relationships between traditions and diffusion of technology.