Cashless preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigating user intentions to continue UPI-based payment systems in India

Purpose This study aims to examine the factors influencing user satisfaction with unified payment interface (UPI)-based payment systems during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The study also aimed to examine whether the user satisfaction with UPI-based payment systems during the COVID-19 pandemic will transform into their continuance intention post-COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The study was performed in three phases, i.e. pre-testing (for developing questionnaire), pilot study (using exploratory factor analysis to ensure unidimensionality) and the main study. The main study was based on the feedback from a sample of 369 internet users who first used the UPI-based payment system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data generated were analysed using the structural equation modelling approach. Findings The study findings suggest that the users who are satisfied with UPI-based transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to continue their use of this payment mode in future. Factors such as post-adoption perceived value, perceived usefulness and post-adoption perceived risk were observed to be key constructs in explaining user satisfaction and continued intention for UPI-based payment systems. Originality/value The study is one of the pioneering studies, in the sense that it investigated the continuance intention of UPI-based payment systems, which, surprisingly, did not gain much attention from past researchers.