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Money you could touch: cash and psychological ownership

Jashim Khan (Surrey International Institute, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China)
Russell Belk (Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada)

Qualitative Market Research

ISSN: 1352-2752

Article publication date: 6 June 2024

Issue publication date: 29 October 2024

272

Abstract

Purpose

Despite evidence that cashless payment modes influence spending behavior, researchers have yet to explain the underlying mechanism. Cash serves as a store of value, and transactions involve the transference of ownership in circulation. This study aims to unpack why the physical and visceral nature of cash embodies psychological ownership and how the physicality of cash attenuates the awareness of spending, curtailing instinctive and unnecessary spending.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on data collected in 2013 in New Zealand, the authors conducted another study in the quite different context of China in September 2023, using identical semistructured discussion protocols. The data from 2013 involved five focus group sessions containing at least six participants, involving 31 adults who also completed an open-ended questionnaire immediately before the group discussion commenced. The data collection in 2023 used the same open-ended and semistructured discussion protocol used in 2013, resulting in 180 adult open-ended responses – a nonprobability criterion-based purposive sampling guided participant selection in the 2013 and 2023 studies.

Findings

Findings reveal that psychological ownership does manifest in the app more than in the ownership of money itself. People felt happy, confident, safe and secure while using apps that stored their money. Physical attributes of cash result from sensory perceptions of handling, counting and touching cash and coins. A sense of psychological ownership heightens spending awareness and ramifies spending behavior. The research found sadness and guilt as negative emotions when parting with money.

Originality/value

This study offers empirical support to explain why psychological ownership of cash regulates spending and why the psychological processes that underlie “owned” money interrupt the spending with cash.

Keywords

Citation

Khan, J. and Belk, R. (2024), "Money you could touch: cash and psychological ownership", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 820-840. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-04-2023-0049

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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