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Considers distribution in the financial services. Financial services providers face a wide choice in the combinations of channels that they can employ to market their products. Asserts that plastic cards are increasingly replacing paper cheques and credits and have become a key channel of distribution for the money transmission services. Continues by reviewing the possible advantages of chip‐based plastic payment cards. Discusses how they would allow all the different payment functions to be held on one piece of plastic and, therefore, provide complete financial management for the cardholder. Considers the adoption of plastic cards in the card centric countries of Japan and the UK.

The cashless society, where clumsy and expensive‐to‐handle coins and notes are replaced by efficient electronic payments initiated by various types of plastic cards is a tantalizing prospect for the twenty‐first century. Some of the interested parties stand to gain more than others if the cashless society becomes a reality. Outlines the rationale of those who are keen to promote the cashless society and the implications for marketeers charged with winning consumer acceptance for payment by plastic card. Commencing with a European‐wide view of the European plastic card market, focuses on recent developments within the UK, one of Europe′s leading countries in the use of plastic cards as a means of payment. The plastic card payment product is analysed under the three headings of pay later, pay now and pay before and a view is offered as to the future prospects for each type of plastic card in contributing to the development of the cashless society.

Explains that the smart card is increasingly being held and used by consumers in the UK, particularly in its electronic purse or loyalty card capacity. The smart card is a plastic card that carries an embedded computer chip with memory and interactive capabilities. Describes the current major payment options open to consumers, and accepted by retailers, with a review of the costs and benefits of each payment option. Considers the electronic purse pilot of Mondex as a new payment option and looks at the issues facing retailers with the introduction of smart cards. Concludes that acceptance of the smart card as a new payment option depends heavily on retailers’ attitudes and these will be formed by the so‐far unquantified balance of costs and benefits that will accompany the introduction of the smart card.

This exploratory study seeks to explore the link between the choices of payment mode to customer satisfaction. It examines the Austrian market in relation to its choice and usage of debit cards versus credit cards and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, the study aims to identify the key drivers of customer satisfaction for these two modes of electronic payment.

A structured questionnaire was administered in person to 360 Austrian bank customers. These customers were selected using quota sampling based on Austrian census data for a particular Austrian province. However, while the quota sampling was used to determine the categories, selection of the actual respondents was done through systematic sampling. This ensured that the sample was representative of the population of that Austrian province who had credit and debit cards. One group, women who were 65 and older, were not considered as there were relatively few women in this age range who had debit and credit cards.

Five hypotheses were proposed. Four of the five hypotheses were supported while one, H4, had partial support. Essentially, the results indicate that a person's preference for a particular payment method is dependent on his/her personal characteristics. Additionally, the payment method's features and characteristics influenced its desirability and acceptance. Furthermore, a person's expectations had an impact on his/her attitude toward the payment method. The study also found that positive expectations, performance, and desires led to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, in turn, leads to a higher degree of intent to use the payment method and higher degree of intent to recommend the payment method. These results are consistent with the literature on customer satisfaction that identifies expectations, performance and desires as the drivers of customer satisfaction.

Multiple payment modes have emerged but there has been scant attention paid to the effects of payment modes on customer behavior and by extension, customer satisfaction and loyalty. This paper addresses these issues.

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

Reports on research into the payments markets of both Australia and the UK, in the context of the concept of relationship marketing. It compares the evolution of the various types of payment; cash, paper cheques, debit and credit cards and examines the linkages with relationship marketing from both a market‐based approach, to investigate whether data derived from consumer payments can form the basis of a relationship, and from a network‐based approach, to consider how new entrants to the payments market can establish relationships between organisations. Conclusions on this study are then followed by some thoughts on the directions for future research.

Describes the importance of plastic payment cards at the point of sale (POS) and the evolution of the credit card in general and affinity cards in particular. Suggests reasons for both the growth of plastic card payments (the cashless society) and the threats to affinity cards (the interchange fee). Places the affinity credit card within the paradigm of relationship marketing and emphasises the triadic nature of these relationships. Discusses the development of the research into affinity credit cards and the issues of branding and trust that impact upon the triadic relationships. Explores the potential for affinity marketing and reports on research into trust and ethics which is relevant to this concept. Places affinity marketing within the retail arena and finally draws conclusions on the future for payments at the POS, relationships operationalised via plastic cards and triadic affinities.

The article is based on both secondary and primary research into the use of plastic payment cards in China. The secondary research offers an understanding of the history and current situation of payment cards in China, whilst the primary research provides insights into the uniqueness of the Chinese market from the perspective of card holders, card issuers and merchant acceptors. As barriers to entry into China remain high for foreign banks, particularly if they wish to pursue a branch centric approach to distribution, the article also draws attention to the advantages of a card centric approach to market entry. Other Asia‐Pacific markets such as Australia, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan have already embraced the plastic card as a means of payment at the point‐of‐sale. As a market, China has more potential than any other country in Asia‐Pacific, but more knowledge is required concerning the evolution to date of payment cards in China and the impediments that foreign entrants will face.

This paper aims to discuss the prevention of complacency regarding payment card fraud, particularly the debit card.

Based on research already carried out on payment card fraud in France, Spain and the UK, the paper extends the analysis of fraud to the payment with respect to cards in use in Australia.

It was found that payment card fraud, particularly on MasterCard and Visa branded debit cards, is often hidden amongst the statistics for overall payment card fraud and yet, with the enhanced functionality of such cards, re: online and international transactions, added to the increasing sophistication of the card fraudsters, there is a present and ever increasing risk of debit card fraud.

Whilst payment card fraud is often dealt with under credit cards, there has been no prior work on debit card fraud.

After more than three decades of research and legal cases pursued by the European Commission (EC) and national regulators, interchange fees for four-party consumer card transactions are capped on December 9, 2015 across the European Union (EU). Since then, the development of card scheme fees has been a raising concern for merchants. Due to their nature, these fees have not been dealt with in research or covered by the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR). This chapter aims to assess the recent development of card scheme fees within four-party card payment networks by relying on survey data obtained from 104 merchants across the EU. Findings show that for half of the merchant population card scheme fees have increased since the regulation. Further concerns related to transparency of fees, pass-through of savings to retailers and subsequently consumers, and the development of commercial cards are discussed. In light of the EC's scheduled review of the impacts of the policy intervention in 2019 (Article 17 of the IFR), this chapter evaluates alternative arrangements for the setting of card scheme fees with a focus on the legal basis for a potential regulation. Findings shall provide a ground for further interaction between academics, practitioners, and policymakers.