E-Payments in China and Sweden
—- A Comparative Study of Alipay and Swish
BACHELOR THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Marketing Management TUTOR: Lucia Pizzichini
AUTHOR: Zhaoyin Chen & Xinyu He JÖNKÖPING University May 2020
Acknowledgements
From the topic selection, data collection to the completion of the paper, we have received a lot of enthusiastic help from teachers and students.
First of all, we would love to give our sincere gratitude to Lucia, our tutor who, with extraordinary patience and consistent encouragement, during the writing time, gave us great help by providing advices to us, inspiring us with ideas. Without her suggest and support, we could not finish this thesis.
Secondly, we would like to express gratitude to the people who have participated in the questionnaire. Each of them paid time and energy to think over our questions carefully and gave personal answers. During the outbreak of the epidemic, we still received enough samples successfully
We would also like to thank the professors during the three years of bachelor study. Their professional understanding and knowledge teaching have helped us to move forward in the thesis and even in the future.
Finally, we would like to thank our families and classmates for their care and support in life.
Thanks！
Abstract
With the development of high-speed communication technology and the
popularization of mobile intelligent terminals, E-payments have rapidly been accepted
and applied by many people around the world and greatly changed their life and
financial transaction. At the same time, E-payment still has a lot of spaces for further
development, especially when there are different versions of E-payment platforms and
applications like Alipay in China and Swish in Sweden.
payment users’ experience has become one of the important criteria for the
payment platform development. This paper focuses on a comparative study of two
E-payment platforms, Alipay and Swish, to find out the elements that affects the user
experience for E-payment. Meanwhile, this paper also discusses what suggestions can
be offered to E-payment companies.
In order to achieve the research purpose, based on TAM model by Davis, F. D., a
quantitative and qualitative research methods have been applied to investigate how the
users of E-payment platforms feel concerning perceived mobility, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived risk, and the user’s experience satisfaction and willingness to continue using have also been tested.
A questionnaire has been designed and distributed to the interviewees of three
groups: those who only used Alipay, those who only used Swish, and those who used
both. The design of the questionnaire is a combination of quantitative research and
qualitative research, quantitative research of the problem is to confirm that all the
factors effect on the user experience, and the problem that the qualitative research is to
study the users in the use and after comparing two electronic platforms for these factors.
All together there are 180 questionnaire copies of data have been collected. With
the data, the authors use SPSS to analyze quantitative data and inductive method to
analyze qualitative data. With data analysis and research, it can be concluded that
satisfaction experience, while Perceived Risk has a significant reverse effect.
Suggestions based on the results have been put forward.
Content
1. Introduction ... 1
1.1 Background ... 1
2. Research Questions ... 2
3. Purpose of the Research ... 3
4. Definitions... 4
4.1 E-payment ... 4
4.2 User Experience (UE) ... 5
5. Frame of Reference ... 5
5.1 Theoretical Framework... 10
5.1.1 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM): ... 10
5.1.2 Perceived Risk ... 11
5.2 Theoretical Model ... 12
6. Methodology for the Study ... 12
6.1 Theoretical Basis of Philosophy ... 13
6.2 Research Approach... 15
6.3 Measurement Dimensions of Study Variables ... 17
6.3.1 Perceived Mobility... 17
6.3.2 Perceived Usefulness ... 17
6.3.3 Perceived Ease of Use ... 18
6.3.4 Perceived Risks ... 18
6.3.5 Experience Satisfaction ... 19
6.3.6 User’s Willingness to Continue to Use ... 19
6.4 Hypothesis for Study ... 20
7. Data Analysis ... 22
7.1 Basic Data Collection ... 23
7.2 SPSS ... 26
7.2.1 Validity Analysis ... 27
7.2.2 Correlation Analysis ... 27
7.2.3 Regression Analysis... 28
7.2.4 The Influence of Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Risk on Experience Satisfaction ... 28
7.2.5 The effect of experience satisfaction on continuous use intention ... 29
7.3 Qualitative Analysis ... 30
8. Conclusion ... 33
8.1 Research Conclusion ... 34
8.1.1 Perceived Mobility Has a Significant Positive Impact on Perceived Usefulness ... 35
8.1.2 Ease of Use Experience Has a Significant Positive Impact on User Experience Satisfaction ... 36
8.1.3 Perceived Risk Has a Significant Negative Effect on User Experience Satisfaction .. 36
9. Discussion ... 37
9.1 Recommendations and Suggestions for E-payment Platforms ... 37
9.1.2 Improvement of Ease of Use ... 38
9.1.3 Reducing User’s Perceived Risk ... 39
10 Implications... 40
10.1 Theoretical implications ... 40
10.2 Practical implications ... 41
11. Limitation and Future Research ... 42
11.1 Limitation ... 42
11.1.1 The Limitation of Research Content... 42
11.1.2 The Limitation of Research Sample. ... 43
11.2 Future Research ... 43
11.2.1 In-depth Analysis of Influencing Factors. ... 43
11.2.2 Add Research Variable Dimensions ... 44
11.2.3 Expand the Scope of the Research Object ... 44
12. Ethical Thinking... 44
Reference: ... 46
1. Introduction 1.1 Background
The field of electronic payment in China has developed rapidly in the past decade,
and it has launched a powerful challenge to traditional cash paper-based payments. In
the worldwide, a few developed countries such as Sweden have realized paperless
payments or a small amount of cash payments.
The electronic payment of China started rather late. In 2005, Alibaba’s CEO Jack
Ma first proposed the concept of a third-party payment platform at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Therefore, the year 2005 is usually considered the first year of electronic payment in China. Although China’s electronic payment started late, it has developed rapidly. After more than ten years of rapid development, third-party
payment platforms represented by Alipay have initially completed the application
scenario layout and the cultivation of consumer habits. E-payment users of China reached 577.4 million in 2019 which is the world’s largest E-payment user base (Man Chung Cheung, 2019).
With its economic infrastructure, Sweden has always been in a leading position in
the digital transformation of payments in the Nordic region and has made significant
progress in achieving a cashless society. In terms of E-payments, the 7 largest banks in
Sweden jointly launched the instant payment application Swish in 2012. Swish as a
third-party payment platform has been the driving force of the Swedish digital payment
revolution, which has brought Sweden closer to a cashless society. Swish has facilitated
mobile transactions between individuals and businesses through cooperation with some
famous Swedish banks (Andrew Fawthrop, 2019). At present, more than half of
Swedish consumers have registered for this application.
During the same period, with the rapid development of mobile Internet, the
consumption behavior of smartphone users is changing, and E-payment will enter a
E-payment model and allowing users to better experience the convenience of E-E-payment
is an effective measure to promote the rapid popularization of E-payment.
E-payment is in a period of rapid development, and various technologies are
becoming mature. Therefore, the user experience needs to be focused on. Only by
taking the user as the center to design a reasonable interaction method and bringing user’s easy-to-use and secure payment products can promote the development of E-payment. We believe that with the popularization of mobile internet and smartphones,
with more and more convenient humanized payment methods and new user experiences,
E-payment will still have a lot of room for further development. At the same time, there
are many existing problems that lead us to explore and solve. This is a challenge as well
as an opportunity.
There are many forms and products of E-payment. Competition for homogenized
products has intensified. The number of functions is no longer the only criterion for
measuring the quality of E-payments. While using E-payment to meet functional
requirements, users pay more attention to the experience and feeling for E-payment
application. The experience of the product becomes more and more important for the
choice of the users. The purpose of the research is to provide suggestions for how to
provide users with high-quality, easy-to-operate and good user experience E-payment
services through an interactive comparison of the user experiences of Swish and Alipay.
2. Research Questions
With the development of high-speed communication technology and the
popularization of mobile intelligent terminals, mobile Internet has become the industry
with the fastest development and the largest market potential in the world today.
Relying on economic development and technological progress and driven by the tide of
e-commerce, third-party E-payments have been generated and rapidly popularized. The
emergence of third-party payment solves problems such as the trust mechanism in the
of e-commerce. The development of third-party E-payments provides consumers with
a more convenient payment experience.
It is necessary to explore the influence of various variables on the consumer experience of consumers. Only by starting from the user’s needs and centering on users through improving the users’ experience and making them feel pleasant and valuable. Then, E-payment can be truly integrated into the lives of users.
With the rapid E-payment development happening in Europe and China, it is
understandable that it has led to a sharp increase in research in this area, including the
study of E-payment user experience. But among them, a comparison study of the user
experience of Alipay and Swish, which are two main E-payment applications in Sweden
and China respectively, cannot be spotted much. Because of this, the authors decided
to conduct a research focusing on the research questions:
From the background introduction, it can be seen that the rapid development of
E-payment has led to a booming increase in research in this area. However, the
comparative study of popular payment application on the user experience of
E-payment has not been much delivered and presented. Based on the study of former
research of user experience and the new field of E-payment application, two
research questions have been selected:
1) Which are the elements in the research of the consumer experience that affect the
user experience in Alipay and Swish？
2) What suggestions can be offered to E-payment companies from the comparative
study on the user experience of Alipay and Swish?
3. Purpose of the Research
In the modern era of rapid development of economy, E-payment has gradually become an inseparable part of people’s lives. How to improve the user experience based on technology is an issue that all E-payment companies must consider. The user
experience contains a variety of user needs, including product interaction experience,
privacy protection, and so on. Among them, different target groups will have different
needs for this. What are the important elements in user experience for Alipay and Swish
and how to improve the E-payment applications on the basis of a correct understanding
of user experience are the main purpose of this thesis research. The research involves investigating which elements in Alipay and Swish’s products will affect the user experience. Meanwhile, researchers hope to find and confirm more conducts through
the study and practice which can help E-payment products bring a better user
experience from a comparative study of the two platforms. The results of the research
as well as suggestions can offer to E-payment platforms are hoped to be significant for
the future design and development of E-payment applications.
4. Definitions 4.1 E-payment
Kalakota and Whinstone has brought out a general definition of electronic
payment, “electronic payment is a form of financial exchange between the purchaser
and the seller facilitated by electronic communications, and e-commerce electronic
payment is a financial transaction in an online environment” (Kalakota & Whinston,
1997). Taking advantage of the development of science and technology, electronic
payment gradually becomes a settling way for people to replace traditional payment in
modern life, which brings about a tremendous change to the financial exchange method
related to social economic practice. According to the different settling methodologies,
E-payment includes telephone payment, mobile payment, website payment, etc. Via
telephone payment, people make phone calls to the bank or the financial institutions to
complete their transaction. Website payments refers to the monetary transaction
conducted via banking website. Mobile payment, which is becoming more and more
popular in E-payment, offers the opportunity for people to complete their deals via
smart phone applications. During this process of E-payment, people will have different
important for user’s adaptation of electronic payment and the development of different E-payment application.
4.2 User Experience (UE)
E-payment user experience refers to the subjective experience formed by the user’s
use of payment products or payment services. Although there is no consensus on the
concept of user experience, many people and organizations still define user experience
from different perspectives. Donald Norman invented the term user experience in the
1990s, “user experience includes all aspects of end-user interaction with companies, services and their products” (Donald Norman,1993). The ISO 9241-210 standard defines user experience as people’s cognitive impressions and responses to products,
systems, or services that they use or expect to use. Therefore, the user experience is
subject and it focuses on practical applications. User experience has much broader
effects in our lives than most people realize. It does not only apply to the use of the
latest technology. The user experience affects people every day. The user experience
covers culture, age, gender and economic class (Tom Tullis; Bill Albert, 2008). The
various definitions of user experience indicate that user experience refers to the
multi-attribute, multi-angle and multi-factor experience formed when a user interacts with a
product. Therefore, user experience can be defined as a purely subjective psychological
feeling established by users in the process of using a product or a service.
5. Frame of Reference
With customers and business professionals increasingly using mobile devices,
e-commerce has become not only a trend but also a phenomenon today (Chen, 2008).
E-payment is becoming the main method for making a purchase. In the field of monetary
transaction, E-payment system in particular has emerged allowing users to pay for
goods and services wherever they go, using their mobile devices (especially mobile
model, many researchers have also begun to study the advantages and disadvantages of
E-payment and have produced different ideas about e-payment (Kim, 2010).
From the previous research, it can be seen that most of the studies are positive
about the development of electronic payment, in spite that transaction security remains
people’s concern for E-payment platforms. However, Ondrus and Pigneur proposed
that with the popularity of mobile commerce, E-payment will continue to promote
security between organizations or individuals (Ondrus; Pigneur 2006). E-commerce
transactions are undoubtedly good for market development.
The research of E-payment user experience is closely related to that of the
technology acceptance in that it is telecommunication technology make E-payment a
reality and relate people to the no-cash payment. Among the research of technology
acceptance, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was first proposed by Davis in 1989. It is a basic theory that studies users’ acceptance intentions and behaviors of information systems, as is shown in table 1.1 (Davis, F. D., 1989). TAM model attempts
to explain and predict the key influencing factors of individuals’ use of new technologies. The core point of TAM model is that consumers’ actual use of a product or service is affected by behavioral intentions, which are determined by consumer
attitudes.
The Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) was presented and developed by Rogers
in 1962 and he extended the theory in 1995 (table 1.2). The core viewpoint of IDT
theory is that the innovation process of a thing is a process in which users continuously
eliminate uncertainty by acquiring as much information about the thing as possible from
external. Rogers (1995) pointed out that innovative adoption is the user’s decision to
fully use an emerging thing and also proposed five keys that influencing factors for user
adoption intentions and behaviors, including relative advantage, compatibility,
complexity, trial-ability and observability.
Leida Chen (2018) has integrated the TAM model and IDT theory in order to analyze the factors that affect consumers’ acceptance of E-payments. The results show
that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and compatibility have a significant
positive impact on consumers’ intention to use E-payment. In contrast with the positive
factors, perceived risk has a significant negative impact on intention to use E-Payment.
The study also found that perceived transaction convenience and perceived transaction
speed have a significant positive impact on perceived usefulness (Leida Chen, 2018).
Meanwhile, perceived usefulness and ease of use have a remarkable positive impact on
intention to transact (Paul A. Pavlou, 2014).
The research model of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology
(UTAUT) was proposed in 2003 (Venkatesh; Michael; Gordon; Fred, 2003). There are
four core dimensions of the UTAUT model including performance expectancy, effort
expectancy, social influences and facilitating conditions which are the main factors
affecting behavioral intention and use behavior (Venkatesh et.al, 2003). Meanwhile,
the UTAUT model also includes four control variables (gender, age, experience and
involuntariness of use) that significantly affect the core dimension (Venkatesh et.al,
2003).
Shin (2009) constructed a modifiedUTAUT modelby introducing security, trust,
social influence and self-efficacy factors into an integrated technology acceptance
model. The research results show that the regulating effect of demographic variables is
significant. Usefulness and ease of use pronounced effect on consumers’ intention to
use E-payment. Meanwhile, compatibility and mobility have significant positive effects
on individuals’ attitudes and behavioral pressures on E-payments. Trust, perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use have greatly affect users’ attitudes (Changsu Kim;
Mirsobit Mirusmonov, 2010). Lee (2010) divided mobile users into early adopters and
late adopters when studying the consumers’ adoption of E-payments. A comparative
analysis shows that the main factors affecting early users intention to use the
M-payment are individual knowledge of M-M-payment and perceived ease of use. Late
adopters pay more attention to accessibility and perceived easy to use of E-payment
applications. Research has also demonstrated that individual innovation sense,
ease of use. In addition to perceived benefits and perceived risks, perceived benefit,
perceived convenience and herd mentality for convenience are also three outstanding
factors that influence the use of the third-party E-payment. These studies can help
researchers sort out the impact of various factors on consumers’ intention to use
E-payment. At the same time, it also explores whether there is interaction between some
factors.
Through exploring external influences, ease of use, attitude, usefulness, trust and
risk, we study the different degrees of influence of consumer adoption of E-payments.
By using age as a moderator, the study discovered that the age of users has a significant
effect on the perceived trust and perceived ease of use (Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas;
Juan Sánchez-Fernández; Francisco Muñoz-Leiva, 2014) However, other researchers
(Yanli Pei; Shan Wang,; Jing Fan; Min Zhang, 2015) have studied the factors affecting
Chinese users’ perception and adoption of electronic payment based on TAM and trust
theories, and they found that the perceived risk is not significant impact on the intent to
use the E-payment. It is further inferred that Chinese users do not pay much attention
to the perceived risks when choosing an electronic payment system. The reason for the
different conclusions is believed that the researchers were inclined to including bias in
the questionnaire design and did not consider the demographic characteristics of the
respondents. In addition, the authors did not explore further for the reason why
perceived risk has no significant effect on Chinese users’ intentions.
By reviewing the research literature in the field of E-payment, it is concluded that
the current research in this field mainly has the following characteristics. The current research is mainly focused on consumers’ acceptance of E-payment. There are only few literatures studying the users’ intention to use E-payment platforms from the
perspective of user experience. Moreover, the research on E-payment users in the
literature is mostly limited to TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), IDT (Innovation
Diffusion Theory) and perceived risk to build research models and supplemented by a survey of user acceptance factors (questionnaire) to explore consumers’ intention to use E-payment services. But it does not combine the characteristics of the E-payment
platform. Most literature chose perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, security
concerns and perceived valuable when extracting influence variables for empirical
research. However, the factors that affect the user experience have not been classified
in accordance with the principles, which caused some important variables to be omitted
in the research. There is even literature that studies only variables in a certain area (for
example, the research only studies the dimensions of perceived risk).
Existing literature does not distinguish between potential users who have used
mobile platforms and those who have not used E-payments when researching the early adopters’ intention to use the E-payment. At the same time, there is no comparative analysis of the indicators that affect the two types of groups, and there is also no
corresponding countermeasure for the use of these two types of groups.
By consulting relevant literature, it can be found that previous researches generally
used E-payment as the research object to conduct a comprehensive study. Current
researches have focused on consumer acceptance of E-payments. The previous
researchers usually also study user experience from the perspective of E-payment
product designers and lacks user experience from the perspective of users’ own
application practice. Researches on third-party E-payment is relatively few and the
analysis of factors affecting consumer user experience is also incomplete.
Therefore, based on the literature review, it is necessary to improve and perfect
some problems in the current research of E-payment.Based on the current development
status of E-payments in China and Sweden, a more systematic study of the user
experience satisfaction of E-payment platforms will fill the research gap and improve
the study in the field. At the same time, some more practical and targeted conclusions
can be drawn through quantitative and qualitative research in order to provide better
5.1 Theoretical Framework
Previously the researches on individual users’ adoption of technology is mainly based on consumer behavior and social psychology. It is usually from the perspective
of the users, using individual attitudes and choices to influence individual willingness
to use and ultimate actual behavior. The premise assumes that individual differences can only affect the individual’s willingness to use and behavior through their intrinsic values and beliefs. At present, there are many models in this field to study the users’
willingness and behavior. The technology acceptance model (TAM) is widely used in
the field of electronic commerce and mobile commerce. Meanwhile, the theory of
perceived risk has been mentioned in many studies. The theory of TAM and perceived
risk theory will be discussed in order to provide a theoretical basis for building a user
experience model for E-payment platform.
5.1.1 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM):
When it comes to the E-payment or traditional online payment, both of them need to
be through the network medium to work. The most widely used research on the
adoption of high-tech products or information systems is the Technology Acceptance
Model (Davis, 1989). In 1986, Fred Davis proposed a behavior acceptance model — technical acceptance model which is widely used to study people’s acceptance or adoption of an information system. The TAM model considers that the user’s intention to use determines whether the user will actually use the information system. The user’s
attitude towards product or system adoption and perceived usefulness of the product determine the individual’s willingness to use of the product and service. The perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are the two key elements of technology acceptance
model. The earliest introduction of the TAM model into the field of e-commerce was
Lin & Judyo (2000), who applied the TAM model to study consumer acceptance and
Paul’s study (2003) found that there is a great deficiency of TAM model when it is applied to predict the extent of consumer acceptance of e-commerce activities. Paul
believes that TAM should combine the characteristics of e-commerce. Because when
e-commerce is compared with traditional commerce, trust and perceived risk are the
most important to users. Therefore, Paul introduced the trust and perceived risk factors
into the TAM model in order to improve the TAM model in the field of e-commerce.
The results of research have shown that the more trust consumers have in e-commerce,
the stronger their intention to choose to use online shopping. At the same time, the less
the consumer perceives the risk of using an e-commerce platform, the stronger the
intention to choose to use it.
Vijayasarathy (2010) added four variables of subjective norms, privacy, security,
and self-efficiency to the TAM model in order to better predict the consumer acceptance
of online shopping.
5.1.2 Perceived Risk
The concept of perceived risk was proposed by Bauer (1960) at Harvard University. In
the research, he found that consumers might not be able to determine whether their
expected results are correct after any purchase. These results may bring some feeling
such as unpleasant thoughts or unsatisfactory evaluation to consumers. Uncertainty in
the results in fact produces a sense of risk, which is the initial manifestation of perceived
risk. The sources of consumer perceived risk are mainly from two aspects: the severity
of the consequences of wrong decisions and the uncertainty of expected results. Coxl
(1967) thought that consumers will have a psychological expectation on products before consumption. If the product does not meet the consumer’s psychological expectations, consumers will perceive the existence of risk. Coxl (1967) believes that
the formation of perceived risk is a process. First of all, rational consumers will consider
the pros and cons of the consumption before actual consumption. That is, the degree of
risk that consumers take before consumption occurs. Then, after the expected risk becomes a reality, consumers’ ability to take losses caused by consumption.
Combined with the previous definition and researches on perceived risk, in this
study, the perceived risk of E-payment platform users is defined as,
Perceived risk of E-payment platform users is the anxiety which users may have
when they are facing to various uncertain factors or possible serious consequences in
the process of using a E-payment platform. Since people tend to avoid risks
subconsciously, users will take actions to reduce risks as much as possible.
5.2 Theoretical Model
Based on the TAM model, this study will start from the perspective of the user
experience. The study will analyze the entire process of E-payment practice that affects
the user experience. According to the time dimension, the study will expand the analysis
from before use, during use and after use. In order to build a theoretical model of user
experience for payment platform, the study will combine the characteristics of the
E-payment platform from the three dimensions: user perceived of mobility and usage
scenarios before use, product function experience in use and comprehensive experience
satisfaction after use. For the part of before-use, the research is mainly carried out from
two aspects: user perceived of mobility and usage scenarios. As far as during-use is
concerned, the factors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived risks should be as the important factors that can be influence of user’s experiences. As for after-use, the experience satisfaction should be considered as an important factor to
reflect whether users are satisfied. A good experience will increase user loyalty to the brand, which in turn will increase the user’s willingness to continue using the product or service.
To sum up, this study will use the TAM model as the basic theoretical framework
and incorporate the user perceived of mobility, perceived risks and experience
satisfaction. In order to build a new model: the user experience of E-payment model
(table 1.4).
In the study, in order to achieve the research purpose, the selected methodology will
be based on the TAM model. At the same time, through the elements of model analysis,
a qualitative questionnaire and a quantitative scale will be designed. The questionnaire
will be discussed with the users and cover the relevant elements. At the same time, it
will also include some basic information of the interviewees, such as age, gender etc.
Researchers will choose the probability sampling method to choose interviewees,
conduct the interviews face to face if possible or online using skype or WeChat and
send the questionnaire to the interviewees through social media (such as Facebook and
WeChat, etc.) and collect back the questionnaires the same way. The respondents are
divided into three categories: the first category has only used Swish; the second
category has only used Alipay and the third category has used both of Alipay and Swish
platforms. Through these three categories, the data obtained will be classified, and
strictly control the number of samples in each category by taking the data of the first
60 people who submitted the survey and strictly control the number of samples in each
category by taking the data of the first 60 people who submitted the survey. Then the
data will be sorted out and corresponding analysis will be conducted. Among them, the
researchers will consider the privacy of users when designing the questions and scales
and explain the purpose and whereabouts of data to all the participants. The limitation of this method lies in the fact that researchers’ social network friends have certain biases (for example, most of them are students), which may lead to some limitations in the results of researchers’ research.
6.1 Theoretical Basis of Philosophy
As for the methodology of this study, first of all, the theoretical basis of philosophy
should be determined according to the factors and purposes to be observed. The
theoretical basis of research philosophy is generally divided into three categories, positivism, interpretivist, and post positivism. “Positivism is a way of thinking --- an epistemology --- that seeks explanations of events in order that their underlying laws
controlled. On the basis of these predictions it becomes possible, by manipulating a
particular set of variables, to control events so that desirable goals are achieved and undesirable consequences eliminated” (Carr and Kemmis 1986). Positivism is generally used for quantitative analysis, mainly for data collection and data analysis after putting
forward assumptions. In this process, researchers need to consider using primary data
(questionnaire, etc.) or secondary data (company annual report data, etc.), while
interpretivist uses qualitative analysis to do research, and obtains a reliable conclusion
through interviews and other situations. The third is post positivism. Unlike positivism,
post positivism does not make assumptions.
In this study, there are seven hypotheses have been put forward and the researchers
will design the questionnaire based on these seven hypotheses and make inferences
after collecting the data.
Positivism has been decided to be adopted in this paper. Why has positivism been
selected instead of the other two? First, positivism can make specific guesses. In this
study, the necessary elements are identified according to the user experience model
for e-payment platform based on TAM model. In order to verify the real impact of
these factors on user experience, seven hypotheses are proposed. Based on the data
collected from the questionnaire, conclusions are drawn after analysis the data. In the
process of sampling, researchers are directly in contact with all user groups, and
randomly select samples to do the interviews and questionnaires. It is possible for
get the most real feelings of users and the first-hand data. It makes a foundation for a
large number of analysis in the second phase and increases the reliability of the
research. Second, a questionnaire based on speculation can break the time limit. The
questionnaire can bring up questions to the experienced users without setting time
requirement.
The users can consider and give feedback at any time. They can not only
understand their views on the facts and behaviors of the two products, but also
from some concepts of subjectivity, the data collected will be more objective and the
trust is supposed to be higher. However, the data may have a certain impact on the
empirical part due to the limitations of the study. For example, most of the users
interviewed may be Swedish or Chinese, while the users of other nationalities will be
relatively few. So, it may unable to collect comprehensive data, which may lead to
certain bias.
6.2 Research Approach
There are two research approaches in this study: qualitative research and
quantitative research. Saul and Mcleod have brought out the definition of quantitative research, “Quantitative research gathers data in a numerical form which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement. This type of data can be used to construct graphs and tables of raw data.” (Saul McLeod, 2019). Denzin and Lincoln have put forward the definition of qualitative research, “Qualitative research is multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject
matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings,
attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.” (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). Qualitative research focuses on the characteristics and nature of specific social phenomena and a subjective interpretation
of specific phenomena. Therefore, qualitative research is a process of inductive
reasoning. Through the description of the supervisor of a specific phenomenon, a
general conclusion can be drawn from a specific situation. Therefore, qualitative
research pays more attention to the flexibility and particularity of research methods.
The main research methods commonly used are participation observation and in-depth
interview; the data collected and sorted out are expressed in the form of words.
Quantitative research is to explore the regularity of phenomena under the guidance of
positivist methodology. Quantitative research is the process of deductive reasoning,
from the study of general phenomena to special situations. In addition, quantitative
form. Therefore, quantitative analysis is more likely to use questionnaires to collect
data.
In this study, qualitative and quantitative methods are both used. First, through the
self-built model that based on the TAM model, it is can be find some factors that may
affect the user experience. These factors can be applied to design the questions in the
questionnaire. Among these questions, some will be designed in the form of scale and
answered by users in the way of grading level and others will be explained by users in
the way of text answer. Most of the data predicted by the researchers and some of the
text answers will be included.
The purpose of using this method is to better understand the needs of users. First
of all, the combination of the two methods will make our research more professional
and complete. Researchers can not only get social data through observation and
discussion, but also get quantitative data through professional mathematical model.
From observing and contacting users, researchers can put forward questions that need to be answered in words to understand users’ feelings about the two platforms. The questions that need to be graded will help the whole study collect quantitative data to
support the conclusions. Combined with the obtained text data and the analyzed digital
data, the final conclusion is drawn.
This advantage lies in, firstly, the complementation between qualitative and
quantitative research. Because the number of samples in qualitative research is
relatively small, often only a dozen people (copies), which will bring about the
universality problem. In other words, it is doubted to what extent its conclusions can
explain the problem, how large groups it can represent, and whether they are universal
or limited to individual cases. In this study, if a sole qualitative study is adopted, only a dozen data will not be enough to support most users’ experience when the user groups of the two products are huge. The conclusion will not be convincing enough. If
researchers only do quantitative research and only have data support, it will lead to a
experience. Second, qualitative research provides theoretical basis for quantitative
research. When designing a questionnaire, it is impossible to design a questionnaire
suitable for two products by quantitative method alone. Although both Alipay and
Swish are E-payment platform, Alipay is more likely an international product, while
Swish stays more as a localized product. The positioning of the Alipay and Swish
platforms is different and the market development is different. In order to design more
suitable questions for each user, qualitative research plays an important role in the early
questionnaire design. Therefore, the choice of qualitative and quantitative research path
is the most suitable method for this topic.
6.3 Measurement Dimensions of Study Variables
When designing the questionnaire, the relevant questions are raised for each part
of the user experience of E-payment platform model.
6.3.1 Perceived Mobility
The study defines perceived of mobility as the ability of users to use E-payment
platforms regardless of time and place. For perceived of mobility, two questions should
be included in the questionnaire.
Q1: When I am outside, I can use mobile phone or other types of electronic mobile
devices to complete payment through E-payment platforms anytime and anywhere.
Q2: I think mobility is a typical advantage of E-payment platforms.
6.3.2 Perceived Usefulness
Perceived usefulness can be considered as a key part of the user experience, but it
is not the only factor that determines the user experience. By the opinion of Tractinsky
& Hassenzahl (2006), if the product or service has high level of usability, which means
perceived high level of pleasure and satisfaction. Based on the perceived usefulness,
three questions will be mentioned in the questionnaire.
Q3: E-payment platforms is helpful to my life.
Q4: Using an E-payment platform enables me to complete various transactions or
purchases faster.
Q5: Using an E-payment platform can reduce the inconvenience of having to carry cash
or credit card to complete the payment.
6.3.3 Perceived Ease of Use
If the user feels the convenience of the operation when using a product or service
such as learning to use in a short period of time, it will greatly promote the user’s
willingness to continue the use of this product or service. This study defines the ease of
use as the degree to which users perceived easy to use and operate when using an
E-payment platform. The easier it is to use service of the E-E-payment platform provide, the
more users will tend to use and rely on it. Then, it is easier to cultivate user habits.
There are two questions should be taken account into the questionnaire.
Q6: The operations related to the E-payment platform are really simple.
Q7: For me, it is easy to learn the process of using a E-payment platform.
6.3.4 Perceived Risks
The study of users’ perception of risks needs to combine with the platform’s characteristics. Considering the same and different characteristics of the services
provided by Alipay and Swish. Four questions will be asked in the questionnaire.
Q8: The use of E-payment platforms may cause financial losses. For example: the
system may deduct excess amounts or charge service fees in transactions.
Q9: Compared with traditional payment methods (cash or credit card), using
Q10: Compared with traditional payment methods (cash or credit card), using
E-payment platforms takes me a long time.
Q11: When using an E-payment platform, there will have some security issues. For
example, when presenting a QR code for payment, the funds may be stolen by others
due to the exposure of the QR code.
6.3.5 Experience Satisfaction
Fomell (1992) defined customer satisfaction as the customer’s overall evaluation of a product or service after they use it. Customers have a psychological expectation before purchasing a product or service. The customer’s satisfaction with the product is obtained after comparing with previous psychological expectations. Whether the
customer is satisfied with the product or service after use is always obtained after
comparing with previous psychological expectations. From the perspective of
experience satisfaction, there are two questions will be raised in the questionnaire.
Q12: After using E-payment, I am satisfied.
Q13: After using E-payment, I feel pleased.
6.3.6 User’s Willingness to Continue to Use
The continuous usage intention is defined as one’s intention to continually use a system or reuse a system (Bhattacherjee, 2001). According to the definition of the
continuous usage intention and combine the characteristics of E-payment platforms. The study defined the user ’s willingness to continue to use as the subjective willingness of E-payment platform users to use E-payment for the second or continuous use in the
future after using E-payment (for the first time or more times). Therefore, the study will choose three questions for the aspect of user’s willingness to continue to use into the questionnaire.
Q14: If I feel satisfied and pleased after I use an E-payment platform, I would like
Q15: If I feel satisfied and pleased after I use an E-payment platform, I would like
to recommend the E-payment platform to my friends.
Q16: If I feel satisfied and pleased after I use an E-payment platform, I would like
to continue to use the E-payment platform.
6.4 Hypothesis for Study
Kim (2010) believes that compared with the traditional e-commerce, the greatest
feature of the mobile technology is mobility. Mobility refers to the ability to receive
services anywhere and to complete transaction tasks by connecting wireless
communication networks with mobile devices. Mobile technology gives users more
freedom in terms of time and space. The E-payment platform also has the characteristic
of mobility. E-payments allow users to complete payments, regardless of time or place.
Mobility greatly improves the useful experience of the E-payment platform. The
convenient and fast payment experience bring by mobility will promote users to accept
and continue to use E-payment platforms. Perceived mobility can directly affect the user’s perceived usefulness.
According to the TAM model, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use can directly affect users’ attitudes to use. Perceived ease of use refers to the degree to which a new product is considered difficult by potential users (Moore and Benbasat, 1991).
This article studies the two dimensions of user experience influencing factors from the
perspective of product functionality: usefulness experience and ease of use experience. This research is mainly from the perspective of users’ awareness of the functions of E-payment platforms. The more users perceive the product or service as useful, the
stronger their willingness to choose to continue using it. Meanwhile, when a customer
using an E-payment platform in the initial stage, the simpler of the payment process, the better the user’s experience with the product. Venkateshet (2003) believes that the more users perceive a product or service can improve the quality of life and work efficiency, the stronger the user’s willingness to adopt the product. E-payment platforms improve users’ payment efficiency, the more users will find the product
useful and happy to use it. Venkateshet (2003) believes that the more helpful of the
product or service perceived by users to improve the quality of life and work efficiency,
the stronger of the user's willingness to adopt the product. Similarly, when the users are
facing a new product or application, the simpler and faster of use, the more inclined
users are to use it. Conversely, if a user perceives that E-payment operations are
complicatedly to uses or the operation process is not clear enough. Then users tend to
abandon the product or service.
The main determinants of perceived risk are identified as perceived information
asymmetry, perceived technical uncertainty, perceived regulatory uncertainty and
perceived service intangibility (Yongqing Yang; Yong Liu; Hongxiu Li; Benhai Yu,
2015). As mentioned before, this study defined the perceived risk of E-payment
platform users as: in the process of using an E-payment platform, users may have
anxiety when they are facing to various uncertain factors or possible serious
consequences. Since people tend to avoid risks subconsciously, users will take actions
to reduce risks as much as possible. When Yongqing Yang; Yong Liu; Hongxiu Li;
Benhai Yu (2015) researched consumer E-payment adoption behavior based on
cross-channel, they found that perceived risk has a significant negative impact on E-payment
adoption behavior. Because people have a subconscious tendency to avoid risks. When
the user feeling more uncertain about the possible consequences of using E-payment,
the lower his willingness to actively use the payment. When consumers use
E-payment platforms, they may worry about some situations such as: the funds in bank
card funds may reduce by some reasons and personal privacy information may be leaked. It may also affect the user’s final decisions on whether to use the E-payment platform.
A large number of research results show that consumer satisfaction with products
or services can predict the consumer behavior. In the field of technology acceptance
model research, Bhattacherjee (2001) regards experience satisfaction as an important
variable for continued use willingness. Cronin (1992) research found that customer
repeat purchases or continue to use this product or service. Satisfaction is particularly
important for service industries such as banking and catering. When users are not
satisfied with the product or service, they will switch to other brands. Studies by
Parasuraman (2005) and Lee & Lin (2005) also confirm that satisfaction has a significant positive impact on users’ behavioral intentions.
To sum up, the study proposes the following hypothesis:
H1: Perceived mobility has a significant positive impact on the customer's
perceived usefulness of E-payment platforms.
H2: The usefulness has a significant positive impact on user satisfaction of
E-payment platforms.
H3: The ease of use has a significant positive impact on user satisfaction of
E-payment platforms.
H4: Perceived risk will have a negative impact on user experience satisfaction of
E-payment platforms.
H5: Experience satisfaction will have a positive effect on user's willingness to
continue to use the E-payment platform.
H6: Alipay is superior to Swish in terms of perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness.
H7: Alipay and Swish users have the same concerns about the perceived risk.
7. Data Analysis
In the data analysis part of this study, the quantitative analysis is mainly conducted
by the application of SPSS. After all the data have been collected, they are integrated
in an Excel table, and then poured into SPSS for the further analysis. The analysis
method used is frequency analysis. Firstly, descriptive statistics are used to summarize participants’ responses to the questionnaire, and factor analysis is used to identify
potential factors to explain the main sources of variation in the questionnaire responses.
At the same time, SPSS can help researchers perform multivariate data analysis to
detect whether the background variables (work, education background, etc.) of
participants will affect their user experience of the two products. It can also verify the
authenticity of these answers.
7.1 Basic Data Collection
From the data collected, researchers sorted them into categories. In the
questionnaires we have done, we collected a total of 180 copies of data. Everyone has
read the instructions for the survey. If they feel uncomfortable during the survey, they
can withdraw from the research. In the designed questionnaires, the first question asks
about gender. In the result, there are 86 respondents were male, accounting for 47.8%
of the total number. While 94 of the participants are females, accounting for 52.2% of
the total number (chart 17).
The second question which is about age, respondents aged from 18 to 24-year-old
respondents accounted for 22.8%, and 25-35-year-old respondents stands at 97,
accounting for about 53.9%, and they are the main research object. And there are 39
people aged 36-59, accounting for about 14.9% (chart 18).
In the third question, people who have only used Alipay have reached the number
of 60, accounting for 33.3% of the total. People who have only used Swish submitted a
total of 60 questionnaires, which accounted for 33.3%. People who have used both
payment platforms reaches 60, which accounts for 33.3% of the total number of people
surveyed.
In the fourth question, only 0.8% of people think that they are very dissatisfied of
the E-payment platform. The level of 3 and 4 (generally satisfied and satisfied) is 5%
and 26.7% respectively. The most popular response is very satisfied, accounting for
In the fifth question, there is only 8% of people think that mobility is not the most
typical advantage of E-payment, while there is no respondent think that mobility has no
huge advantage. There are 5% of people think that the degree is 3 and 30.8% of people
think that mobility does have a certain advantage (degree 4). The largest proportion of
63.3% of people unanimously believe that mobility is indeed the most typical advantage
of payment platforms.
In the sixth question, there is no respondent thinks that the electronic payment
platform has not or not much improved his life. There are 10% of people think that
some parts of their life have been improved (degree 3) and 23.3% of respondents think
that the degree is 4. The most people still think that the electronic payment platform has
indeed improved their lives, occupying 66.7%.
Among the 180 respondents, a very small number of people believe that electronic
payment platforms can quickly complete transactions and transactions (level 1 accounts
for 0% and level 2 accounts for 1.7%), while some people do not feel much (level 3
accounts for 3.3%). There are 95% respondents think that E-payment enables them to
complete various transactions or purchases faster (level 4 accounts for 23.3% and level
5 accounts for 71.7%).
This situation also appears in the next question. Only a few people think that mobile
platform payment cannot reduce the inconvenience of cash or credit card payment
(level 1 is 0% and level 2 is 0.8%). There are 8.3% of people do not feel much about it.
The vast majority of people still think that E-payment can indeed reduce the
inconvenience of cash or credit card payment.
In the next question, it is can be seen that most people think the operation of the
electronic payment platform is very simple (people with a degree of 4 or 5 account for
a total of 90%), and only a few people think that the operation is not simple (level 1and
level 2 accounting for 3.4% of the total). At the same time, most people think that
learning the process of an E-payment platform is very simple. On the contrary, only a
Compared with traditional payment methods, 74.2% of respondents think that
using electronic payment platforms will not or relatively not make users feel anxious,
but 9.1% of people think they will feel very nervous and anxious. There are 16.7% of people don’t feel much about it.
A similar situation occurs in the last two questions. A certain percentage of people
who use the electronic payment platform is believed to cause economic losses.
Although most people still do not think that this situation will occur, the data ratio
shows the reality. From the previous question, we can see that people have different
ideas on this issue. Many people think that there will be some security problems when
using the electronic payment platform, such as the leakage of information by QR code
payment. Although the proportion is not large (degrees 4 and 5 together account for
10%), it can still explain that many people still cannot fully rest assured of the electronic
payment platform.
Even so, in the next question, it can be seen that 57.5% of the people are still very
satisfied with the use of electronic payment and gave a very satisfactory answer, while
the remaining people chose level 4 or level 3 (accounting for 32.5% and 10%,
respectively). Interestingly, in this question, no one chose level 2 or 1. That is to say,
although people are not very satisfied with online payment, there is not a single person
who are completely dissatisfied with online payments.
However, in the next question, the situation is slightly different concerning whether
people are pleased after using online payment. Although up to 64 people (accounting
for 53.3%) choose the degree of 5, which is very satisfied, and 35 people choose the
degree 4 (accounting for 29.2%). But the number of people with a degree 3 has
increased a lot. There are 19 participants who choose degree 3 (accounting for 15.8%),
and two participants selected level 2 (accounting for 1.7%).
When they are satisfied and pleased, 68.3% of the participants will be very willing
to use this payment platform as a common used payment method in life and the
There are only 8.3% respondents chose level 3. In this problem, no one chooses degree
2 or 1, it can be seen that when online payment brings satisfaction and pleasure, people
will very quickly accept this payment method as a common used payment method in
life.
In the next question, the respondents are asked if they feel satisfaction and pleasure
after using an e-payment platform, would they willing to recommend it to their friends?
There are 65% of respondents choose to very willing recommend this platform to their
friends and there are 21.7% chose level 4 (willing to recommend this payment platform
to others). In contrast, there are 10% of participants chose level 3, there are 2.5% people
chose level 2, and one chose level 1. There are some respondents still have some
hesitations about recommending the E-payment platform to their friends for personal
use.
In the last question, up to 68.3% of people are very willing to continue to use the
platform after feeling pleased and satisfied after using the platform, while 25% of
people are willing to continue to use the platform . There are 5.8% of people are not
very concerned and 0.8% of respondents are not willing to continue to use the platform,
it can be seen that the user experience has a great impact on user viscosity.
7.2 SPSS
Reliability, also known as the degree of reliability, is used to analyze the stability
level and consistency level of the results obtained by the measurement method and use
this as an index to evaluate the reliability of the measurement method scale. Its
evaluation methods mainly include internal consistency reliability, retest reliability and
copy reliability.
This paper adopts internal consistency to test the reliability of the questionnaire.
There are many measurement methods of internal consistency, and Cronbach’s coefficient is the most commonly used method for estimation. Cronbach’s coefficient is between 0 and 1. The closer to 1, the higher the reliability level. When Cronbach’s
coefficient is greater than 0.7, the reliability of the data is relatively high. If the
coefficient is greater than 0.6, the data is acceptable. If the coefficient is lower than
0.35, the reliability is low, and 0.5 is the lowest acceptable reliability level.
Firstly, the overall reliability of the questionnaire was measured. The total Cronbach’s coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.757, which was very reliable.
Secondly, the reliability of each dimension variable was measured respectively, and the results are shown in the following table. The Cronbach’s values of each variable are above 0.7, indicating that the reliability of the survey data of each dimension in this
study is very high.
7.2.1 Validity Analysis
Validity refers to the degree to which the measuring tool can effectively measure
the characteristics to be measured. It refers to the degree to which the questionnaire
can accurately measure the variables to be measured. By measuring the validity, the
accuracy of the measured results can be effectively estimated. The evaluation of
validity is mainly reflected in the KMO value, which is between 0 and 1. When the
value of KMO is greater than 0.9, the structure validity is very good. A value between
0.7 and 0.9 indicates good validity. A value of 0.6-0.7 is general and a value less than
0.6 is unacceptable.
The following is the KMO test of the data. According to the results, the KMO value
is 0.799, indicating that the structural validity of the questionnaire is good.
7.2.2 Correlation Analysis
Correlation analysis refers to the analysis of two or more variables with correlation,
correlation coefficient is mainly used for correlation analysis. If the P value of
significance is greater than 0.05, there is no correlation; if the P value is less than 0.05,
there is a correlation.
According to the correlation analysis in the following table, there is a significant
correlation between perceived mobility and perceived usefulness (P<0.05), and the
corresponding regression coefficient is 0.757. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of
use and perceived risk are significantly correlated with experience satisfaction (P<0.05),
and the corresponding correlation coefficients are 0.430, 0.442 and -0.382. There is a
significant correlation between experience satisfaction and continuous use intention
(P<0.05) and the corresponding correlation coefficient is 0.555.
7.2.3 Regression Analysis
The effect of perceived mobility on perceived usefulness. On the basis of significant
correlation analysis, the relationship between various variables is further studied.
Firstly, researchers conducted regression analysis with perceived usefulness as the
dependent variable and perceived mobility as the independent variable.
From the model population parameter table, it is can be known that the regression
equation can explain 56.9% of the total variation, and the corresponding Anova F value
is 158.168, reaching a very significant level (P<0.05). According to the regression
coefficient and significance test table, perceived mobility has a significant positive
effect on perceived usefulness (P<0.05) and the corresponding regression coefficient is
0.847.
7.2.4 The Influence of Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Risk on Experience Satisfaction
Researchers conducted regression analysis with experience satisfaction as the
the independent variables.
From the model population parameter table, it is can be known that the regression
equation can explain 29.1% of the total variation, and the corresponding Anova F value
is 17.289, reaching a very significant level (P<0.05). Through the regression coefficient
and significance test table, it is can be known that perceived usefulness, perceived ease
of use, perceived risk has a significant influence on experience satisfaction (P < 0.05).
The corresponding regression coefficients are 0.280, 0.217, 0.245. The perceived
usefulness, perceived ease of use has positive influence to experience satisfaction. The
perceived risk has a negative effect on experience satisfaction.
7.2.5 The effect of experience satisfaction on continuous use intention
Researchers conducted a regression analysis with continuous use intention as the
dependent variable and experience satisfaction as the independent variable
According to the model population parameter table, it is can be known that the
regression equation can explain 30.2% of the total variation, and the corresponding
Anova F value is 52.404, reaching a very significant level (P<0.05). As can be seen
from the regression coefficient and the significance test table, experience satisfaction
has a significant positive effect on the intention of continuous use (P<0.05), and the
corresponding regression coefficient is 0.508.
According to the above regression analysis of the influence relationship among
various variables, it is comprehensively obtained the hypothesis conclusion as shown
in the following table:
Numbering Hypothesis Conclusion H1 Perceived mobility has a positive effect on perceived usefulness. Confirmed H2 Perceived usefulness has a positive effect on experience satisfaction. Confirmed H3 Perceived ease of use has a positive effect on experience satisfaction. Confirmed H4 Perceived risk has a negative impact on experience satisfaction. Confirmed
H5 Experience satisfaction has a positive effect on continued use willingness. Confirmed
7.3 Qualitative Analysis
In this part, the research selects all participants who have used both Alipay and
Swish to complete some more questions. The purpose is to achieve the comparative
study and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the user experience of the two
E-payment platforms.
The first question is: When you are facing payment platforms of Alipay and Swish,
which one is your first choice? There are 80.3% of the interviewees chose Alipay and
19.7% people for Swish. The big data gap demonstrates the obvious advantage of
Alipay in user preference. The research has further inquired about this issue.
The second question is: Why do participants prefer this payment platform? This is
a multiply choice question. The result shows that 68.6% of the interviewees choose the
platform because it is more popular. There are 30.7% of respondents showing that the
platform has lower risks and 62% of the interviewees choose the platform because it is
simpler and easier to use. Finally, there are 62.8% of respondents prefers certain
platform due to its more usefulness for their life.
From here, it can be seen that people’s first choice for platform is based on its popularity, followed by the applicability of the electronic payment platform and the
degree of its importance for their life. The last point of why people choose one of the
E-payments is that the risk of the platform is comparatively lower.
In the next question, the researchers ask the participants who have used both two
payment platforms to briefly write down some words on the advantages and
disadvantages of the two platforms.
In the relevant description of Alipay, the frequent written advantage is the affirmation of Alipay’s applicability and accessibility. In the eighty-one answers which have been submitted and collected, there are twenty-nine people mentioned that
