The quality of e-payment services offered by mobile companies: the Syrian evidence

Suliman, Batoul Alsayed; Mouselli, Sulaiman Article The quality of e-payment services offered by mobile companies: the Syrian evidence Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: Suliman, Batoul Alsayed; Mouselli, Sulaiman (2024) : The quality of e-payment services offered by mobile companies: the Syrian evidence, Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 1-13, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2365998 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/326344 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cogent Business & Management ISSN: 2331-1975 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/oabm20 The quality of e-payment services offered by mobile companies: the Syrian evidence Batoul Alsayed Suliman & Sulaiman Mouselli To cite this article: Batoul Alsayed Suliman & Sulaiman Mouselli (2024) The quality of epayment services offered by mobile companies: the Syrian evidence, Cogent Business & Management, 11:1, 2365998, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2024.2365998 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2365998 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 22 Jun 2024. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1328 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=oabm20 ManageMent | ReseaRch aRticle Cogent Business & ManageMent 2024, VoL. 11, no. 1, 2365998 The quality of e-payment services offered by mobile companies: the Syrian evidence Batoul alsayed sulimana and sulaiman Mousellib aQuality Management, syrian Virtual university, Damascus, syria; bFinance, investment and Banking, arab international university, ghabagheb, syria ABSTRACT the recent introductory of e-payment services in syria and the overwhelming interest of such new services call for thorough investigation of their quality and venues for improvement to unleash their full potential. this study investigates the quality of e-payment services offered by mobile network operators in syria by adopting the e-seRVQUal metric based on four dimensions: ease of use, reliability, security and privacy, and responsiveness. this study presents the responses of 133 users of these services in syria from October to December 2023. the results indicate that e-payment services were of high quality in terms of reliability, security and privacy, and responsiveness dimensions. however, they are of lower quality in terms of ease of use. it is recommended that mobile companies increase the flexibility of e-payment services by widening the top-up options and offering more payment categories as well as relaxing the ceiling set for any single e-payment transaction. these companies were also encouraged to increase the number of kiosk machines to credit customer balances and improve the distribution of these machines into more selective locations. Furthermore, mobile companies may increase their share in the e-payment market by offering rewards and cash discounts for transactions conducted through their e-payment platforms. 1. Introduction syria is a low-income country with an average per capita income of 537.2 Us dollars in 2020 (World Bank, 2023). agriculture is the leading sector, with agricultural land constituting 75.8 percent of the land area and contributing approximately 36.6 percent to the syrian gDP in 2020 (World Bank, 2023). the syrian economy is mostly cash-based, with a society that prefers to deal with cash and has little experience with banks, cards, and atMs. syria had a large, underbanked population with a population-per-branch ratio of 41,600 in 2010 (Badra, 2015), which has even deteriorated due to war conditions to reach 51,355 in 2020 (central Bank of syria, 2024). according to the latest published figures on financial inclusion, the percentage of the population over 15 years with financial institution accounts was 23.25 in 2011, based on the global Findex Database of the World Bank (2021). the destructive war in syria has devastating consequences on economic and social conditions. that is, there was a significant decline in economic activities, with the per capita gDP deteriorating from 2014 to 2020 by approximately 67% (central Bureau of statistics, 2022). Moreover, according to the syrian Bureau of statistics, inflation rates exceeded two digits in 2020 and 2021 at 120.86% and 118.84%, respectively. Furthermore, the percentage of syrians who live below the poverty line reached 90 percent (based on icRc, anadolu ajansı, 2023). thus, little income is left for savings or investment, with the majority spent on essential products and services. Mobile money systems perform very well in countries with weak bank networks and provide many advantages especially for people living in rural areas. First, it opens venues for advancing financial inclusion, particularly gender inclusivity (akter etal., 2021; Bold etal., 2012; evans, 2018; ghosh, 2016; ishioro, © 2024 the author(s). Published by informa uK Limited, trading as taylor & Francis group CONTACT sulaiman Mouselli [email protected] arab international university, ghabagheb, syria. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2365998 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 29 January 2024 Revised 9 May 2024 accepted 28 May 2024 KEYWORDS e-payment services; mobile companies; service quality; e-servqual; syria REVIEWING EDITOR Jose-luis Rodriguez-sanchez, Rey Juan carlos University, spain SUBJECTS Business, Management and accounting; technology; information & communication technology (ict) 2 B. alsaYeD sUliMan anD s. MOUselli 2023; sinha et al., 2024). second, it saves time and offers a safer alternative to carrying cash, especially in conflict areas (aron, 2017). third, it provides an appealing alternative to bank accounts, especially for unbanked individuals at lower costs (Donovan, 2012; lutfi etal., 2021). Forth, e-payment systems discourage bribery and corruption, tax evasion, and under invoicing and safe in the huge costs of printing new notes in hyper-inflation countries (Yaokumah etal., 2017). alnafrah and Mouselli (2020) stated that developing financial services in syria is a decisive factor in building a knowledge-based economy and society in post-war syria. however, many prerequisites exist for mobile money systems to constitute a real alternative to bank services. First, supportive regulations are available that encourage the adoption of e-payment services and sometimes force the shift toward a cashless society. second, technology literacy is essential, especially among older people, to enable them to use mobile money solutions. however, inflation that caused a high increase in smartphone prices is a significant barrier to the use of e-payment services offered by mobile companies. third, the availability of electricity and stable internet connectivity is necessary for good service quality. insufficient mobile network coverage, especially in rural areas, is a real impediment. however, all mobile money platforms provide services through Unstructured supplementary service Data (UssD), which does not require the internet. there are three business models for mobile money providers: mobile-operator-led, bank-led, and collaborative (Donovan, 2012). e-payment services offered by mobile companies are not a niche method of payment, especially with the appearance of many new Fintech solutions such as M-wallet (Kumar et al., 2019). however, e-payment services through mobile companies are pivotal in developing countries with large unbanked or underbanked populations (hamdi, 2011). thus, this study aims to evaluate the quality of e-payment services offered by mobile companies in syria. the importance of this study is fourfold. First, the fierce competition between banks on the one hand and between banks and mobile companies on the other hand makes investigating the quality of e-payment services provided by mobile companies very crucial. second, the good share of mobile network companies in the e-payment markets deserves careful examination of the strengths and weaknesses of e-payment services provided by mobile network operators. third, enhancing the quality of e-payment services will contribute to higher levels of well-being and financial inclusion in syria. Finally, this study investigated the quality of e-payment services in the special conditions of the war-torn country of syria. improving the quality of such services will enhance the syrian economy’s performance and speed up the post-war recovery. this study was divided into five sections. in section two, the digital payment ecosystem in syria was described. section three reviewed the theoretical background and developed research hypotheses. then, section four presented the research methodology. next, the main empirical findings were revealed in section five, and section six concluded with practical implications and recommendations. 2. Digital payment services in Syria syria has two mobile network operators, syriatel and Mtn, with a third mobile operator licensed in early 2022 and yet to operate. those two mobile companies offered their e-payment services of syriatel cash and Mtn pay, respectively, in May 2021. customers purchase credit from on-site shops and public mobile phone top-up kiosk machines and use this credit to pay bills, purchase products and services, and top-up their mobile phone credit. although only 7.39 percent of the syrian population had fixed broadband subscriptions (World Bank, 2023), 80 percent had mobile phone subscriptions. this represented an opportunity for mobile companies to integrate mobile users into their digital payment system, especially those who live in rural areas. Moreover, the digital payment industry flourished with six companies offering e-payment solutions ranging from operating Points-of-sales (POs) to offering e-payment platforms. the digital payment ecosystem in syria has undergone a paradigm shift with the introduction of mobile apps by syrian private and public banks. this move was encouraged by the central Bank of syria (cBs), which took refuge in these apps to reduce the demand for banknotes, particularly with two-digit inflation that required additional circulating cash. syrian banks were also keen to offer e-payment services as part of their plans to redesign their services to overcome the adverse consequences of sanctions cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 3 (laham et al., 2023). however, unlike other countries, cBs did not impose a national exclusive platform for e-payment in syria, as it also allowed mobile companies to offer e-payment services. nevertheless, unlike other developing countries, due to war conditions and foreign exchange controls, the syrian market remains closed to giant global hi-tech companies, such as google’s pay app. the syrian electronic Payment company (seP) was established in March 2012 to prepare the necessary infrastructure for e-payment services and coordinate between public service providers, banks, mobile companies, and customers. however, seP remained dysfunctional and hindered by long delays until the covid-19 pandemic hit the world. a major advantage of this pandemic for many developing countries, particularly syria, is that it accelerates digitalization in many domains, such as health, education (Mouselli et al., 2021), and business (akkad & Mouselli, 2023). alnafrah et al. (2021) predict that one of the main beneficiaries of such acceleration, which supports all other domains, is the activation of the syrian digital payment system. the actual start of seP in 2020 represents the cornerstone of the e-payment ecosystem in syria. according to seP, the share of syriatel cash and Mtn Pay from total e-payments made to public entities was 5.05 percent and 1.79 percent, respectively, in 2021. however, their share increased to 22.38 percent and 9.81 percent in 2022, representing almost one-third of all e-payments gone to public entities (syrian electronic Payment company (seP),), 2022). these figures increased to 34.06 percent and 11.09 percent, respectively, for the first 8 months of 2023 (syrian electronic Payment company (seP),), 2023), meaning that almost half of all e-payments conducted in syria were done via mobile companies. enab Baladi (2024) has recently surveyed residents of the neighborhoods of lattakia regarding the obstacles that encounter them while using mobile e-payment services. they highlighted that network overload, poor internet coverage as well as costly smart phones were major challenges that hinder them while paying bills using e-payment services. the Un e-government knowledgebase survey conducted in 2022 indicated that syria was ranked 156th globally out of a total of 193 countries according to e-government development index while it was ranked 133th in 2010 (United nations, 2022), which suggested a decline in the electronic services over the war period. to combat this, recent regulations issued by the syrian government attempted to encourage e-government policies through supporting e-payment and cashless transactions. Paying the bills of many public entity services, such as water and telecommunications, is now offered electronically with very limited cash options. For example, passport issuance fees have to be paid only electronically. in addition, the government indicated that tuition fees for higher education students at public and private universities should be paid “exclusively” through bank accounts before bank transfers or direct cash deposit into the university or educational institution’s account were permitted (Fansa, 2023). according to the syrian Ministry of communication and technology (2023), the total value of e-payment transactions from customer to business reached sP3.569 trillion by the end of the third quarter of 2023. 3.Theoretical background and hypothesis development electronic payment (e-payment) is a service that can be defined as “the transfer of an electronic value of payment from a payer to a payee through an e-payment mechanism” (Kim et al., 2010). scientific studies on using e-payment services can be divided into two main streams: one concerned with the intention to use the new e-service and the second related to the quality of the e-payment services itself. Many theories explain the intention to use new technologies such as e-payment services. the pioneering theory of Planned Behavior (tPB) proposed by ajzen (1991) was followed by the technology acceptance Model (taM) proposed by Davis et al. (1989). this model was later complemented by the Unified theory of acceptance and Use of technology (UtaUt) of Venkatesh etal. (2003). Venkatesh etal. (2012) developed UtaUt into UtaUt2 by adding factors that explained technology use and acceptance, such as price value, habit, and hedonic motivation. Rogers (2003) proposed innovation Diffusion theory (iDt), which integrated cultural and societal factors into technology diffusion. Parasuraman et al. (1985) advocated that customer expectations gap could be used to measure service quality. Parasuraman et al. (1988) suggested seRVQUal as a metric for service quality that covered five dimensions for which the expectations gap should be measured: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibility. Modifications to seRVQUal to accommodate cultural 4 B. alsaYeD sUliMan anD s. MOUselli aspects for the insurance sector were also introduced and renamed seRVQUal as giQUal (tsoukatos & Rand, 2006, 2007) while hesQUal for the higher education sector (teeroovengadum et al., 2016) and healthQUal was used for the measuring the quality of health services in syria (allahham et al., 2022). When various internet and mobile-based services became popular, this metric was subject to many modifications. Models like e-sQ and e-seRVQUal were proposed to measure the quality of e-services (e.g., gefen, 2002; ho & lee, 2007; loiacono et al., 2002; Parasuraman et al., 2005, Wu et al., 2015; Zeithaml et al., 2000). For the quality of services provided through websites, the WebQual metric was also proposed (Barnes & Vidgen, 2002; loiacono etal., 2002). Moreover, siteQUal was advanced to measure the quality of internet shopping sites (Yoo & Donthu, 2001), etailQ (Wolfinbarger & gilly, 2003) was suggested to measure online retail service quality, and etransQual to measure the quality of e-transactions (Bauer et al., 2006). as a result, an e-seRVQUal metric was proposed to measure the quality of e-payment services, which consists of the following four dimensions. 3.1. Ease of use Ease of use: it was defined as the level of effort required while using any technology service, such as mobile commerce or mobile payment services (liébana-cabanillas et al., 2020). Mobile payment services use advanced technology, and users perceive them as complex and challenging to operate, which develops stress and anxiety while doing transactions (sharma et al., 2018). Perceived ease of use was a significant determinant of the actual use of digital payments (Masoud & abutaqa, 2017; nguyen & nguyen, 2022; teoh etal., 2013). however, others found it an insignificant influencer of the actual use of e-payments (ananda et al., 2020; Okonkwo et al., 2023; sharma et al., 2017). hence, it was hypothesized that the level of easiness of using e-payment services offered by mobile companies is as follows: h1. Respondents perceive e-payment services offered by syrian mobile companies as easy to use. 3.2. Reliability Various research on electronic service quality revealed that reliability is one of the most critical dimensions (gupta & Bansal, 2012; han & Beak, 2004; Jun & cai, 2001; Khan et al., 2009; salarzehi et al., 2012; santouridis et al., 2009). service reliability is vital for any new service deployment, mainly if conducted online. During the users’ interaction with the e-payment system, the user issues multiple tasks (or requests) at different time points. the user-perceived service reliability was the probability that all tasks in the user’s session were completed (Wang & trivedi, 2009). neuman and Medvinsky (1998) opined that the reliability of the e-payment operation system means the continuous availability of the service without breaking down at any time. Kundu and Datta (2014) found that timely rectification of errors with the least intervention from customers was the primary influencer of reliability of e-payment service in the view of indian online shoppers. this study investigated the following hypothesis on the reliability of e-payment services offered by syrian mobile operators: h2. Respondents perceive e-payment services offered by syrian mobile companies as reliable 3.3. Security and privacy Security and privacy: electronic transactions are often perceived as riskier than face-to-face transactions due to the complicated hacking activities. hence, security is a crucial determinant of the quality of e-payment services (Bauer et al., 2005; gupta & Bansal, 2012; Khan et al., 2009; siu & Mou, 2005; szymanski & hise, 2000). Moreover, privacy is one of the most critical determinants of the quality of online services (akinci etal., 2010; gupta & Bansal, 2012; Khan etal., 2009; salarzehi etal., 2012). hassan et al. (2020) reviewed the major security issues related to using e-payments and how to make them cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 5 secure. While security was found to be a significant determinant of the actual use of e-payments (humbani & Wiese, 2018; Masoud & abutaqa, 2017), others found it insignificant (Rootman & Krüger, 2020; teoh etal., 2013). this study examined the following hypothesis regarding the security and privacy of e-payment services offered by syrian mobile operators: h3. Respondents perceive e-payment services offered by syrian mobile companies as secure and private. 3.4. Responsiveness it is one of the five dimensions suggested by Parasuraman et al. (1988) in their seRVQUal metric and later adopted by many researchers (e.g., Bauer et al., 2006; lee & lin, 2005; li et al., 2002). alhammadi and tariq (2020) examined the quality of e-payment services in the Uae and found that respondents appreciate the high speed in solving problems related to e-payments. Kar (2021) found that responsiveness is essential in increasing users’ satisfaction with mobile payment services. in this study, the level of responsiveness of e-payment services offered by mobile companies was as follows: h4. Respondents perceive e-payment services offered by syrian mobile companies as characterized by high responsiveness. Previous studies investigated variations in the realization of e-payment service quality according to demographics (Yaokumah et al., 2017). Ramayanti etal. (2024) has reviewed the literature on the role of demographics, among other factors, in the intention and actual use of digital payments. hence, we examine if there were any significant differences in the four dimensions mentioned above according to age, sex, income level, and educational attainment. thus, the fifth hypothesis was: h5. there are significant differences in service quality dimensions according to demographic characteristics, income level, and educational attainment. 4. Research methodology this study was conducted based on a survey from October to December 2023 to uncover the quality of e-payment services offered by mobile companies in syria. this survey was considered a situation analysis that eased the process of data collection and analysis (Ferrell & hartline, 2008). the questionnaire survey was designed to be assessed on a likert scale with a five-point response format ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the survey started with an introduction informing participants about the research’s purpose and containing demographic, education, and income-related questions. then, a section was dedicated to the four investigated service quality dimensions. that was, four items to measure ease-to-use, four items to capture reliability, five items to measure security and privacy, and five items to capture reliability. a non-probability convenience sampling strategy was adopted to have more participants in the survey and widen the representation of our sample (gómez & Mouselli, 2018). the survey was prepared on google Forms and distributed electronically through social media. this study was approved by the Faculty of Business administration Research ethics committee (approval no. aiU5524). informed consent of the respondents was sought and they were all given voluntary opportunity to participate in this study. the sample consists of 133 respondents who completed the survey electronically. the collected data was analyzed using version 27 of the statistical Package software for social sciences (sPss). an exploratory factor analysis and reliability test was performed on each e-payment quality dimension. the demographic distribution of respondents indicated that females dominated the sample with a percentage of 76.7, while men constituted only 23.3 percent (table 1). in addition, the majority of the sample centers were in the age category of 20 to 29 years, with 69.2 percent, followed by the age category of 30 to 39 years, constituting 16.5 percent. this indicated that the sample was skewed towards the young to middle-aged category. expectedly, the monthly income reflected such skewness, with the middle-income category manifested as the dominant category of more than half a million to one million. this also agreed with the educational attainment, suggesting that most of the sample were university bachelor holders, representing approximately half of our respondents. 6 B. alsaYeD sUliMan anD s. MOUselli 5. Results the results of conducting an exploratory factor analysis to discover the dimensionality of the questionnaire items were presented in table 2. the varimax rotated principal axis factorization was used and report eigenvalues and factor loadings for each statement alone with the variance explained and cronbach’s alpha for the overall dimension. it was noticed that all reported eigenvalues exceeded the minimum of 1 and that factor loadings were over 0.3, as creswell (2020) suggested. it also used a Table 1. Respondents’ demographical characteristics (created by the authors). Characteristic Respondents number Percentage (%) Gender 133 100 Female 102 76.7 Male 31 23.3 Age category 133 100 Less than 20 3 2.3 20–29 92 69.2 30–39 22 16.5 40–49 6 4.5 50–59 7 5.3 60 and above 3 2.3 Monthly Income 133 100 Less than sP100,000 16 12 sP100,000-sP500,000 26 19.5 sP500,001-sP1 million 61 45.9 over sP1 million 30 22.6 Education level 133 100 technical degree 1 0.8 Bachelorette 19 14.3 university Bachelor 67 50.4 Master 29 21.8 PhD 8 6 others 9 6.8 Table 2. exploratory factor analysis and reliability test (created by the authors). Code item Factor loadings Variance Cronbach’s alphaF1 F2 F3 F4 explained eigenvalues Ease of use e1 e-payment service through mobile companies is fast. 0.778 48.368 1.935 0.641 e2 i can always pay quickly through mobile companies. 0.624 e3 i find e-payment through mobile companies easy. 0.553 e4 i find e-payment through mobile companies flexible. 0.797 Reliability R1 i highly trust e-payment through mobile companies. 0.86 57.068 2.283 0.738 R2 e-payment through mobile companies is reliable. 0.817 R3 i can perform my e-payment from the first time. 0.682 R4 e-payment through mobile companies is always available and functional. 0.64 Security & Privacy s1 e-payment through mobile companies does not allow others to penetrate my account. 0.719 54.86 2.743 0.793 s2 e-payment through mobile companies is secure. 0.739 s3 e-payment through mobile companies protects information sent by me. 0.71 s4 e-payment through mobile companies insures my privacy. 0.769 s5 e-payments through mobile companies do not share my personal data. 0.764 Responsiveness P1 e-payment through mobile companies is available 24/7 0.799 54.937 2.747 0.793 P2 the response to e-payments through mobile companies is prompt. 0.700 P3 assistance is available instantly in case of a problem. 0.724 P4 Mobile companies answer queries quickly regarding e-payment services. 0.698 P5 the customer service team in mobile companies is empathetic in responding to complaints on e-payment services. 0.779 cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 7 minimum of four items for each factor, which fulfilled the minimum criteria suggested by Brown (2015) of a minimum of three items per factor. the results of cronbach’s alpha for all factors exceeded the threshold of 60 percent suggested by DeVellis and thorpe (2021). in particular, three of the four e-payment service quality dimensions are above 70 percent while only easy to use scored 0.641. thus, the level of internal consistency for all examined factors was acceptable. table 3 presents the respondents’ views on the ease of use of dimension statements. it indicated that respondents find e-payment services through mobile companies easy to use, with an average of 3.41, which was significantly different from the average value of 3 at a 1 percent significance level. however, they indicated that they not necessarily pay quicker when using these services, with an average of 3.14, but statistically insignificant at a 5 percent significance level. this could be attributed to poor internet coverage, especially in villages, which forced users to try many times and change locations to have the payment go through (enab Baladi, 2024). Respondents seemed neutral on the speed and flexibility of e-payment services, with averages that were just below 3. customers may perceive mobile e-payment services to be slow because top ups require personal visits to on-site shops or kiosks, which are still not widely available or adequately distributed. in addition, the reported inflexibility in e-payment services may be due to the limited top-up options and categories and to the ceiling set for a single e-payment, especially if the transaction requires a payment that exceeds the set limit. the overall average of the dimension was 3.12, which was significant at a 5 percent significance level. hence, it was possible to accept the first hypothesis, H1, that e-payment services offered by syrian mobile companies were easy to use. the results of the second dimension, reliability, are presented in table 4. it can be underlined that respondents confirmed that e-payment services through mobile companies were trustful and reliable, as indicated by the averages and significance of statements R1 and R2. Respondents also confirmed that e-payments were executed for the first time, as highlighted in statement R3. however, it seems that they were less certain of the availability and functionality of the e-payment services, though it is significant at a 5 percent level. this could be due to electricity cuts or maintenance work that halts the service for specific times during the day. however, the overall average of the dimension was 3.42, significantly different from three at a 1 percent significance level. thus, it was possible to accept the second hypothesis, H2, that e-payment services offered by syrian mobile companies were perceived as reliable. table 5 illustrates the results of the third dimension, security and privacy. Respondents stated that e-payment services through mobile companies were secure (s2) and protected their information (s3). Table 3. Respondents’ view regarding ease of use (created by the authors). statement code average standard Deviation t-statistics P-value e1 2.98 1.007 −0.172 0.864 e2 3.14 0.877 1.779 0.077 e3 3.41 0.896 5.223 <0.001 e4 2.94 0.998 −0.695 0.488 overall 3.12 1.022 2.046 0.043 Table 4. Respondents’ view regarding reliability (created by the authors). statement average standard Deviation t-statistics P-value R1 3.55 0.857 7.387 <0.001 R2 3.55 0.812 7.800 <0.001 R3 3.40 0.825 5.569 <0.001 R4 3.17 0.973 2.049 0.042 overall 3.42 0.650 7.399 <0.001 Table 5. Respondents’ view regarding security and privacy (created by the authors). statement average standard Deviation t-statistics P-value s1 3.27 0.906 3.447 <0.001 s2 3.51 0.910 6.482 <0.001 s3 3.50 0.926 6.272 <0.001 s4 3.41 0.970 4.830 <0.001 s5 3.45 0.857 6.071 <0.001 overall 3.43 0.677 7.306 <0.001