| Summary: | A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University
of Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in
Management by Research
Johannesburg, 2014 === The use of mobile phones to access banking services potentially overcomes the spatial and cost barriers associated with traditional bank infrastructure, yet questions remain whether low income people will adopt mobile banking and other forms of digital money. Physical money remains the dominant store of value and payment instrument in many parts of the developing world, including South Africa.
The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding about what money (physical and digital money) means to low income people in South Africa and to consider “if”, “how”, and under what conditions, digital money may come to be used (and when and where it will not be used) by low income people as a substitute for physical money.
The socio-technical model is the foundation of the conceptual framework informing the research and the research findings can be incorporated into the evolving socio-technical network of digital money. The research assumes an interpretive philosophical paradigm and takes a social constructionist perspective. Qualitative methods are used to obtain the data. The research participants were a group of low income people who live and work in a very specific area of Alexandra, in Johannesburg.
The five themes for the meaning of money that emerged were; Money as Hedonism, Money as Love, Money as Food, Money as Development of Self and Children, and Money as Support Structures. Physical money and digital money have different meanings to the research participants and low income people in Alexandra have a strong and positive relationship with physical money. The research found that low income people will more readily use digital money where the transaction involves goods or services that have “meaning”. They will use digital money if a decree is made to use digital money or if digital money provides utility such as receiving money, transferring money over distance or buying pre-paid airtime.
Illegal activity, low value transactions, and a shortage of digital money are situations where the research participants will not use digital money as a substitute for physical money. These conditions, as well as the cost of digital money relative to physical money, are the impediments to the evolution of the digital money socio-technical system in Alexandra.
Keywords: Mobile payments, cell phone banking, digital money, physical money, socio-technical model, meaning of money.
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