Factors Influencing the Adoption of Online Insurance Services Offered through Digital Wallet Platforms in Kathmandu, Nepal

Abstract

Despite the explosive growth of digital wallet applications in Nepal, the insurance services offered by these applications have not yet been widely adopted by the country’s population. For this study, data from a survey of 169 consumers in Kathmandu, Nepal, were analyzed using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and four additional constructs related to insurance and digital wallets. Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used to identify the factors influencing the behavioral intention of young consumers in urban areas of Nepal to purchase insurance services via digital wallet platforms. Results from the PLS-SEM model after 5000 bootstrap samples to enhance reliability indicate that three of the eight hypothesized factors were statistically significant and contributed to the Behavioral Intention to Adopt. The significant constructs included Service Efficiency and Customer Experience, Personal Capability and Social Influence, and Institutional and Policy Support. Additionally, the eight constructs accounted for 45.7% of the explained variance in the outcome variable, Behavioral Intention to Adopt. Furthermore, only 5.3% of those surveyed purchased insurance through a digital wallet application, while 48.5% were unaware of the insurance services offered by digital wallet platforms. The findings suggest that the factors leading to the greatest increase in the intention of young consumers to use digital wallets for insurance purchases are improvements in the quality of the services provided by the digital wallets, improvements in the communication of the policies that regulate those digital wallets, and increased awareness of the insurance services that are offered by the platforms.