Opportunities and Challenges of Mobile Payment Services
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Opportunities and challenges of mobile payment services The perspective of service providers TATJANA APANASEVIC Doctoral Thesis in Information and Communication Technology School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden 2018 KTH School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science TRITA-EECS-AVL-2018:31 SE-164 40 Kista ISBN 978-91-7729-745-1 SWEDEN Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av Kungl Tekniska högskolan framlägges till offentlig granskning för avläggande av doktorsexamen i informations- och kommunikationsteknik onsdagen den 30 maj 2018 klockan 13:00 i Ka-Sal C (Sal Sven-Olof Öhrvik), KTH, Kistagången 16, Kista. © Tatjana Apanasevic, May 2018 Tryck: Universitetsservice US AB Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well. KING LEAR by William Shakespeare i Abstract Mobile payments are transforming the payments industry. These services open up the opportunity for non-banking actors to enter the market. In order to embrace this challenge, banks, traditional payments market players, are forced to launch mobile payments. However, in Europe and most developed economies, a big number of launched services get terminated soon after their introduction in the market. Hence, the ability of different actors to act locally calls for additional research. The main objective of this thesis is to broaden knowledge and understanding about the ways mobile payment service providers address the opportunities and challenges of mobile payment services. In order to investigate this problem, this research (i) explores factors stimulating and hindering the introduction of mobile payments using perspectives of different types of service providers (i.e., banks, independent providers, direct operator billing providers, retailers, and public transport companies) and (ii) seeks to explain the importance of these factors for each type of provider. The primary data collected using interview method. More than 40 industry representatives in six countries were contacted. The Service, Technology, Organisation, and Finance (STOF) model was used as a theoretical research framework. This is a business modelling framework that specifies a set of critical design issues that have to be considered within each model’s domain. Research findings highlight that the organisation domain is the key domain, which affects all other domains and has an impact on the general viability of the business model. A comparison of the approaches used by different service providers to address each of the critical design issues helped to identify the factors that are most important within each domain. These factors stimulate or hinder development of a viable business model within each category of service providers. This research contributes to a better understanding of challenges and success factors associated with the design of business models for new mobile services and uses the lens of the STOF model. The contributions to the academic research on mobile payments are: (i) collection and analysis of a rich empirical data set on mobile payment services implemented in six Northern European countries, (ii) discussion of a bigger picture by connecting research findings to the context of the existing payment system, (iii) extension of knowledge on business models for mobile ticketing, and (iv) extension of knowledge on the value of mobile ticketing services in the business-to-business (B2B) context. Keywords: Mobile payments, Mobile ticketing, Business model, STOF, Service provider, Payment services provider iii Sammanfattning Uppkomsten av mobila betalningslösningar förändrar betalningsindustrin. Tjänsterna erbjuder möjligheter för nya aktörer att komma in på marknaden. Detta utmanar traditionella aktörer såsom banker vilka börjat att införa mobila betalningstjänster. I Europa och andra utvecklade länder visar det sig att ett stort antal av dessa nya tjänster dras bort från marknaden strax efter att de lanserats. Därför behövs fördjupad forskning kring olika aktörers förmåga att agera på lokala marknader. Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att bredda kunskap och förståelse om hur tjänsteleverantörer hanterar möjligheter och utmaningar med mobila betalningar. Forskningen har fokuserat på att: (i) identifiera faktorer som stimulerar eller försvårar lansering av betalningslösningar för olika typer av tjänsteleverantörer (banker, oberoende betalningsleverantörer, telekomoperatörer, detaljhandel och kollektivtrafikföretag) och (ii) förklara inverkan av olika faktorer för varje typ av leverantör. Forskningen baseras på primärdata insamlad från intervjuer med drygt 40 aktörer i sex länder. Som teoretiskt ramverk används den s.k. STOF modellen (Service, Technology, Organisation, and Finance) som är ett verktyg framtaget för analys av affärsmodeller. Den anger olika kritiska faktorer och problem som bör beaktas inom affärsmodellens olika domäner. Resultaten pekar på att “Organisation” är den viktigaste domänen i affärsmodellen, denna påverkar de övriga domänerna samt affärsmodellens allmänna bärkraft. En jämförelse av de strategier som olika tjänsteleverantörer använder för att hantera kritiska designproblem har använts för att peka ut de faktorer som är de viktigaste inom varje domän. Denna forskningen bidrar till en bättre förståelse av utmaningar och framgångsfaktorer i samband med utformningen av affärsmodeller för nya mobila betalningstjänster. Bidragen till den akademiska forskningen om mobila betalningslösningar är: (i) insamling och analys av ett brett empiriskt material om mobila betalningslösningar i sex nordeuropeiska länder, (ii) en diskussion av helhetsbilden genom att koppla forskningsresultaten om nya betalningslösningar till det befintliga betalningssystemet, (iii) utökad kunskap om affärsmodeller för mobila biljetttjänster, och (iv) breddad kunskap om värdet av mobila biljetttjänster inom business-to-business (B2B). Nyckelord: Mobila betalningstjänster, Mobil biljettjänster, Affärsmodeller, STOF, Tjänsteleverantör, Leverantörer av betalningstjänster v Acknowledgements In that period of my life, when I was an artist, a successful graphic designer running own design studio, even in my wildest dreams I would not be able to imagine that once I would make a PhD at an engineering school. However, this happened. Now, finalising my PhD study, I would like to thank everyone who contributed in any way along my PhD journey. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Jan Markendahl for giving me the opportunity to begin a PhD study. It was an amazing experience to work with you and to learn from you. You are an excellent manager and leader, and I would like to thank you for encouragement, support, guidance, help, and your highly valuable advices. I am also very grateful to Assoc. Prof. Niklas Arvidsson, my co-advisor, who reviewed and commented my papers and thesis. I would like to thank you for all guidance, support, and our discussions, where you could always see a new perspective. I would like to thank to Assoc. Prof. M. de Reuver for accepting the role of the opponent. I am also grateful to members of the grading committee: PhD S.W. Elfving, Prof. J. Damsgaard, and Prof. M. Kaulio. I would also like to thank Matti Kaulio for his feedback on PhD proposal. I am grateful to Assoc. Prof. Mark Smith for being a quality reviewer of this PhD thesis I am thankful to all current and former colleagues at RS Lab for making it a wonderful working environment. Additionally, I would like to say a warm thank you to all current and former friends and colleagues at Tele-Economic team for their help and support during these years. I am grateful to Handelsbanken’s Research Foundation and wireless@kth for funding my study and research. I would like to thank all interviewed industry representatives and experts who agreed to take part in this research. I am very thankful that you provided me an opportunity to discuss your experience of and views on mobile payments and mobile ticketing services. I am very grateful to my parents Asta and Arkadij who have always believed in me. Thank you for your daily support and care. Tatjana Apanasevič Stockholm, May 2018 Contents List of Acronyms xi List of Figures xiii List of Tables xv I Thesis Overview 1 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Background 3 1.2 Problem formulation, research motivation, and research questions 6 1.3 Research scope and delimitations 9 1.4 Summary of contributions 10 1.5 Thesis outline 14 2 Theoretical Background 15 2.1 Related work and research gaps 15 2.2 The business model concept 18 2.3 Theoretical research framework: The STOF model 22 2.4 Application of the STOF model 27 3 Methodology 29 3.1 Research method 29 3.2 Data collection 30 3.3 Data analysis and interpretation 32 3.4 Validity and reliability of research 33 4 Cases and Findings 39 4.1 Mobile payment services provided by banks 39 4.2 Mobile payment services provided by independent providers 44 vii viii CONTENTS 4.3 Mobile payment services provided by direct operator billing providers 49 4.4 Payment solutions provided by retailers 53 4.5 Mobile ticketing solutions provided by public transport companies 57 5 Analysis 63 5.1 Service domain arrangements 64 5.2 Technology domain arrangements 65 5.3 Organisation domain arrangements 66 5.4 Finance domain arrangements 68 5.5 Use of the STOF model 69 6 Discussion 73 6.1 Factors that stimulate and hinder the introduction of mobile payments 73 6.2 Importance of identified factors for different mobile payment service providers 80 6.3 Discussion of research results in