On the edge: bank customers’ upcoming resistance to the full-adoption of digital payment methods

Purpose Based on the dialogue, access, risk and transparency (DART) model and bank customers’ experiences of financial service failure, this study aims to propose a research model as part of a conceptual framework. The framework includes a barrier, co-destruction and resistance, and the study identifies the attributes mediating barriers and resistance to full-adoption of digital payment methods (DPMs). Design/methodology/approach This study applied a traditional netnographic approach by collecting and analysing approximately 1,000 comments about service failure on the social media posts of a major Swedish and a major German retail bank. The data were parallel coded, manually and by ChatGPT (versions 3.5 and 4o mini), in an attempt to validate the findings. Findings Based on the DART model, the four linked attributes (i.e. monologue, uncertainty, restriction and ambiguity) created the MURA model as part of the barrier, co-destruction and resistance framework. The MURA model may mediate the access barrier and resistance to the potential full adoption of DPMs. Despite different digital payment contexts, both the Swedish and German bank customers have experienced all four attributes related to value co-destruction, indicating their temporary vulnerability. Originality/value This study breaks new ground regarding applied method and theory, being among the few using a traditional netnographic approach in the digital banking context. It also identifies new attributes, develops a reversed DART model and proposes a conceptual framework of value co-destruction related to DPM full-adoption.