Consumers' resistance to discontinuing a familiar technology, the paper bill

That most consumers adopt online bill payment without adopting electronic bill presentment has long puzzled banks, organizations and academicians. Previous research had not considered that the origins of behaviours involving resistance to giving up an existing technology may have emerged from different beliefs and evaluations than the behaviour of resistance to adopting an innovation. The purpose of this research was to explore the behaviour of resistance to discontinuing an existing dominant technology in the face of an alternative innovation using the paper bill as the example of the existing technology.;Conceptualization of the paper bill as a multi-dimensional artefact proved to be well-founded. When evaluated based on aesthetic, symbolic and utilitarian dimensions, the paper bill was found to serve two key roles for consumers. The paper bill was found to be relevant not only during the payment transaction but at all stages during the consumers' financial management process as a way for consumers to maintain control over their financial information. Moreover, the bill takes on an even larger role in helping consumers to maintain their feeling of confidence when dealing with banks and organizations in problem resolution situations. Data from 850 online bill payers were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicated that the final Model of Resistance to Discontinuing the Paper Bill was a good fitting model with a majority of the hypotheses supported. Implications for academicians, practitioners and government are presented along with study limitations.;To study resistance to discontinuing the paper bill in the face of the electronic bill, this dissertation reconceptualises the paper bill as an artefact, thereby broadening the dimensions of its evaluation. A new perspective for exploring consumers' behaviour was proposed. Rather than labelling consumers' inaction in the face of an innovation as non-adoption, resistance to innovation adoption or status quo behaviour, this dissertation identifies the behaviour as resistance to discontinuing an existing dominant technology. The Model of Resistance to Discontinuing the Paper Bill was proposed and tested. As part of model development, new constructs were developed and tested.