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Determinants of Behavioral Intention to Use a Self-sovereign Identity Digital Wallet: Extending the UTAUT with Trustworthiness

Kerri Lemoie, Fielding Graduate University

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Session Outline

Purpose of Study & Research Questions
Technology Adoption
Organizational Trustworthiness (Aligned with SSI Principles)
Hypotheses & Analytical Model
Methodology
Study
Results
Takeaways
Limitations
Future Research
Questions & Discussion

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Purpose of Study & Research Questions

Gain a better understanding of how this technology is perceived
Insights for development
There has been no study on adoption of SSI Wallets yet
Inform future research related to internet identity
Questions:

What factors affect adoption of an SSI wallet?
Do the SSI principles contribute to trustworthiness in this context and does trustworthiness affect adoption?

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Technology Adoption

Unified Theory of Acceptance & Use of Technology (UTAUT)

Originally created to study adoption of tech in companies
Synthesized from 8 models
Chosen because it flexible and contextual
Behavioral Intention to Use -> Use Behavior
UTAUT2 - consumer version
Extended recommendation in 2016

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UTAUT Factors

Performance Expectancy
Effort Expectancy
Social Influence
Facilitating Conditions

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UTAUT2 (Consumer) Factors

Performance Expectancy
Effort Expectancy
Social Influence
Facilitating Conditions
Hedonic Motivation
Price Value
Habit

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Extended UTAUT

Flexibility
Contextual Use

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Model for This Study

Behavioral Intention Only
Perceived Usefulness (from Performance Expectancy)
Perceived Ease of Use (From Effort Expectancy)

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Model for This Study

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Consumer Trustworthiness

Prior Research: Gefen, D. (2002). Reflections on the dimensions of trust and trustworthiness among online consumers.�

Ability
Integrity
Benevolence

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Trustworthiness Aligned with SSI Principles

Ability	Integrity
Existence	Access & Persistence
Control & Minimalization	Transparency
Portability	Consent
Interoperability	Protection

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Hypotheses

H1: Perceived usefulness will have a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet.

H2: Perceived ease of use will have a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet.

H3: Trustworthiness will have a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet.

H3a: Trustworthiness will have a positive effect on perceived usefulness.

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Methodology - Research Design

Anonymous online survey using design fiction
18+
Target: Internet users unfamiliar with SSI/Blockchain
Three parts:

Demographics & Internet Proficiency
Embedded Web Page (https://proclaim.io/study/)
UTAUT and Trustworthiness Questions

Open Comment Field asking advantages & disadvantages

Small Pilot to test for understanding, accuracy, reliability & consistency
Modifications
Ran study for 1 week

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Results

H1: Perceived usefulness will have a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet.

H2: Perceived ease of use will have a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet.

H3: Trustworthiness will have a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet.

H3a: Trustworthiness will have a positive effect on perceived usefulness.

319 usable responses

Overall: Participants did perceive the application to be useful and indicators such as protection and access to data contributed to the perceived trustworthiness of the application. However, while they thought an application like this could be convenient, overall, they were not convinced by the web page description that the application would keep their data safe.

Hypothesis H1 was supported indicating that perceived usefulness had a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet. Perceived usefulness was found to have the strongest relationship to behavioral intention.

Perceived ease of use was found to have the weakest relationship to behavioral intention. Because the participants were restricted by the inability to try the application and see it in action,

Hypothesis H3 was supported indicating that trustworthiness had a positive effect on behavioral intention to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet. However, with a path coefficient of 0.287 the effect of trustworthiness on behavioral intention was weaker than perceived usefulness which had a path coefficient of 0.502.

Hypothesis H3a was supported indicating that trustworthiness had a positive effect on perceived usefulness to use a self-sovereign identity digital wallet. The effect of trustworthiness on perceived usefulness was found to be stronger than trustworthiness effect on behavioral intention. If a technology is considered to be capable and well-meaning, then the technology is also considered to perform as expected and, therefore, as useful (Cody-Allen & Kishore, 2006).

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Comments: Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages

Documents in one place
Convenience
Digitization

Disadvantages

Lost/hacked phone
Distrust of company
Identity theft
Harmful AI

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Takeaways

Usefulness & convenient
Emphasize protection of data & access to data
Comparison of SSI to older mental models
Educate about SSI and why it is different

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Limitations

Website representation
Challenging to explain SSI
Gauging Internet Proficiency

While effort was made to ensure that it was understandable and accurate, it was not possible to provide more in-depth explanations about the technology using that media in an online survey. Explaining self-sovereign identity is challenging for the most experienced. There is a steep learning curve even for experienced technologists. The language does not yet exist to explain it in a way that is non-technical on a basic web page. Focusing the narrative on the benefits is a useful framework but without more in-depth understanding, it is challenging for many to recognize why this technology will be any better than what they have now just by reading a web page.

The third limitation is that asking participants to rate their level of Internet / computer proficiency cannot be relied upon as a true assessment of their proficiencies. It is acknowledged that this question provided no context and that Internet and computer proficiency is conceptually vast and subjective. Also, there is a gap between understanding existing Internet technologies and nascent ones. One cannot rate proficiency of something they don’t know exists.

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Future Research

Real demos
In-person focus groups
Diverse participants (especially underserved populations)
Need: Internet self-efficacy scale

Usable online
Current
Contextual

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Questions & Discussion

Thank you!