Digital Payment Ease and Service Quality in MSMEs: Trust as a Mediator of Customer Satisfaction

Hengki Mangiring Parulian Simarmata (), Darwin Lie and Nagian Toni
Additional contact information
Hengki Mangiring Parulian Simarmata: Universitas Prima Indonesia (UNPRI), Faculty of Economics
Darwin Lie: Universitas Prima Indonesia (UNPRI), Faculty of Economics
Nagian Toni: Universitas Prima Indonesia (UNPRI), Faculty of Economics

A chapter in Proceedings of the International Conference on Economics, Business, Management and Accounting (ICEBesMA 2025), 2025, pp 21-43 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This study examined how service quality and digital payment ease affect customer satisfaction in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Simalungun Regency, Indonesia, with customer trust as a mediating variable. A quantitative explanatory design was applied, involving 319 digitally active MSME customers. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results showed that both service quality and digital payment ease had significant positive effects on customer satisfaction. However, these effects were largely indirect through customer trust. Digital payment ease had the strongest influence on trust ( $$\beta = 0.601$$ β = 0.601 ), while service quality moderately impacted trust ( $$\beta = 0.317$$ β = 0.317 ). Customer trust itself was a robust predictor of satisfaction ( $$\beta = 0.412$$ β = 0.412 ). The model explained 68.0% of the variance in customer trust and 59.7% in customer satisfaction, indicating high explanatory power. This study highlights the critical role of trust as a psychological enabler in digitally transforming MSMEs. Practical implications suggest that MSMEs should prioritize user-friendly digital payment systems and consistent service delivery to strengthen customer relationships. The main limitation lies in the cross-sectional, non-probability sampling design, which restricts causal inference and generalizability. Future research should employ longitudinal designs and compare rural and urban contexts to explore behavioral differences over time.

Keywords: Service Quality; Digital Payment Ease; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Trust; MSMEs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:advbcp:978-94-6463-960-5_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789464639605

DOI: 10.2991/978-94-6463-960-5_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().