Technological Transformation Toward Stimulating Digital Payments for Managing Crisis Situation in Albania: An Evaluation from Consumers' Acceptance Perspective

The world has recently witnessed the 21^st century’s massive catastrophic situation termed as “COVID-19 pandemic,” which lasted for more than two consecutive years. The impact of this crisis has affected banking, finance, tourism, hospitality, service, automobiles, infrastructure, and other diverse sectors. To uphold financial sustainability, the government, and private sectors in some countries stepped toward introducing technological transformation and as an outcome, digital financial transformation was accelerated. The occurrence of the pandemic spurred the digitization of payments as digital transformation and digital payments were found to be efficient instruments to bridge the gap between vulnerable and formalized economies of the countries. A significant surge in digital payments transformation over conventional financial transactions for improving the downturned economies from the pandemic has been growing globally. This surge was noticed in Albania, one of the Balkan countries of Europe, where some strategic electronic services were introduced as a part of digital transformation. Consequently, the research question remains whether this digital payment transformation was well accepted by consumers in Albania during the pandemic and whether consumers are willing to take continual shifts to admit digital payments for future digital transactions. To determine the digital payment transformation state in Albania from consumers’ viewpoint during the pandemic crisis, the present study proposes a framework that is based on TAM and UTAUT theories. The survey-based quantitative research methodology is adopted to validate the proposed framework. This study aims to perform an in-depth examination of digital payment transformation complexities experienced by customers while utilizing digital payments in Albania and how the authorities and institutions could overcome such in the future to continue sustainable digital transformation.