The Academy of Financial Services (AFS) is excited to be collaborating with FPA to provide an "integrated conference experience" for AFS members this year. The AFS research conference will run for the full 2.5 days of the FPA Conference as part of a dedicated research track bringing the best of AFS and the Journal of Financial Planning (JFP) to you.
- A dedicated Research Room for presentations designed to bring the most relevant research impacting professional financial planners. This includes research sessions sponsored by the JFP and peer-reviewed research papers presented by AFS members. These sessions are CE credit approved.
- The winner of the JFP's Montgomery-Warschauer Award for best research from the prior year will present their research.
- In the Research Room AFS will coordinate other research content such as a panel discussion with the editors of the 4 major FP research journals explaining to planners and academics the type of research content to be found, how to best consume/digest research and apply it to a FP practice and more.
- A new FP Research Shark Tank. Based on the format of the popular TV series a select number of researchers will do 5 minute "pitches" on research that they believe would be significantly impactful for practitioners. Planners and researchers will then vote on the most exciting research proposal.
- AFS are co-ordinating 2 additional mini-breakout research rooms where researchers will present additional peer-reviewed, unpublished research selected from the many submissions we received. A timetable of these sessions can be found below.
- AFS will manage the research rooms for fully-hybrid attendance with face-to-face or virtual attendance. Although the content will be exceptional, we hope to see many of you in person as the networking, exhibit hall, FPA keynote speakers and other sessions outside of the research cannot be experienced any other way.
A Rose by Any Other Name: The impact of consumer perceptions of Buy Now Pay Later on BNPL use by young adults
Short Description
This paper examines the relationship between consumers' perceptions of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) products and their subsequent usage patterns. Prior studies show that payment methods influence consumer decision making, with methods that reduce the pain of payment and decouple consumption from payment, such as credit cards, encouraging consumers to spend more. BNPL, a recent payment innovation, has been advertised in New Zealand to emphasis features that are likely to encourage BNPL use, potentially to their financial detriment. Using responses from a survey of young consumers aged 18-34 in New Zealand we assess the impact of consumer perceptions of BNPL on frequency of use, and how well they use BNPL, based on late fees and using debt to repay BNPL. We find that consumer acceptance of the attractive features of BNPL appears to mask the financial risks involved, resulting greater use, consistent with impulse purchasing and possible subsequent debt accumulation.