The Institutionalization of “Cashless Poland.”
Values, Norms, Sanctions and Grand Narrations
in the SMEs’ Perspective on the Adoption of Cashless Payments
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Nicolaus Copernicus University
Publication date: 2022-03-21
Polish Sociological Review 2022;217(1):115-138
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ABSTRACT
As more and more societies are transforming into cashless economies, questions about the social
nature of this transformation are arising. With this paper we present specific insights into the process of the
institutionalization of cashlessness in Poland. The process is analyzed from the perspective of Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs). We advance the idea that the institutional field of cashlessness is emerging with similar
pressures. In this field—as we argue using the concept of Powell and DiMaggio—SMEs experience a coercive
institutional isomorphism. We show that the complex impact of interlocked social interactions, financial sanctions,
narrations, values and norms are creating the matrix for SMEs’ decision whether to implement cashless payments
into their business. The analysis is based on 74 individual in-depth interviews with SMEs owners. The paper is
grounded in qualitative research design and the theory of neo-institutionalism.