Sugbo Negosyo Program Digital Card Implementation: Technology Acceptance and Satisfaction among Microentrepreneur-Beneficiaries

Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdowns upended business operations, impacting microenterprises which prompted the Cebu Province to implement a stimulus grant to revive existing and encourage start-up microenterprises known as the Sugbo Negosyo program. A digital card system (DCS) with a quick response (QR) code payment was utilized to facilitate the disbursement of financial assistance and to enable real-time monitoring of the program beneficiaries’ expenditure transactions. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the DCS, investigating how the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude towards its use have influenced the actual use and satisfaction of the DCS use by the beneficiaries. The research, a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, was participated by 212 beneficiaries through face-to-face surveys. With the Technology Acceptance Method (TAM) as the study’s framework, the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results show that the DCS is evaluated as useful and easy to use and satisfied the beneficiaries.