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Credit Dom(me)s, BNPL switches and debt subs: Experiences of pain and pleasure

Ruffin Relja Orcid Logo, Philippa Ward, Richard Cook, Anita Zhao Orcid Logo

Journal of Business Research, Volume: 194, Issue: 194, Start page: 115380

Swansea University Author: Anita Zhao Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115380

Abstract

This mobile ethnographic research explores the pain and power exchange within buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), an unregulated financial service that allows consumers to purchase and defer payments, often interest-free, over a set period. However, consumer pain when entering into BNPL purchase payment plans...

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Published in: Journal of Business Research
ISSN: 0148-2963
Published: Elsevier BV 2025
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69242
Abstract: This mobile ethnographic research explores the pain and power exchange within buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), an unregulated financial service that allows consumers to purchase and defer payments, often interest-free, over a set period. However, consumer pain when entering into BNPL purchase payment plans is poorly understood. This research reconfigures fragmented BNPL user experiences and identities through mosaicking, introducing three novel BNPL user archetypes that articulate the framing of pain. Language games are used to combine work on BNPL and BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism, and masochism) communities to promote multi-paradigmatic understandings of the underlying phenomena. The Credit Dom(me) trades in transformed pain, is pain-averse, and seeks pleasure. The BNPL Switch views pain as an investment and is receptive to pain to gain an advantage. The Debt Sub views pain as sacrifice, is prone to suffering, and is willing to bear the BNPL provider’s additional liabilities. While power imbalance is always present, the archetypes adhere to the BDSM precepts of being ‘safe, sane, and consensual’.
Keywords: Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL); Power and Pain; Kink and Pleasure; Discipline and Control; Mobile Ethnography
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Funders: This research received no specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Issue: 194
Start Page: 115380

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