“Factors affecting financial management behavior of Paylater users in Indonesia: Examining the moderating role of locus of control”

Financial Management Behavior refers to the systematic activities involved in predicting, gathering, allocating, investing, and strategizing the cash flow required for a company’s or individual’s efficient functioning. This study aims to examine the role of locus of control in moderating the relationship between financial socialization, financial knowledge, financial experience, and financial management behavior among Paylater users in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The population of this research is the people of Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, who use Paylater. The sampling methodologies utilized were purposive sampling and snowball sampling. A total of 221 individuals participated in data collection for this study. The questionnaires were disseminated using social media chat functions or messaging applications (e


INTRODUCTION
The development of digital payment mechanisms, including Paylater, has contributed to the growth of e-commerce and online shopping in Indonesia.Paylater enables consumers to purchase products now and pay for them in monthly instalments in the future.Paylater's expansion in Indonesia can foster the growth of the digital economy and is consistent with the eighth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which is to increase inclusive and sustainable economic growth.However, if not monitored, the use of Paylater can induce compulsive purchasing and increase consumer debt.
Paylater provides services to users who meet the requirements, checking out the desired product through payment in instalments with a payment period that the user can choose.Paylater Fintech is the same as making a debt agreement with a bank that already has a stamp on society, which is scary and complicated.However, Paylater Fintech provides a concept that gives the impression that it is manageable and is relatively easy to meet the requirements of potential users.However, if you look closely with mature eyes, when Fintech users Paylater if arrears occur, it will be the same as in the case of credit cards provided by banks.Therefore, the ease of carrying out product purchasing activities using Fintech Paylater can potentially lead to waste and debt accumulation, negatively impacting credit reputation and bottlenecks in credit applications.So, there is a need for good financial management behavior in anticipating negative impacts that will arise from the use of activities using Fintech Paylater.
Financial management behavior encompasses the ability of an individual to proficiently administer their daily financial affairs, including but not limited to saving, budgeting, organizing, and planning.The emergence of financial behavior is influenced by an individual's motivation to fulfill their life necessities by their income.Therefore, financial behavior plays a crucial role in ensuring the long-term viability of one's business and meeting daily needs.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Financial management behavior constitutes the central theme of the study of finance.Financial management behavior constitutes the capacity to strategize, allocate, verify, protect, and pursue daily financial resources (Wahyuni et al., 2023;Kholilah & Iramani, 2013).Financial management behavior is an academic discipline that aims to clarify the psychological and behavioral components that underlie an individual's strategy for overseeing their financial assets.This scientific discipline also elucidates their illogical financial choices (Amanah et al., 2016).Financial management behavior is an individual's ability to make financial plans, budget, manage, and control funds related to individual financial responsibility by carrying out financial governance (Asandimitra & Kautsar, 2019).Individuals with solid financial management behavior may develop a habitual inclination toward formulating and executing financial planning strategies (Prihartono & Asandimitra, 2018).Exhibiting good financial behavior entails engaging in management, control practices, and effective financial planning (Ghasarma et al., 2017).Financial behavior defines how individuals act when confronted with the need to make financial decisions (Strömbäck et al., 2017).
Financial socialization is how an individual acquires the necessary skills, knowledge, and dispositions to function effectively as a market consumer (Ward, 1974).Financial socialization refers to acquiring and cultivating beliefs, attitudes, standards, norms, information, and behaviors conducive to one's economic circumstances, survival, and personal welfare (Danes, 1994).Financial socialization is a person's internal and external social environment, which can trigger a person's process of acquiring financial skills, knowledge, and attitudes (Albeerdy & Gharleghi, 2015).Financial socialization refers to the extensive process by which individuals acquire and develop a range of values, norms, facts, standards, attitudes, and behaviors crucial in fostering their financial well-being and achieving success in financial matters.This includes the development of skills and understanding necessary for achieving financial viability and prosperity on an individual level (Hira et al., 2013).Therefore, financial socialization refers to the cognitive and behavioral development through which individuals acquire the necessary information and skills that positively impact their financial circumstances and overall welfare.People interacting with the surrounding environment can influence a person's behavior, skills, and knowledge about various financial matters.Financial and social agents, namely education (formal and non-formal), media (print and electronic), parents (father and mother), and friendship, are indicators of financial socialization (Sundarasen et al., 2016).
Financial knowledge encompasses an individual's capacity to comprehend, evaluate, and proficiently manage financial affairs, eliminating potential obstacles through prudent financial decision-making (Chen et al., 2023).Financial knowledge shows an individual's financial understanding and knowledge, an important element that every individual needs in carrying out their life activities (Rai et al., 2019).Financial knowledge consists of gathering, processing, and assessing pertinent information to make informed decisions, considering the potential repercussions (Mason & Wilson, 2000).Financial knowledge encompasses an individual's comprehension of their finances, as measured by their proficiency in comprehending various personal finance-related topics (Marsh, 2010).Acquisition of financial knowledge can be facilitated through various methods, encompassing both formal and informal sources.Academic pursuits, such as enrolling in secondary or tertiary educational institutions, participating in workshops, and engaging in external training initiatives, offer individuals a means to acquire financial knowledge (Stolper & Walter, 2017).Furthermore, non-formal sources, including parental guidance, interactions with colleagues, and experiential learning in professional settings, significantly shape an individual's comprehension of financial principles (Johan et al., 2021).Financial knowledge is comprehending, analyzing, and managing finances to avoid poor financial decisions.Everyone desires an existence of quality and the avoidance of financial difficulties.To achieve a quality life and avoid financial problems, of course, solid financial knowledge must be based on every decision made (Lusardi, 2019).The absence of financial literacy is associated with an increased propensity for individuals to encounter debt-related challenges, exhibit greater involvement with elevated credit expenses, and display a diminished inclination to engage in future planning (Lusardi et al., 2010).
The financial experience gained by an individual will direct them to certain financial practices (Ameliawati & Setiyani, 2018).Good or bad experiences can provide learning to do something or avoid something detrimental to them when managing their finances.A person's financial experience can be capitalized in managing finances (Lusardi, 2019).This experience is a lesson in managing finances and investment planning so that making financial decisions daily can be more focused and wiser (Lusardi et al., 2014).Financial experience is a learning medium for someone in managing their finances, and a financial experience is an event experienced, felt, endured, and endured related to finances that someone has experienced, both old and new (Safitri & Kartawinata, 2020).Financial experience examples include planning investments, registering for insurance, applying for credit at the bank, and so on.Someone who has past events and experiences related to finances that have been faced will be able to determine financial behavior in training financial management skills in the future (Safitri & Kartawinata, 2020).
Locus of control refers to how much an individual thinks their activities' outcomes or incentives depend on them (Rotter, 2009).Locus of control refers to a person's perception of his or her ability to control his or her actions and outcomes.This view is shaped by their perception of events, influenced by internal elements seen as controlling.Individuals assign priority levels to various requirements for their actions since these aspects are vital in determining their successes and failures (Prihartono & Asandimitra, 2018).The locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they influence the outcomes and events that shape their lives (Robbins & Judge, 2017).The locus of control pertains to the degree to which an individual considers events in their life as being influenced by their conduct and hence under their control (internal locus of control) or as being unrelated to their behavior and therefore outside their control (external locus of control) (Tyler et al., 2020).
Many studies have yet to explore how people manage their finances systematically.The investigation findings (Nave et

AIM AND HYPOTHESES
This study aims to examine the role of locus of control in moderating the relationship between financial socialization, financial knowledge, financial experience, and financial management behavior among Paylater users in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.The formulation of study hypotheses in structural research models occurred as follows:

METHODOLOGY
The approach employed in this study is centered around survey research, which involves sampling individuals from a singular population (Nasution et al., 2020).The current study utilizes an explanatory approach to clarify the causal connection between the variables under investigation and to test the proposed associations.This research has three independent variables: financial socialization, financial knowledge, and financial experience.One dependent variable is financial management behavior, and a moderating variable is the locus of control.
The population in this study were paylater users in Medan City, North Sumatra, Indonesia, and the sampling technique used purposive sampling and snowball sampling techniques.The questionnaires were disseminated using social media chat functions or messaging applications (e.g., WhatsApp, Line, Telegram) in which the Google Forms link was shared with the users.The questionnaire uses a Likert Scale to measure variables.In total, 221 people completed the survey.The criteria for respondents were that the people of Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, had and actively used the Paylater feature, which was the main focus, namely Shopee Paylater, Ovo Paylater, and Gojek Paylater.
The data collection method was a questionnaire utilizing Google Forms featuring a Likert scale.The evaluation was graded using a scale (1strongly disagree; 2 -disagree; 3 -neutral; 4agree; and 5 -strongly agree).The selection of the partial least square (PLS) method was motivated by its widespread utilization in scenarios characterized by non-normal data distributions, small sample sizes, and the need for constructive approaches (Hair et al., 2014).

RESULTS
The statistical measure frequently utilized to evaluate composite or construct reliability is Cronbach's alpha.Composite reliability is utilized to evaluate the actual level of reliability for a construct, whereas Cronbach's alpha is utilized to estimate the minimum level of reliability for a construct (Henseler et al., 2015).The generally accepted criterion for composite reliability values is a minimum threshold of 0.6, whereas Cronbach's alpha values are also expected to exceed 0.6.If the obtained value exceeds 0.60, it is possible to conclude that the structure is highly reliable.Table 2 shows that all variables met the AVE criteria with a value ≥ 0.5.This shows that the Convergent Validity Test is acceptable.
To determine whether a measuring instrument has discriminant validity, it must accurately assess the measured construct and not another.In addition to convergent validity, discriminant validity is a criterion for specifying the validity of an instrument.The validity of discriminants can be seen from the construct's cross-loading value and root AVE (Ghozali & Latan, 2015).Table 3 shows that the loading factor for each variable is higher than the cross-loading factor.This demonstrates that all variables' indicators utilized in this study are legitimate.The Fornel-Larcker criterion and loading and cross-loading indicator values can also be used to assess discriminant validity (Ghozali & Latan, 2015).According to the findings shown in Table 5, the average communalities value is determined to be 0.598.The value mentioned above is then subjected to multiplication by R2 and then to a square root operation.The results of the calculations in-dicate that the GoF value of 0.692 surpasses the critical value of 0.36, signifying a statistically significant GoF.As a result, the model demonstrates a praiseworthy ability to clarify empirical data.
When using Partial Least Squares (PLS) to assess the structural model, analyze the R-square value for each dependent variable.R-squared (R2) quantifies the extent to which an independent variable explains a dependent variable (Hair et al., 2021).The R-Square analysis indicates that the obtained value is 0.799.This value indicates that 79.90% of the financial socialization, financial knowledge, and financial experience variables impact the Financial Management Behavior variable.This value also shows that the model in this study falls under strong criteria.This evaluation will determine the path coefficients of the structural model.The purpose is to investigate the significance of all relationships and test hypotheses.This study has two categories of hypothesis testing: direct and indirect effects.

DISCUSSION
Examining the first hypothesis (H1) reveals a statistically significant relationship between financial socialization and the financial management behaviors exhibited by Paylater users.The relationship between financial management behavior and financial socialization can be elucidated through the theory of planned behavior, with particular emphasis on the influence of subjective norms derived from financial socialization variables.Subjective norms pertain to the viewpoints and endorsements of others and can impact the adoption of particular behaviors (Ajzen, 1991).The social environment one faces is often a lesson for honing skills and managing finances so that a person can make the right decisions.If someone has good financial socialization, financial management behavior will also increase, and vice versa (Prawitasari et al., 2022).The research results are consistent with those of Ameliawati and Setiyani (2018), Khawar and Sarwar (2021), Jazuli and Setiyani (2021), and Ginting Suka et al. ( 2022), which demonstrate that financial socialization affects financial management behavior.
Upon analyzing the second hypothesis (H2), it becomes evident that there is a statistically significant correlation between financial knowledge and financial management behavior.The relationship between financial literacy and prudent financial management can be explicated through the theory of planned behavior, which posits that an individual's actions are significantly influenced by their intentions and goals.Many elements, information among them, contribute to the foundational context that underpins an individual's knowledge (Ajzen, 2005).The findings from examining the third hypothesis (H3) reveal that financial experience exerts a favorable and statistically significant influence on the financial management behavior of Paylater users.According to the theory of planned behavior, a person's past experiences will reflect the person's attitudes in the future (Ajzen, 2005).This will be the basis for investigating financial experience's influence on financial management behavior.Those with a foundational understanding of finance can derive valuable insights from past events to proficiently manage their finances in the future.As a result, individuals with considerable financial expertise are more inclined to demonstrate judicious financial behavior when managing their monetary resources than those with limited financial experience (Ameliawati & Setiyani, 2018).This is confirmed by Darmawan et  Testing the fifth hypothesis (H5) reveals that financial knowledge significantly affects the financial management behavior of Paylater users, which is moderated by locus of control.This means that a strong locus of control can encourage individuals to learn to hone skills and manage finances to make the right decisions.Financial management behavior will also improve if someone has good financial knowledge and is supported by a good locus of control.Thus, knowledge and locus of control are needed to improve people's financial management behavior.People who understand the existence of high economic knowledge and develop good self-control also help people set better priorities and think about their future welfare.This study's results align with the research results of Mien and Thao (2015) and Griffin and Sibilang (2022), which conclude that locus of control moderates the relationship between financial knowledge and financial management behavior.
Testing the sixth hypothesis (H6) reveals that financial experience does not affect the financial management behavior of Paylater users, which is moderated by locus of control.The final result of this study is that self-control is not a moderating variable in the influence of financial experience on financial management behavior.Several attitudes of self-con-trol from the people of Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, have yet to be proven to moderate the influence of financial experience on financial management behavior.These results support the study by Subaida and Hakiki (2021) that reported that locus of control moderates the effect of financial experience on financial management behavior.
This study implies that financial socialization, financial knowledge, and financial experience positively affect the financial management behavior of Paylater users.If financial socialization is well received and has financial knowledge and financial experience, then Paylater users will make the right decisions in management.Personal finances and can manage finances wisely and measurably.Likewise, if Paylater users cannot manage their finances, Paylater users don't need to worry about this because the Paylater application already explains the details of loan funds openly.Then Paylater can provide all the lifestyle desires and needs of the individual using it.

CONCLUSIONS
This study examines the moderating effect of locus of control on the association between financial socialization, financial knowledge, financial experience, and financial management behavior.The study found that financial socialization influences financial management behavior.Financial knowledge influences financial management behavior, and financial experience influences financial management behavior among Paylater users in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.Furthermore, that locus of control moderates the effect of financial socialization and financial knowledge on financial management behavior.In addition, locus of control does not moderate the effect of financial experience on the financial management behavior of Paylater users in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.
Users of the Paylater feature, especially in Medan-North Sumatra, Indonesia, should always increase their financial knowledge, including savings/loans, personal financial knowledge, investment, and insurance.This financial knowledge can be obtained through media that provides information about Paylater features.The Financial Services Authority (OJK) Indonesia should educate the public through regular outreach to increase financial knowledge so that the public improves good financial management behavior to increase national economic growth.It is recommended that further studies use different models to examine financial management behavior so that they can present a more accurate model.This can be done using other variables, including gender, age, education level, financial attitude, income, financial self-efficacy, and other mediating/moderating variables such as financial literacy and financial self-efficacy.Future research can also expand the scope of research or try different objects to this study, for example, on students and the millennial generation.
The present study possesses several shortcomings that warrant attention from future researchers.This study encompasses a limited number of independent variables, a single dependent variable, and a solitary moderating variable.Future investigations should incorporate a more significant number of independent variables.This study is limited to Medan's inhabitants, located in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra.

Figure 1
Figure 1 depicts the research framework.

H1:
Financial socialization influences Financial Management Behavior.H2: Financial knowledge influences Financial Management Behavior.H3: Financial experience influences Financial Management Behavior.H4: Financial socialization influences Financial Management Behavior Moderated by Locus of Control.H5: Financial knowledge influences Financial Management Behavior Moderated by Locus of Control.H6: Financial experience influences Financial Management Behavior Moderated by Locus of Control.
Moko et al. (2022) stated that a correlation exists between financial knowledge and financial management behavior, whereby individuals possessing a comprehensive understanding of finance are more likely to enhance their capacity to manage their finances effectively.This outcome is consistent with Nave et al. (2023), Jennifer and Widoatmodjo (2023), Tang and Baker (2016), Mukmin et al. (2021), and Chen et al. (2023), which asserts that financial knowledge influences financial management behavior.

Table 1 .
Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability

Table 2 .
Average variance extracted