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

Ruffin Relja, Philippa Ward, Richard Cook and Anita Lifen Zhao

Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 194, issue C

Abstract: This mobile ethnographic research explores pain and power exchange within buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), an unregulated financial service enabling consumers to defer payments, often interest-free. However, consumer pain in BNPL 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 combine work on BNPL and BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism, masochism) communities to promote multi-paradigmatic understandings. 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 sees pain as sacrifice, is prone to suffering, and willingly bears the BNPL provider’s additional liabilities. While power imbalance is always present, the archetypes follow 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 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296325002036
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:194:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325002036

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().