Construction of a framework for enablers of financial well-being among urban households in India: an ISM approach

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the enablers of financial well-being among urban households. Once these enablers are identified, the authors aim to develop a framework to explore their positioning and prepare a hierarchical structure of the enablers of financial well-being in the overall financial status of urban households in India. The present study explores what the enablers of urban households’ financial well-being in India are and what the hierarchical framework is for those enablers. Data were collected from 59 people who were heads of families making financial decisions in different parts of India. The authors identified 11 unique enablers from the literature. Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) is used to identify the hierarchical structure of the enablers of financial well-being. This study generated six levels of enablers, and the lowest level of the model is education level (E1), which is a key enabler of financial well-being, and the topmost level is (E10), which is satisfaction in life. The model suggests that education level enables people to achieve life satisfaction by improving their financial well-being. This study fills the gap by identifying key enablers using the literature and arranging them into a hierarchical model using the ISM technique. This helps in extending the present literature as well as improving financial well-being.