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To penetrate new markets and retain customers using information and communications technology (ICT), banks provide services through the Internet beyond what is offered through brick-and-mortar branches bound by time and geographical restrictions (Banks, 2001; Chuang & Hu, 2012; Proenca, Silva, & Fernandes, 2010). Despite the disputes regarding whether online banking is a competitive weapon or simply a strategic necessity and the continued challenge of scholars attempting to specify the mechanisms linking the online banking use to bank performance, banks recognize the importance of ICT and believe that online banking differentiates their services (Porter, 2001). Many banks have endorsed the use of ICT to develop new information-based services that meet customer needs, improve their image, enhance the content and quality of financial services, and thus improve their competitiveness (Banks, 2001; Callaway, 2011; Chaudhury, Mallick, & Rao, 2001).
Despite the benefits of online banking, its use is controversial because of varying customer perceptions of fund management through branch counters or ATMs (and other electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, and PCs) services, the convenience or inconvenience of banking hours, security risks and privacy issues, technology comprehension issues, and Internet problems. Our primary concern involves the intention of customers to conduct financial transactions on a bank’s website, as this capability continues to be a fundamental and important issue in promoting online banking services.
Because of its parsimony and strong validity (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000), the technology acceptance model (TAM) is typically used to examine the adoption of online banking technology. Although the TAM has been criticized for its frequent use, limited predictive power, and triviality (Benbasat & Barki, 2007), many recent studies have used the TAM to investigate users’ technology adoption behaviour, particularly in the workplace (e.g., Sipior, Ward, & Connolly, 2011; Venkatesh & Bala, 2008).
Although the TAM can be used in a variety of adoption contexts, prior research indicates that the TAM may not be applicable to all cultures (McCoy, Everard, & Jones, 2005; Wu, 2006). Chinese culture, for example, has often been recognized as differing significantly from Western culture (Ferraro, 2002; Hofstede, 2001). Technology adoption behaviour in the Chinese setting could differ from Western empirical findings for the TAM. It is thus worthwhile to consider cultural issues when studying online banking adoption in the Chinese context of Taiwan.
Because bank services are often rendered through interactions between customers and bank employees, our cultural research on the TAM focuses primarily on the role of interpersonal relationships in influencing online banking adoption. Long-term orientation has been viewed as a key cultural factor for such social interactions (Ryu & Kim, 2010), and such an orientation values future interpersonal relationships (Hofstede, 1991; Shore, 2001). This perspective is used to test the effects on the technology adoption, which includes “subjective norms” and “computer self-efficacy” as antecedents, to confirm the validity of our cultural model of online banking adoption.