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TopIntroduction
The rapid development of mobile technologies equipped with internet connection has escalated banking convenience. Smartphones and computer tablets have created a new wave in the area of banking technology whereby users can conduct money transfer, digital products and services purchase, and billers’ subscription payment. Users may access banking services from their hand phone devices without going to the physical bank branches. A research to investigate the factors for the embrace of MB systems to current banking activities is needed.
Research in the adoption of mobile banking (MB) has only been conducted in the last 15 years, immediately after the emergence of smartphones and other internet-enabled mobile devices. The majority of this research has been conducted mostly in Asian countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. This study of MB adoption was conducted in Myanmar where there has been a lack of studies of MB.
There are two dominant technology adoption theories used in previous studies, the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). There are variations of outcomes from studies, where some factors appear to be supported by many (e.g. perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and social influence). There are also conflicting outcomes where a factor is supported by one study, but not supported in others. This study aims to contribute in the study of those factors that may influence the adoption of MB by developing and testing a theoretical model based on the analysis of the factors included in previous studies that have been supported or not supported. In particular, Venkatesh et al. (2003) advised the use of moderating factors (age, gender, experience, and voluntariness of use) in their UTAUT model. Nevertheless, unlike this study several previous studies of MB adoption using UTAUT model do not consider moderating factors.
The purpose of this study is to address three related questions:
What are the factors that affect the attitude and the intention of users to adopt MB systems in Myanmar? Are these effects moderated by personal factors? What are the practical implications of the findings?
The findings are expected to contribute to a theoretical understanding of MB adoption with practical implications for those responsible for MB services. Specifically, this type of study hasn’t been done in the Myanmar context.
A related literature review and the theoretical model development are discussed next succeeded with the research design and methodology discussion. The data preparation results and analyses are presented next followed by the findings of the study discussion and concluding remarks are presented last.
TopThe review of related literature included a variety of studies concerned with MB adoption. The focus of each study, the theoretical basis and constructs, and the country for data collection are summarized in Table 1. These previous studies were used to identify the important constructs included in the theoretical model for this study.