Recently, mobile banking has gained significant importance, and the growth of the field is accelerating. Due to a rapid increase in smart phone users, banks have shifted the competitive landscape from physical banking branches to internet banking and mobile banking services. However, many customers remain reluctant to use this banking channel. It is crucial for banks to meet customers' need and understand which factors play an important role in encouraging or discouraging them from using mobile banking. Culture can also play an important role on these factors. This study compares the mobile banking perceptions between the consumers in the U.S. and in Thailand and reveal various factors that influence mobile banking adoption for these two nationalities. The findings suggest factors that banks should consider when implementing mobile banking services, thus allowing them to design the services that meet the needs of their customers.
TopIntroduction
Emerging technologies often result in new opportunities, choices, and possibilities, which allow businesses to open new channels for offering products or rendering services to meet their customers’ need (Bhattacharjee et al. 2006, Changchit et al., 2017). The increasing popularity of the Internet has created great challenges for companies to offer products or services via this new distribution channel (Chau & Lai, 2003). As with other types of online businesses, Internet and mobile banking has gained significant importance, and the growth of the field is accelerating (Afshan & Sharif, 2016; Kim et al, 2013). The Internet-based technologies enable banks to provide customized content that can educate and cross-sell while strengthening the long-term relationship between banks and customers (Chau & Lai, 2003). Banks around the world have invested about $115 billion for the purpose of increasing mobile banking adoption (Baadullah et al., 2019).
With a growing number of households turning towards the world of e-commerce, it is crucial for online businesses to realize the need to run their business to suit the convenience of their customers. Recently, the number of consumers owning sophisticated mobile handheld devices, i.e., smart phones, has rapidly increased (Gerpott et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2013). The functionalities of this communication device not only enable consumers to make voice calls but also allow them to perform several transactions via mobile applications (West & Mace, 2010). The mobile devices can be used not only for personal activities, but also for business-related activities, particularly in mobile environments (Zhang & Jasimuddin, 2015). Rapid advances in mobile technologies and devices have made mobile banking increasingly important in mobile commerce and financial services (Lin, 2011). This service provides a more convenient means for customers to meet their banking needs with more complete and timely information (Baptista & Oliveira, 2015; Gerrard & Cunningham, 2003). However, many customers remain reluctant to use the mobile banking due to its security (Muñoz-Leiva, Climent-Climent, & Liébana-Cabanillas, 2017). These situations increase the number of mobile banking users and it is interesting issue of finding which factors the users use in adopting the mobile banking services.
Research in this area have expanded to investigate the reason of using mobile banking outside U.S. Cross cultural effect has been found to be important in many studies (Al-Refaie, 2014; Ao & Liu, 2014; Bin et al., 2003; Greenberg et al., 2008; Yan et al., 2014; Lippert & Volkmar, 2007; Chang et al., 2015). For instance, Chang et al. (2015) gathered survey data from university students in Cambodia, Iran, and South Korea producing results showing that country development index has a significant effect on the levels of the digital divide. A study conducted by Hung et al. (2012) revealed that respondents from different cultures prefer different communication methods. Shin and Choo (2012) use the sample from U.S. and Korea to study the cross-cultural effect on smart phone users and find that different value preferences, intention, and adoption patterns were observed for the two countries.