Internet Banking Adaptation Behavior

Introduction

The 1980s witnessed a marked shift in the banking services’ distribution channels due to the emergence of new technologies that simplified remote access to banks i.e. telephone banking, ATMs, debit cards, access via proprietary software installed on PCs, internet banking, and mobile banking. Given the information-intensive nature of its operations and services, the banking sector is relatively amenable to innovative technologies (Polasik and Wisniewski, 2009). With the development of asynchronous and secure transaction technologies, an increasing number of banks worldwide are broadening their service capabilities and reaching out to their customers by offering low-cost, self-service automated channels, i.e. Internet Banking (IB) as a transactional and informational medium. Although decisions about integration of technology in financial services delivery are made at corporate level, the availability of new and complex technology such as IB does not necessitate the level or magnitude of change. A critical aspect illustrating successful implementation is the acceptance of this technology at individual level i.e. customers’ adoption pattern.

In order to be successfully adopted and utilized, IB must offer clear-cut benefits for users (e.g. how easy or useful it is to use or how compatible it is with an individual’s lifestyle and past experiences). Furthermore, benefits are seen as a necessary but alone are insufficient conditions toward understanding IB behavior (Lasser et al., 2005). Customers’ individual differences (demographics or personality traits) should also be considered along with various social, psychological and contextual influences in understanding the final adoption behavior. Customers’ IB behavior is indeed a complex process as its adoption depends on congruence between functional, utilitarian and technological aspects of IB and the social, psychological, economical and contextual characteristics of users. This perspective asserts that IB adoption is primarily an outcome of a learning or communications process and a fundamental step in examining this process is the identification of factors that play an important role in the adoption of IB. The following points characterise IB as a complex and innovative technology:

• •

  IB requires an interaction between an innovative medium of service delivery (Internet) and an intangible service (high in credence qualities).

• •

  IB relies on an advanced telecommunication infrastructure (PC, Internet, and Mobile phone), which creates dependencies with other components of the technological system availability and experience with such technologies.

• •

  The complexity of IB can create learning barriers.

• •

  The successful implementation of IB requires a considerable user mass to be efficiently deployed.

Ib Literature

Since its growth in popularity in the late 1990s, IB has attracted attention of both academics and practitioners resulting in an extensive research quest to seek an understanding of how and why individuals choose to adopt or to resist IB. Consequently, a dominant part of IB literature has focused on the demand aspect or the process by which adoption or rejection occurs. This research stream has been studied through holistic and quantitative causal models and theories from adoption and diffusion literature which explain key dependent variables of interest, that is, behavioral intention to use and use. Behavioral intention is defined as “a person’s subjective probability that he will perform some behavior” (Fishbein and Azjen 1975, p. 288). Use is generally measured by the frequency, duration, and intensity of IB usage. The role of intention as a predictor of adoption behavior is critical and has been well-established in IB and information systems research (Taylor and Todd, 1995).