Essential Factors Influencing E-banking Services Intention to Use The Case of Jordanian Commercial Banks

Abstract

Many commercial banks in Jordan are eager to deliver e-banking services to their clients in an endeavour to enhance the quality of their services. However, some banks are somewhat reluctant to invest heavily in this field for fear of losing customers who, for various reasons, do not appreciate such technology-oriented services. These banks are not totally sure that the adoption of e-banking will be welcomed by such customers. From the outset, it seems that some bank customers fear reliance on technology due to main reasons. Thus, the bank managers should pay more attention to the critical factors that may influence the adoption of use of e-banking services.

It is clear that most of the technology adoption models are extensively tested in advanced countries and, as such, their results and implications apply only to situations in those countries. The very limited and restricted research on technology adoption models in Arabic countries indicate that only some studies have utilized technology adoption models, especially the ‘unified theory of acceptance and use of technology’ (UTAUT).
To this date, there is very limited research that examines the validity of the ‘unified theory of acceptance and use of technology’ model in e-banking services adoption. Indeed, no previous empirical studies have been conducted on the major factors that lead clients of Jordanian commercial banks to adopt e-banking services.

The current research reveals that the proposed extended UTAUT model, which was originally proposed and tested in developed countries, can also explain e-banking services adoption in developing countries, such as Jordan. The modified research model explained 0.887 of behaviour intention variance and 0.516% of intended degree of e-banking services use variance. The current research validated an Arabic instrument that can be used to measure the essential factors that influence e-banking services’ use in Jordanian commercial banks. The results of the current research indicated that three of the independent variables are good predictors of the dependent variable construct (behaviour intention to use e-banking services in the research model). The independent variables are effort expectancy, social influence, and perceived e-banking services quality. In contrast, performance expectancy and hedonic motivation are not significant predictors in the model. The results of the relationship between behaviour intention to use e-banking services and the intended degree of e-banking services’ use indicate a significant relationship between the two variables. The behaviour intention contributes around 0.72% in explaining the dependent variable variance.

Furthermore, the results of the moderating effect of age and gender on the users’ perception of the relationship between predictors (social influence, effort expectancy and perceived quality of e-banking services) and behaviour intention to use e-banking services indicated that gender is not a moderating variable between social influences, effort expectancy and perceived e-banking quality, and the behaviour intention to use e-banking services. With regards to whether age moderates with social influence, effort expectancy and perceived e-banking services quality, the results indicated significant results to all constructs at the 0.05 level.

The previous results supported some finding of the UTAUT model, with respect to the significance of the social influence and effort expectancy in predicting behaviour intention. The relationship between social influence and behaviour intention to use e-banking services was moderated by age only. The relationship between effort expectancy and behaviour intention was also moderated by age, but not moderated by gender. Finally, the relationship between perceived e-banking services and the behaviour intention was moderated by age, but not by gender.
Considering all of the testing results, the researcher concluded that compared to the original UTAUT model, the extended research model introduced a substantial improvement in the variance explained in behaviour intention to use e-banking services in the Jordanian commercial banks. These findings are consistent with the limited research using the UTAUT model in developing countries. The proposed research model provides better explanatory power than previous research conducted in other Arab countries.

The research findings are expected to contribute to the understanding of e-banking services’ adoption and use in the Jordanian commercial banks. However, the current research demonstrates that only age can have an effect on behaviour intention to use e-banking services. The effects of age could be a demonstration caused by a digital divide among Jordanian people. Thus, the main theoretical implications of the current research are based on enhancing a better understanding of the essential factors that influence e-banking services’ adoption and use within a rich and very complex Arabic cultural and social environment. The research findings also showed that the modified UTAUT model provides more explanation on e-banking services’ adoption and use.

Date of Award	31 Jan 2017
Original language	English
Supervisor	Jonathan Deacon (Supervisor) & Rosalind Jones (Supervisor)