Internet banking in Jordan. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) perspective
| Published date | 22 August 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13287260710817700 |
| Pages | 78-97 |
| Date | 22 August 2007 |
| Author | E. AbuShanab,J.M. Pearson |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Internet banking in Jordan
The unified theory of acceptance and use of
technology (UTAUT) perspective
E. AbuShanab
College of Information Technology and Computer Sciences,
Yarmouk University, Yarmouk, Jordan and
J.M. Pearson
College of Business and Administration, Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale, Illinois, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the key determinants of the adoption of
internet banking in Jordan. The paper also attempts to validate the appropriateness of the Unified
Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) within the context of internet banking.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was developed based on previous work in the
areas of technology acceptance and internet banking. The questionnaire was distributed through three
banks in Jordan to customers as they enter each bank’s main office. Multiple regressions were utilized
to evaluate the collected data.
Findings – The results of this study indicate that UTAUT provides a good foundation for future
technology acceptance research. The three main predictors relevant to this study (performance
expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence) were significant and explained a significant
amount of the variance in predicting a customer’s intention to adopt internet banking. The results also
indicate that gender moderated the relationships between the three independent variables and the
dependent variable (behavioral intention).
Research limitations/implications – This study did not follow-up with respondents to determine
if they actually adopted internet banking. Therefore, the results do not measure actual adoption.
Originality/value – This study is one of the first to utilize the Unified Theory of Acceptance and
Use of Technology (UTAUT) to the technology acceptance domain. It also provides a broader view of
the technology acceptance decision in that the study took place in a non-English speaking culture
(Arabic – Jordan).
Keywords Internet, Banking,Jordan, Consumer behaviour
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The World WideWeb (WWW) has changedthe world since it startedfacilitating internet
activities for both individuals and businesses. World Wide Web users have been
increasing exponentially since its introduction in the early 1990s. Based on numbers
published by Internet World Stats (2007), there are approximately 1,086 million internet
users world wide. The estimated annual growth rate of internet users world wide is 202.9
per cent, with an even higher rate projected in the Middle East (490.1 per cent). Arab users
of the WWW are projected to reached 19 million by the end of 2007.
Although many business analysts overestimated the impact of internet technologies
when they were first introduced, we now know that the presence of these technologies
has and will continue to shape business practices for years to come. One industry that
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Journal of Systems and Information
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DOI 10.1108/13287260710817700
has witnessed a significant influence of WWW technology is the banking industry.
The WWW provides banks with a new channel in reaching their customers.
Previously, customers could perform banking transactions only at bank’s premises, or
by ATM or telephone, but the WWW has opened new opportunities for banks to
introduce online banking services to their customers. According to Orr (2001), the total
number of customers performing one transaction per month has grown from 1 million
to 16 million since 1996. The same report indicated savings for banks of $5 per
transaction and a return on investment of approximately 60 per cent for banks utilizing
the WWW.
Customers also benefit from this new channel of delivery. Internet banking gives
them the option to perform banking transactions and other related activities from
home, and the convenience of performing most banking transactions twenty-four
hours a day, 365 days a year. Unfortunately, given these advantages, customers of
financial institutions have not completely embraced internet banking. Like other
innovations, internet banking faces many obstacles associated with its adoption. Since
the success or failure of this technology will depend on the rate at which it is adopted,
there is a need to determine which factors influence customers to adopt internet
banking. This research hopes to add to the body of knowledge in the area of technology
acceptance and specifically internet banking adoption by customers in developing
countries.
This paper is organized as follows. The next section provides an overview of the
areas of technology adoption and internet banking. Then, the research model is
described and hypotheses presented. The results and analysis of data are discussed
next and finally, limitations, implications, future research and conclusions in the
concluding section of the paper.
Literature review
Technology acceptance
The technology acceptance domain is a well researched area in the information
systems area. Several models and theories exist that try to predict an individual’s
intention to adopt or not adopt a specific technology. This research has typically
concentrated on “usage” or “intention to use” as the key dependent variable. Research
in this area has explored topics such as the adoption of electronic commerce (Grandon
and Mykytyn, 2004), software applications (Davis et al., 1989; Mathieson, 1991), e-mail
usage (Szajna, 1996), telemedicine applications (Chau and Hu, 2001), computer usage
(Compeau and Higgins, 1995), and internet banking (Tan and Teo, 2000). For a
comprehensive review of the proposed models/theories of technology acceptance, see
Venkatesh et al. (2003).
Research in the area of technology acceptance generally has lacked the integrated
view needed to understand the domain. The work proposed by Venkatesh et al. (2003)
integrates previous technology acceptance models into a Unified Theory of Acceptance
and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The UTAUT hypothesized four main indicators as
influencing behavioral intention and/or use behavior (see Figure 1). These
relationships were suggested to be moderated by age, gender, experience and
voluntariness. Venkatesh et al. also suggested that behavioral intention significantly
influenced use behavior with no moderation effect assumed between intention and use.
One of the main conclusions of Venkatesh et al. was that, contrary to many previous
Internet banking
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