Abstract:
Internet Banking is a form of Self Service Technology, introduced by the leading Commercial
Banks in the country in the recent past. Banks that offer this facility claims that that it reduces costs
and makes them more competitive. But reports on Internet Banking show that the adoption and
usage of such services by customers are low. An understanding of what are the factors which
influence adoption can assist banks to implement this innovative self-service technology more
efficiently. In Sri Lanka, relatively little empirical research has been carried out to examine factors
influencing adoption of Internet banking services. The available studies in the country are
quantitative studies carried out in southern part of Sri Lanka. There is a methodological research gap
for a deep qualitative study on this aspect. This study fulfills this gap by carrying out a qualitative
study in Jaffna. The study was carried out by conducting in-depth interviews among thirty
customers comprises of both users and non-users of Internet Banking facility. In interview data was
processed through qualitative content analysis. In this process, similar data chunks were coded in
two stages – First Cycle Coding and Second Cycle coding. Thereafter, these codes were brought
under nine categories which provide meaningful representation of the study data and it was
identified and labeled as the factors influencing adoption of Internet Banking in the region.
Awareness, Ease of Use, Security Concerns, Resistance to change, Managing with passwords,
Demonstrability, Branch Density, Self-efficacy and Savings Culture are the factors identified in this
study. Three of these factors are new to the literature namely “Branch density”, “Managing with
passwords” and “Savings Culture”. The results show that adopters perceive the IB as “Easy to use”
and “Secure”. But, Security is a major concerns for non-adopters. Apart from security concerns
lack of Awareness, Resistance to change, Demonstrability , Branch Density, Self-efficacy and
Savings Culture are the other factors that impeding Non-Adopters towards adoption. “Managing
with Passwords” is an emerging concern for both Adopters and potential Non-Adopters.
