Exploring the Factors Influencing Adoption of Internet Banking in Jaffna District.

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.