An analysis into client based banking applications in South Africa
Date
2014-02-17
Authors
Naidoo, Drushen
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Abstract
The relationship between customers and their banks is becoming more dynamic
(Ernst and Young, 2012). Customers are seeking greater control in their banking
relationship. They are switching banks, changing their behaviours and seeking
efficiencies. Banks need to reconfigure their business models, revaluate
assumptions and fundamentally change how they interact with customers (Ernst
and Young, 2012).
It is estimated that there are over 10 million active smartphones in South Africa
(Deloitte, 2013). The convergence of banking services and mobile technologies
allows users to conduct banking service at any time or place through mobile
banking (Gu, Lee, & Suh, 2009).
The advent of smartphones and tablets has allowed banks to enhance the
delivery of mobile financial services through the development of client based
banking applications. These client based smartphone applications are developed
for specific mobile operating systems such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android,
Blackberry’s Blackberry OS7.1, 6.0 and 5.0.
Smartphones will allow banks to leverage newer mobile technologies, harness
analytics gathered through use of their applications to position products and
services that will be of interest to their customers. This could result in increased
revenues and it also provides an opportunity to increase market penetration. “ As
banks develop their strategies for giving customers access to their accounts
through cell phones and other mobile devices, they should also regard this
emerging platform as a potential catalyst for generating operational efficiencies
and as a vehicle for new revenue sources.“ (Deloitte Development, 2010)
This research attempts to analyse and evaluate the usage patterns of clientbased
mobile banking applications in South Africa by trying to ascertain what
functionalities are performed on mobile banking applications and how often they
are performed. This paper attempts to address these questions by building on
(Trudel, Boeck, Bastonnais, Rabec, & Bergeron, 2011) typology of functionalities
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performed on mobile banking applications by including a new construct,
Frequency of Use in the determination of usage patterns
Description
MBA thesis
Keywords
Banks and banking, Client-based banking, Mobile banking