Factors affecting the adoption and use of mobile banking in South Africa

Date
2012-10-04
Authors
Baloyi, Patrick Abel Shaniseka
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Mobile banking offers the banking industry an opportunity to reduce their cost-to-income ratios and to improve their service by reducing their focus on daily, lower-value banking functions to higher-value financial services. The high cellphone ownership among the economically active population makes mobile banking an obvious banking channel for banks to focus on. In the light of this opportunity, the purpose of this research was to identify factors that facilitate and inhibit the adoption and use of mobile banking services in South Africa. Data was collected using a structured survey questionnaire with closed-response questions. The questionnaire used in the study was a 7-point Likert scale questionnaire, which required respondents to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement with a variety of statements related to hypotheses drawn from technology adoption literature. For the analysis of the impact of customer demographics on the likelihood of the adoption of mobile banking, a database of banked customers with selected demographic variables was used. A binary logistic regression model was used to analyse the data. This study confirmed what international studies identified as the main factors that drive adoption of technology in general, and banking technology in particular. The study confirmed that usefulness and ease-of-use of mobile banking are central in the adoption of mobile banking services in South Africa. The ability to try mobile banking and experience with mobile technology were found to be significant in explaining the adoption and usage of mobile banking. The study also found that customer demographics have an impact on the adoption of mobile banking services. The challenge for banks is to ensure that customers see mobile banking as relevant in their day-to-day banking and financial lives. Without creating this relevance, very useful services will remain unused and their importance will go unnoticed. It is also important to make sure that mobile banking is as easy to use as possible while also ensuring that making the service secure does not compromise the service’s ease of use.
Description
MBA thesis - WBS
Keywords
Mobile banking, Banks and banking
Citation
Collections