Background:
With the advent of the Web, the way bank customers perform various banking activities has changed over the years which has brought about the concept of social media banking. This refers to the use of social media as a form of delivery channel for banking services which may include balance inquiries, account opening and fund transfers. Banking using social media channels is relatively new and any idea that is perceived as new should be considered an innovation worthy enough to be studied.
Objective:
The objective of the study is to investigate and compare social media banking acceptance and adoption across two countries namely Nigeria and England and to identify what factors have significant effects on consumer attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social media banking.
Methods:
The study will use the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model developed by Venkatesh et al (2003). This model has been selected because it incorporates a range of variables from several models that have been used to understand technology acceptance and adoption. Venkatesh et al compared and summarized eight existing models of user acceptance theories and based on their results, they refined the eight models and merged it into an integrated single model which captures elements of the different models.
The UTAUT model was developed from theories in sociology and psychology and these theories are namely the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1986), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1985), the Motivational Model (MM) (Ryan and Deci, 2000), Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) (Taylor and Todd, 1995), the Model of PC Utilization (MPCU) (Thompson et al, 1991), the Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI) (Rogers, 2003), and the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986).
A mixed method approach will be used for this study. Quantitative data will be collected using the survey method while a semi structured interview will also be conducted to get an in depth understanding of the users experience and other factors that may not be evident through the use of quantitative methods. The target population will be bank customers who use social media banking tools and data analysis would be done using statistical techniques using an appropriate software. The study will be exploratory and deductive in nature as an existing conceptual framework will be used (Bryman and Bell, 2007).
Results:
The study will enable us find out what factors determine usage behaviour and what constructs (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions) significantly affect the acceptance and adoption of social media banking in both countries.
Future Work:
Future research would investigate cross culture effects on the adoption of social media banking as well as the effects of demographics on the acceptance of social media banking.
References
Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Ajzen, I. (1985). From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behaviour (pp. 13–37).
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Bryman, A., and Bell, E. (2007). Business Research Methods. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA.
Davis, F. (1986). Technology acceptance model for empirical testing new end-user information system: theory and results. MIT Sloan School of Management.
Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.
Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000). Self-Determination Theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. American psychologist, 55(1), pp.68-78.
Taylor, S., and Todd, P. (1995). Decomposition and cross-over effects in the theory of planned behaviour: A study of consumer adoption intentions. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 12(2), pp.137-155.
Thompson, R., Higgins, C., and Howell, J. (1991). Personal computing: Toward a conceptual model of utilization. MIS Quarterly, 15(1), pp.125-143.
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M., Davis, G., and Davis, F. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view, MIS Quarterly, 27(3) pp.425-478.
Venkatesh, V., and Zhang, X. (2010). Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology: U.S. vs. China, Journal of Global Information Technology Management. 13(1), pp.5-27.
