Customer Perspectives on E-business Value - Internet Banking - Literature review Example

? Critical review and comparison of 2 referred and related journal articles in the field of business information management Introduction The process of critical review of a journal article relates acts as an information trajectory which aims at informing the reader the value of the article through the process of explanation, interpretation as well as analysis (Coutts, 2012). The essay will make a balanced analysis of the strength and weaknesses of the two articles ‘Customer Perspectives on E-business Value: Case Study on Internet Banking’ and ‘An exploratory study of victims using a national victimization survey’ and will provide a contrast of both of them along with their synthesis and conclusion. 1st journal -strengths The paper ‘Customer Perspectives on E-business Value: Case Study on Internet Banking’ written by Rahmath Safeena from its title reflects an important issue in the modern banking sector exhibited by the author. Along with that the author have also used keywords like internet banking, information and communication technology (ICT); perceived usefulness, ease of use, risk, awareness which are appropriate in examining the customer’s perspective (Safeena, 2010, p.5).Before moving into the discussion of the subject matter with in depth analysis, a brief literature review has been provided by the author reflecting various aspects of internet banking (Safeena, 2010, p.6). Identification of the research methodology is a crucial factor in executing research in a rigorous manner on a particular topic and also helps to deliver robust inferences. In this paper the process of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is being used for analyzing the extent of the acceptance of the internet banking system by the customers. The incorporation of the TAM model is a judicious application for reflecting the perspective of the customers related to the internet banking system (Safeena, 2010, pp. 6-7). Historically the model of TAM has been predominantly utilized by the information system researchers with a common notion that the model is valid in predicting the acceptance levels of the individuals regarding the new technologies. The variables like perceived usefulness as well as perceived ease of use are regarded as crucial factors which affects acceptance of a new technology. Empirics also reveal that there has been a positive correlation between the above two variables in the study of internet banking (Safeena, 2010, p.7). Applying proper statistical techniques it has been also found that when the online banking is perceived as useful then the customers are prone towards using internet banking. The findings state that usefulness, ease of use and risks are the prime parameters which affect positively the acceptability of the internet banking procedures (Safeena, 2010, pp.8-11). 1st journal -Weaknesses The author have mentioned description of different types of internet banking as well as different security issues in the literature review part but have included all the references which are old in their year of publication which are majorly around the year 1999-2000 and one or two references in the recent years like 2006 (Safeena, 2010, p.7). Again, in the strength section the process of TAM is mentioned which is indeed a good method of executing the research. But still this process suffers from some limitations. The first limitation is attached with the explanatory power of the model. Empirical results also found that the existing studies account for less than 60% of the variance explained especially those used by the professional users (Sun & Zhang, 2006, p.53). The sample used in for the purpose of research is students of business and economics students of an educational campus. But studying only the perspectives of the students will not provide any general conclusions about the overall public perspectives on the internet banking. (Khan & Mahapatra, 2009, p.35). The method of questionnaire has been used in carrying on the research and in the paper it is stated that relevant questions have been incorporated for the purpose of gaining the customer’s perspective. However the details of the questions and answers should have been mentioned in the appendix section or in the analysis section of the paper to appropriate more in depth analysis. 2nd Journal- Strengths In the paper the Differentiating identity theft: An exploratory study of victims using a national victimization survey by Copes et al, (2010), focuses on the intensity of the identity which is a severe white collar crime. The background of the study is based on the fact that although there has been a wide spread attention provided to the identity theft mechanism there has been a great confusion in defining them and also measuring them appropriately. The paper attempts at studying the concept that identity theft adversely affects profiles of the victims encircling their demographic characteristics, risky activities as well as reporting decisions (Copes et al, 2010, pp. 1045). Before entering into the in depth analysis of the subject matter a brief literature review have been provided backed with evidences including social issues like costs of identity theft and the victims of identity theft. The strength in this respect lies in the fact that all the evidences in the literature review section have been of the authors and their works with publication dates in recent years which are indeed a plus point (Copes et al, 2010, pp. 1046-1047). The key dependant variables were existing credit card fraud, existing account fraud, credit card fraud and that of identity theft and the independent variable which were considered included gender, age, race, education, income, as well as marital status which reflects the focus of the researchers (Copes et al, 2010, p. 1047). Proper statistical analyses were carried out and it was found that the fraud in the credit cards may obscure the fact that people who are female, black, young as well as are of low income are the majority who faces these type of identity theft cases. The findings of the study also state that swelling various crimes within the concept of identity theft may lead the investigators in attaining a nuanced understanding of the crimes.(Copes et al, 2010, pp. 1048-1051). 2nd Journal -Weaknesses The researcher concentrated on the profile of the victims extracted from the National Public Survey on White Collar Crime engaged in the credit card fraud as well as the existing bank account fraud. After that dependant as well as the independent variables were identified (Copes et al, 2010, pp. 1048). With respect to the marital status the observations did not reveal any clear patterns within the victims of the identity thefts. There were also no clear differences in the victimization across various types of identity theft as well as the percentage victimization for each type of crime by marital status (Copes et al, 2010, pp. 1050). Synthesis between the two papers The first paper states that there is a direct relation between the perceived risks, knowledge with the adoption of the internet banking by the customers. The second journal circumscribes around the notion of identity within the domain of the white collar crime and suggests to the fact that a micro level scrutiny is required to neutralize the identity theft issues which will see the proper implementation of technology for the benefit of mankind. Ways to improve There are some ways in which the article can be improved. In case of the first journal, references of recent years should have given a much clearer idea about the topic in question. The study is focused on the student’s perspective in an educational setting. The differences in the explanatory power used by the students and that of the professionals should have been taken into account as they can imply complex contextual factors in the real world. Another limitation of the model is that it poses inconsistent relationships within the constructs making the researcher in questioning the general acceptability of these models in different concepts.The study would have been much more fruitful if the sample included IT professionals, employees of the bank and workers of the technology firms. Again the author have not included the sought quality and perceived quality of the customers. The sought quality is generated with the expectations that are formed during a previous personal experience of a customer with a service. The perceived quality signifies to the overall impression that a customer possesses and encounters about the level of quality after the realization of the service. The difference between the two provides a better opportunity in measuring the customer satisfaction. Instead of taking the TAM approach the systems dynamics approach would have been taken. In the questionnaire method the details of the questions and answers should have been mentioned in the appendix section or in the analysis section of the paper to appropriate more in depth analysis. With respect to the second paper the study would have been more valuable if a primary survey was conducted with the individuals taken as samples. The sampling techniques which should have been used is that of the stratified sampling process for identifying location and distribution of the questionnaire to the respondents. Clear differences would have been made in the victimization data across various types of identity theft as well as the percentage victimization for each type of crime by marital and demographic status. Conclusion The critical review of the two articles concentrates on one of the most important dimensions in the banking mechanism of today’s world. The emergence of technology has really made the mode of financial transaction an easy trajectory but with that severe risks like identity theft has also emerged which infuses a jolt of pessimism among the consumers utilizing the internet banking facilities. Critical review of both the articles has given us the opportunity of exploring their respective strengths and weaknesses and also suggest better ways in conducting research and derive more scrutinized inferences. References 1. Coutts, H.T (2012), Critical Reviews of Journal Article, available at: < http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~genzuk/Reviews_Journal_Articles.pdf> accessed on October 13, 2012 2. Copes et al, (2010), Differentiating identity theft: An exploratory study of victims using a national victimization survey, Department of Justice Sciences, Vol.38, No.5, 1045–1052 3. Khan, M, S & Mahapatra, S,S (2009) , Service quality evaluation in internet banking: an empirical study in India, Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 2, No. 1, available at:< http://dspace.nitrkl.ac.in:8080/dspace/bitstream/2080/746/1/> accessed on October 25, 2012 4. Safeena, R, (2010), Customer Perspectives on E-business Value: Case Study on Internet Banking , Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, Vol.15, No.1 5. Sun, H & Zhang, P, (2006), The role of moderating factors in user technology acceptance, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, Vol. 64, pp. 53-78, available at: accessed on October 25, 2012 6. Read More