Mobile Banking: Measuring the Post-Adoption Customer Perception of Mobile Banking Services - Literature review Example

ARTICLE MEASURING THE POST-ADOPTION PERCEPTION OF MOBILE BANKING SERVICES This research was conducted to determine the perception after the adoption of mobile banking services. The purpose of the study was to develop a better model for measuring what the user of m-banking perceives of the services after adopting them. This research must also include attitude of user towards m-banking because perception is closely related with attitude towards a product/service. The research was conducted in Taiwan, China. The sample composed of 458 respondents. 55% of the respondents were female and the rest were males. Moreover, 53.46% were under 30 years of age (youngsters) and 29.19% lie between 31-40 years of age (elders). This sample at one hand is attractive but on the other hand it is not. Firstly, the sample comprises of majority of females which leads the findings to gender biasness. Secondly, approximately 54% of the sample was composed of youngsters who were tiny account holders but had potential for future large m-banking accounts; so, they could be said to as attractive to m-banking service providers. But, on the other hand the more mature and huge account holders comprised of only 29.19% of the respondents. Rest of the 17% was not titled to any special category of respondents (Yu. & Fang, 2009). This is the main weakness of this study. The framework of research designed around 6 factors which influence post adoption customer perception. These include: security service, interactivity, relative advantage, ease of use, interface creativity, customer satisfaction. The areas covered under customer satisfaction can direct the responses to positive perception. Instead, of pleasantness and elation, attitude of customers towards adoption of m-banking should be solicited. Furthermore, pleasantness and elation are vague variables; instead the researcher must identify reasons of customer satisfaction. Because high satisfaction of customers for m-banking doesn’t mean that they are dissatisfied with traditional banking. (See figure: 1 below) The research instrument used for soliciting responses was questionnaire. It used attributes that are drawn from previous researches and are also modified according to the latest user demands and m-banking business environment. This was the strength of the questionnaire which drew comprehensive responses both on the previously established and advanced attributes. This research article has a directed set of mind i.e. m-banking is a subset of electronic banking which has the tendency to direct responses of the respondents. This is done by developing queries that direct the respondent’s ability to think in a particular way and not his own way. This might leads to a type of researcher biasness. This argument is valid in this case because, the type of questions asked was not mentioned in the paper. So the extent of objectivity or subjectivity of data gathered is questionable and so the findings of the research. Finally, the findings of the study determine that the post adoption user perception is 82.786%; which is calculated using the weights of the 6 factors influencing the user perception. The use of weights is the strength of the methodology adopted for computation; as the percentage of influence of each of 6 factors on the consumer perception differs to a great extent. The results of the study identify only the current users’ perception of m-banking in isolation. However, to have a better understanding of users’ perception and current status of m-banking; the researcher must also compare the m-baking user perceptions with those of traditional banking. This could be done by designing the questionnaire in a manner that it should include the value created by both; traditional banking and m-banking services. Figure:1 (Source: Yu. & Fang, 2009) ARTICLE 2: THE MODERATING EFFECT OF GENDER IN THE ADOPTION OF MOBILE BANKING In this article, the term mobile banking encompasses the area of electronic banking, undertaken through mobile phones or any wireless device, to deliver the customers desired electronic financial services. Mobile market is deemed more lucrative and more substantial than PCs because of their ease of portability; learning and use of mobile technology. Its uses surpass to marketing and CRM (Riquelme, & Rios, 2010). This research article focuses on the effect of gender over adoption of mobile banking. Previous studies have shown that males hold more positive attitude towards mobile banking than females. They have found that females are more concerned with security while males rely more over effectiveness. The research model constitutes a framework of 5 variables that describes the adoption of mobile banking. These variables include: 1. Perceived Risk: Negative relation: higher the risk, lower will be the intention of users to adopt mobile banking. 2. Social Norms: Direct impact over adoption. 3. Perceived Usefulness: Higher the usefulness perceived by the consumer, higher will be the intention to adopt mobile banking. 4. Relative Advantage: Higher the perceived competitive advantage mobile banking has over all other sources of electronic banking, higher will be the consumer’s intention to adopt mobile banking. 5. Ease of Use: The higher the consumer perceived ease of use of mobile banking, higher will be the intention to adopt it (Riquelme, & Rios, 2010). The model is limited to fewer variables; it should also include communication as a pioneer variable which can potentially influence the adoption of m-banking. A sample of 681 Singaporeans was targeted to respond using questionnaires. The responses were measured using a seven point scale, which used different items drawn from earlier studies. This sample includes only internet banking users whose perceptions can potentially be so different from traditional banking consumers. Moreover, the study is measuring gender biasness but nowhere in the study the number of male and female segments identified in the sample. The scale used items extracted from earlier studies might relate this research to previous finding but it can also limit the dimensions of influence of new items over the adoption. So this limits the scope of findings to previous items. Data analysis used Exploratory Factor Analysis, EFA and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, CFA. The data gathered used to measure discriminant validity, correlation measures and convergent validity measures, composite reliability measures and Average Variance Extracted, AVE; all of these only provide objective information. These statistics limit the interpretation of results in a broader context; therefore, the findings must also be linked subjectively. The structural model was evaluated in terms of goodness of fit. It was found that the hypothesis established was statistically in right direction. The study provides sufficient evidence to statistically proof the findings as robust. Competitive advantage and ease of use accounts for 67% of the variance in usefulness. Finally, the usefulness, risk and social norms accounts for 50% of the variance in the mobile banking adoption directly. The subject of this research was to study the moderating effect of gender over the variables in our prime focus. Moderating effect refers to modifying the actual impact of independent variables (the 5 factors) over dependent variable (adoption in our case). It was found that women and men hold different perceptions regarding the influence of usefulness and social norms. But the perception of risk was not moderated by the either gender. This is either because it is equally important to both male and female or it is irrelevant to them. Therefore, research findings provide insufficient evidence for determining the moderating effect of gender over risk which is a major factor responsible for technology adoption. Research findings and their statistical proofs identified that the results were useful implications for banks to explore and penetrate mobile banking market. However, before targeting consumers the banks must develop applications and services from discriminating perceptions of male and female. But contrary to these findings, developing discriminating strategies and communication might confuse the prospective consumers on the whole. This study or prior statistics gave only a numeric conclusion to our hypothesis. Qualitative study would develop a comprehensive understanding of the promising and growing mobile banking market on subjective grounds. ARTICLE 3: MOBILE BANKING SERVICES “Adopting new & innovative mobile financial applications and service provisioning methods” The fastest and most rapid growing pace of “mobile telecommunication devices and wireless market” has given birth to the concept of “mobile banking”. This growing market of mobile phone users highlighted many financial institutions the opportunity that lies within mobile usage. This gave them the idea of establishing a joint venture between a bank and a non-bank organisation. Mobile banking enables a user to avail a variety of accounting, brokerage and financial information services using any electronic mobile device (Mallat, Rossi, & Tuunainen, 2004). Mobile banking’s escalating acceptance amongst users is because of the ease of mobility and facility of performing effortless transactions. M-commerce has aided financial service providers to conduct transactions and virtually interact with customer anywhere and everywhere, alleviating the problem of reach for many remote customers. These prompt software developers to develop different novel financial applications. Payment exchanged between buyer and seller using any mobile device is referred as mobile payments. These are categorised as micro- and macro- payments, the difference between the two is the “size of transaction” to be conducted. Mobile payment is also categorised according to location; when payment is done through any electronic networking device from a distant place, it is called as remote micro/macropayment; payment occurred from point of sale is called as proximity macro/micropayment (Mallat, Rossi, & Tuunainen, 2004). These are elaborated below: Remote payments that are less than 10$/€ are termed as micro-payments. Micro-payments at unmanned POS include applications used in vending machines and self service stations. Manned POS payments include apps used by shop keepers and restaurant keepers, pilot projects etc. Macro payment applications are used for conducting large scale transactions remotely through electronic devices as well as through POS (manned & unmanned) applications. Time-honored payment mechanisms pose severe competition for macro payment apps however, software developers have come up with solutions like passage control, digital signatures and mobile government services for mobile authentication. There are several ways to charge a mobile payment: 1. One way is to compensate the payment with the customer’s monthly mobile bill of the postpaid consumers and for prepaid consumers the amount is deducted from the airtime credit of the user. 2. Credit card billing scheme enables mobile payment in a manner that whenever a transaction takes place the amount is charged to the user’s credit card bill. 3. Another alternative is that a separate account is maintained for mobile payments. This would reduce the credit risk but at the same time create a problem for users to manage diverse accounts. 4. Another billing method is a direct debit deduction, i.e. the payment is deducted directly from the user’s current bank account. It is more logical as no additional account is kept but the same bank account is utilised for mobile payments (Mallat, Rossi, & Tuunainen, 2004). Financial information and services using SMS applications, WAP and GPRS facilities These have created a solo market place for m-banking. However, these applications have their own limitations from user point of view which could limit m-banking both in terms of functionality and customer use. M-commerce has so much potential for business that it has attracted diversified organisations in this arena. Initially the market which was served by only banks has now shared across different organisations; all of these have dissimilar interests, strengths and weaknesses. They assist each other in establishing a valuable infrastructure for m-banking. Let us consider them in detail. 1. Banks: Banks wants to maintain their status as fundamental amongst financial service providers. They want to explore new markets using mobile technology and telecommunication services as a platform for better financial services. They offer mobile payment facility to non credit card users. They are capable of managing account based payments, macro payments and in mediation of payments. 2. Telecommunication services: They require more traffic for mobile networking and mobile content service and applications for user interface. They are interested in these areas because smart applications can substantially increase the mobile content demand and eventually boast sales. They are capable of handling small payments, collecting payment information and billing and also provide the user’s location information using network services. 3. Technology providers: They are interested in establishing standards for developing efficient and advanced applications. Mobile technology and software service providers require setting up terminals and application infrastructure using telecom switch features (Mallat, Rossi, & Tuunainen, 2004). Moreover, certain retailers are coming up with services that can bypass banks and telecom. Technology 2.5G ad 3G devices will also further speed up the m-payment mechanisms. With the passage of time the key players emerge with new possibilities of m-banking by developing mutual strategies based on joint competencies, otherwise they may not survive with the competition. Finally, no matter how attractive these technologies are the decision always lies with the ease, trust and satisfaction of valued customers and how they evaluate these advancements. ARTICLE 4: ASSESSMENT OF TODAY’S MOBILE BANKING APPLICATIONS FROM THE VIEW OF CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS This article analyses the customer requirements from both; mobile application and banking service point of view. M-banking is the extension of electronic banking and is the most efficient B2C application of e-commerce. The increasing use of mobile devices has enlightened the opportunity for banks to offer financial services using a cheaper alternative i.e. mobile device. From customer’s view a mobile device is deemed as personal, portable and handy. Mobile devices are embraced by all social classes; even non-bank users are mobile users. Despite all the attractiveness this banking technology has still not realised its optimum potential. To determine the reason customer requirements for mobile applications were measured in two contexts 1. The need and expectations of a user; 2. The limitations of mobile communication techniques. Limitations include restricted input and display capabilities using a mobile; dependency over third party, telecom services; mobile data transmission is expensive in both cases i.e. packet-switch (GSM) and circuit switch (GPRS). Moreover, mobile data transmission lacks security measures; possibility of data loss (Pousttchi, & Schurig, 2004). Needs of a mobile user were determined using 2 course group discussion. Four cases were formulised; based on real life situations of the respondents in the group discussions. One of the shortcoming of this article is the use of group discussion in isolation i.e. no other objective technique for data gathering was utilised was accurate statistical responses. The cases developed using group discussions (G.D) were drawn from the mere experiences of fewer respondents of the discussion. As the maximum limit of G.D is 50 respondents; which is not the true representation of the market at large. The study has not identified the actual number of respondents participated in the G.D, therefore the findings are more subjective and account for very limited population. No solid evidences are provided to link the cases to the requirement identified in the table below: The quantitative model used has is very complex and has few limitations in terms of relating the factors to one another. Moreover, the order of relevance of customer requirements presented in this article is calculated by a separate group of individuals 20 in number. WAP enabled and PDA banking ranks first amongst mobile banking applications according to the researched requirements of the customer. Yet they also have the limitations of: complicated authorisation, restrict adoption in some mobile devices, no offline usage option, and no virtual space for storage in WAP etc. SIM toolkit application is restricted to single MNO and their services, SMS banking is much cheaper but it has serious security issues (Pousttchi, & Schurig, 2004). This study is a based on generalised outcomes, because of the fact that no systematic research framework was established in the initial face of study. This paper contains content cluster i.e. t the study is done across scattered dimensions and the findings are not properly coordinated. This is the main flaw of this paper. When the starting is not logical and conclusive the findings are not reliable enough. However, this research paper is useful for exploring the mobile banking environment; which can develop understanding of the current and future mobile applications and the associated issues with these apps. But it doesn’t provide scientific evidence on the customer requirements for m-banking application. Reference list Mallat, N, Rossi, M, & Tuunainen, V 2004, “Mobile Banking Services”, Communication of the Acm, vol. 47, no. 5. Available from [Accessed 1st March 2012]. Pousttchi, K, & Schurig, M 2004, “Assessment of Today’s Mobile Banking Applications from the view of Customer Requirements”, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Big Island, Hawaii. Available from: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2913/1/MPRA_paper_2913.pdf [Accessed 1st March 2012]. Riquelme, H, & Rios, R 2010, “The moderating effect of gender in the adoption of mobile banking”, International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 328-341. Yu. T, & Fang, K 2009, “Measuring the Post-Adoption Customer Perception of Mobile Banking Services”, Cyber Psychology & Behavior, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 33-35. Read More