Identifying factors influencing the acceptance of internet banking by customers and providing various solutions

1 Introduction

Today, customers have high expectations from banks to provide various services. They demand new levels of comfort and flexibility along with the power and ease of use of financial management products and services that traditional banking is unable to provide at this level (Tan and Teo [1], 2000). Compared to traditional banking, electronic banking has provided many choices to customers for using bank services, and in general, it can be said that the range of customers' choices in electronic banking has increased.

The increasing use of the Internet and many financial innovations in electronic banking have drawn the attention of researchers to Internet banking. Internet banking has grown in recent years as a way to maintain customer loyalty and increase market share. In the past, most of the researches in the field of internet banking were usually focused on technological development, but now the attention of experts has turned to researching the behavior and opinions of users. Although millions of dollars have been spent on building and processing internet banking systems; Existing reports show the fact that potential users, despite having access to these facilities, do not want to use these systems (Wang [2], 2003).

This issue shows the need to conduct new research to identify factors affecting the acceptance of Internet banking by users. From the thematic point of view, this topic is included in economic discussions in the discussion of microeconomics in the field of consumer behavior, as it is discussed in the discussion of consumer behavior that consumer behavior is influenced by various economic, social and personality factors, for example, the amount of demand of a consumer for a product is influenced by various factors such as the price of the product itself, the price of other products, income, taste, advertising and so on. As a service, the demand for internet banking services is also affected by various economic, social and behavioral factors, which are discussed in the theories of technology acceptance, and in each theory, some factors influencing consumer demand for a new technology are examined, for example, based on the model of acceptance and use of technology, the variables of user feeling towards ease of use and usefulness are the main factors in the acceptance and use of information technology, and its demand is influenced by these two factors, or in Picarainen's model, the demand for internet banking is influenced by the six factors of sense of practicality, sense of ease usability, feeling of pleasure, familiarity with internet banking, security and quality of internet connection, but it seems that these theories cannot fully explain the behavior of users and the demand of users towards new and expanding technologies in the field of internet banking information technology. In this research, it is tried by combining different models that will be explained more clearly in the next chapter. has had, which has been effective in providing new services to customers. Providing services through technologies such as the Internet, personal computers, and telephone banking allows many financial institutions to provide various services to customers, and while reducing the overhead costs of banks, they also reduce the costs incurred by customers. Many banks are trying to draw the attention of customers to the fact that by using internet banking, they can benefit from better rates in their deposits and loans. Better access to information, the speed of money transfer, the feeling of full control over accounts, their efficiency and ease, are some of the pleasant features of internet banking for customers (Brano [3], 2003; Plasik [4], 2009).

During recent years, the growth of online banking service acceptance has been very fast, and in some western countries such as Finland, more than 50% of bank customers use internet banking services. On the other hand, there are evidences that show that a proportion of new customers who have used internet banking services for the first time do not continue to use this service channel as active and permanent customers. Therefore, the identification of factors affecting the decision and behavior of consumers has been the focus of researchers, and new models have been presented to explain the factors affecting the acceptance of new services or technology.

Technology Acceptance Model [5] (Davis [6], 1989) is one of the methods that is used to investigate the factors affecting people's behavioral inclination towards accepting and using a new technology. The technology acceptance model basically includes the explanation and relationship between the factors of perception of ease of use [7], perception of practicality [8], attitude toward use [9], behavioral tendencies toward use [10], and actual use. Customer's understanding of practicality and ease of use are the two main determining factors in the actual use of the system and the behavioral tendency to use it (Wu and Wang [11], 2007). In fact, these two perceptions are the predictors of the attitude towards the use and acceptance of technology (Mathison [12] et al., 2001).

Although the technology acceptance model can be used for many technologies, but this model has been criticized due to its inability to provide sufficient information about customers' opinions about new technologies (Moon and Kim [13], 2001). Therefore, the structure of this model should be developed by applying other factors.

In this research, by improving and localizing this model, the effect of other factors such as advertising, cost, familiarity with internet banking, security of private information and saving time and the existence of suitable infrastructures on customers' willingness to use and accept internet banking in Tejarat Bank have been investigated. The current research model is derived from the research of Davis [14] (1996) and Picaraiten (2004) and Mohammadi and Varkhaneh (2013), so that the effect of the variables of the cost of using the Internet and saving time and ease of use are taken from Davis's research and the variables of private information security and the existence of appropriate infrastructure and awareness about Internet banking are taken from Picaraiten's research and the advertising variable is taken from the research of Mohammadi and Varkhaneh.  This model is shown in the figure below:

1-3 Necessity and importance:

With the expansion of global trade and the entry of foreign competitors into the financial and monetary markets of the country, Iranian banks also need to develop their services in the direction of technological changes. Internet banking has been expanding in recent years at the level of private and public banks, but the culture of using these services has not yet been institutionalized in the country, and some people still go to banks for simple transactions, on the other hand, banks need to accept these services in order to compete and expand electronic services and attract more customers. Studies and research on the use of Internet banking and the understanding of customer opinions about the use of Internet banking show how these opinions and ways of thinking affect the customer's behavior regarding the use of Internet banking, and on the one hand, identifying the factors affecting the use of Internet banking by customers will help bank managers, to improve the provision of services and banking operations, to develop the space (market) for the provision of banking services and respond to the needs of customers, and on the other hand, by reducing costs, move towards obtaining more benefits. Use their marketing strategies to promote new forms of electronic banking systems. 1-4 research objectives: The purpose of this research is to identify the factors affecting the acceptance of internet banking by customers and provide various solutions, which can open the way for bank management to provide and expand electronic banking services, especially internet banking. From the point of view of marketing, identifying the target market and reaching the target customers as quickly, easily and accurately as possible is one of the planning priorities of the marketing managers of the institutions. The findings of this research in the descriptive part can help bank managers in identifying the target market and formulating a suitable strategy in this regard. On the other hand, the research results can help managers in identifying the obstacles to the expansion of Internet banking and providing solutions to overcome the obstacles. On the other hand, this research can be used for the designers of internet banking services, in order to provide better and more consistent services for customers to use and welcome them more.

1-5 scope of research:

1-5-1 thematic scope:

This research will deal with the topic of internet banking and examine the factors affecting its acceptance.

1-5-2 Location scope:

This research is at the level of Bank Tejarat branches in the province. Yazd.

1-5-3 Time period:

This research will be done for five months (December 2013 to May 2014).