Factors affecting the acceptance of electronic banking among the customers of Bank Mellat in Ardabil province

Dissertation for Master's Degree

Field: Business Administration Major: International Business

Abstract

With the expansion of the use of information and communication technologies, the world is witnessing a huge transformation that is referred to as the information age. The banking industry is also experiencing a tremendous transformation under the influence of these changes. Obviously, if the customers do not accept the electronic banking systems, the provision of such services will fail and even though in many countries, millions of dollars have been spent to create electronic banking systems, reports indicate that despite the availability of these systems, potential users do not use these services. Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of evaluating, ranking and prioritizing the factors affecting the acceptance of electronic banking among Bank Mellat customers. The current research considers all the customers of Bank Mellat branches in Ardabil province who have a deposit account above one million Rials (126,915 people) in the time period of the second half of 2013 as a statistical population, and a sample of 383 people was selected according to Cochran's formula. The results of the analysis of the research hypotheses showed that performance expectations, functional expectations, customers' behavioral tendencies, social influence, security and trust and the actual use of electronic banking by customers have an effect on the acceptance of electronic banking by Bank Mellat customers.

Key words: electronic banking, customer, Bank Mellat, knowledge-based economy

Introduction

With the expansion of the use of information and communication technologies, the world is witnessing a huge transformation, which is called the era. Information is learned. The banking industry is also experiencing a tremendous transformation under the influence of these changes. Parallel to the expansion of the use of information technologies in the banking industry, electronic banking has also gained special importance as one of the consequences of information technologies. Because by using remote communication systems and information technology, a bank can provide better services to its customers and provide the possibility of doing banking transactions interactively for customers. By using electronic banking services, bank customers can perform their banking operations at the time and place of their choice, and on the other hand, banks reduce their operational costs and benefit from the reduction in the number of employees and the number of branches. With the development of communication and information technology, and the ever-increasing growth of transactions and electronic commerce in the world, and the need of business for the presence of banks to transfer financial resources, electronic banking is an inseparable part of electronic commerce, it has a fundamental role in its implementation.  Acceptance of electronic banking is one of the categories that has been considered by many researchers in recent decades. Since one of the vital factors influencing the competitive strategies of banks is the customer's behavior, it is very important to examine the factors affecting his behavior. Because the development of new technologies depends on its acceptance by the customer. The research identifies, examines and ranks the factors that affect the acceptance of electronic banking by customers. The community studied in this research are the customers of Bank Mellat branches in Ardabil province. In this way, the main problem of this research is to investigate the stimulating and inhibiting factors and the effect of their various factors on the acceptance of electronic banking by the customers of Bank Mellat branches in Ardabil province. Because it is necessary to provide some general information about the research project. It has been tried to provide brief explanations in the form of stating the problem, necessity and importance of research and be expressed The theoretical and operational definition of the research variables is also provided.

1-2- Statement of the problem

In recent years, the growth of information and communication technology has brought fundamental changes in the business world. With the development of information technology, all aspects of human life have undergone a fundamental transformation, so that the current world is undergoing a complete transformation.. In the meantime, financial institutions are not exempt from this rule and have undergone major changes in the management methods and processes of system-oriented and information-based businesses (Liao and Tauchong, 2012). In the banking and financial services industry, providing services to customers through the Internet is a growing phenomenon, and since customers must change their behavior patterns to use Internet banking services, the use of this technology can have many complications. In recent years, the advancement of information technology in the banking industry has fundamentally changed the way banking operations are performed, and customers can carry out their banking activities around the clock (Mahmoudi Meimand and Dehkordi, 2018).

In the meantime, electronic banking includes all electronic channels that customers use to access their accounts and transfer funds between accounts or pay their bills. These channels include internet, mobile, telephone, digital TV and ATMs (Javadin and Yazdani, 2012). Loyal customers are very important for the survival of a business. The horizon of the Internet, especially e-services, has expanded worldwide for business (Misra, 2014). The benefits of electronic banking can be considered from the perspective of customers and financial institutions. From the point of view of customers, benefits such as cost savings, time savings, and access to multiple channels for banking operations can be mentioned. From the point of view of financial institutions, it is possible to point out such features as creating and increasing the reputation of banks in providing innovation, retaining customers despite the locational changes of banks, creating opportunities for new customers in the target markets, expanding the geographical scope of activity and establishing full competition conditions. The banking industry is also experiencing a tremendous transformation under the influence of these changes (Hernandez and Mazon, 2013). Parallel to the expansion of the use of information technology in the banking industry, electronic banking has also gained special importance as one of the consequences of information technology. Because by using remote communication systems and information technology, a bank can provide better services to its customers and provide the possibility of conducting banking transactions interactively for customers (Compeo and Higgins, 2013). On the other hand, the acceptance of these innovations and technologies is dependent on people's tendencies to use them and create a match between technology and social economic issues and its characteristics (Kehzadi, 2011). For this reason, many studies have been conducted in the field of technology acceptance and especially electronic banking acceptance. But in the current research, the researcher is trying to conduct a comprehensive investigation in this regard in order to briefly determine what factors are effective in the acceptance of electronic banking in Bank Mellat branches in Ardabil province. 1-3- Necessity and importance of conducting research With the introduction of Iran's membership in the World Trade Organization and the entry of foreign competitors into the country's financial markets, Iranian banks also need to develop their services in line with technological changes. On the other hand, before providing any new services, research should be done on the economics of said services, compatibility of new services with the needs of society and what system can provide these services well to customers. In developing countries, banks usually try to imitate the services provided by the banking system of developed countries and provide services to their customers in an incomplete form due to the lack of research and investigations. According to the research of Misra (2014), it is obvious that if the customers do not accept electronic banking systems, the provision of such services will fail and even though in many countries, millions of dollars have been spent to create electronic banking systems, reports indicate that despite the availability of these systems, potential users do not use these services. Traditional banking through the branch still remains as the main method for transactions and banking operations in many countries, which has caused concern for banks.