Examining the Role of Usability, Compatibility and Social Influence in Mobile Banking Adoption in Indonesia

Adaptation to the internet and advances in mobile technology has become key to the survival of industries, including the banking industry. One of the latest electronic banking channels is mobile banking. While mobile banking offers various advantages, many banks in Indonesia are facing the problem of low adoption. This paper reports on the findings of our research project, which examines mobile banking adoption behavior in Indonesia from an interaction perspective. Specifically, the paper examines the role of usability, compatibility and social influence in explaining people’s intention to continue using mobile banking in Indonesia. Using an interaction perspective framework, a research model is proposed. Ten hypotheses are suggested, examining six constructs: satisfaction, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived learnability, compatibility and social influence. From a theoretical perspective, this paper is the first to combine usability, compatibility and social influence in a mobile banking adoption study. Data from 319 valid respondents were used to test the proposed model using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that all the hypotheses are supported, and it was found that people’s intention to continue using mobile banking is significantly affected by satisfaction, compatibility, perceived usefulness, perceived learnability and social influence.

Compatibility; Indonesia; Mobile banking adoption; Social influence; Usability

Many scholars have been interested in studying consumer adoption of technology in general, as well as the adoption of mobile banking. The literature on the adoption of technology provides several well-known models; for example, the Technology Adoption Model/TAM (Davis et al., 1989); the Diffusion of Innovation Theory/DOI (Rogers, 2003); and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Usage of Technology/UTAUT (Venkatesh et al., 2003). These models have been widely used in mobile banking adoption studies, combined with or supplemented by various constructs. Koenig-Lewis et al. (2010) combined TAM and DOI with consumer behavior, while Riquelme and Rios (2010) integrated TAM, DOI, risk and gender. Zhou et al. (2010) blended UTAUT with the Task-Technology Fit model (Goodhue & Thompson, 1995) and Wessels and Drennan (2010) applied the Self-Service Technology/Intention to Use model, a modification of TAM, combining it with interaction need and risk. Akturan and Tezcan (2012) extended TAM by adding benefit and risk, while Al-Jabri and Sohail (2012) supplemented DOI with risk. Bidar et al. (2014) and Hanafizadeh et al. (2014) employed various constructs from various adoption models, including TAM, and Baptista and Oliveira (2015) applied UTAUT2 (Venkatesh et al., 2012), extending it by adding culture. Khasawneh (2015) supplemented TAM with trust and credibility, while Alalwan et al. (2016) complemented it with risk and self-efficacy. Several studies have used certain perspectives; for example, the benefit-cost perspective (Shen et al., 2010); innovation characteristics and trust (Lin, 2011); trust and flow experience (Zhou, 2012); and innovation characteristics, brand association and risk (Chen, 2013).

Our previous work discusses the importance of examining interactions between elements in the mobile banking adoption system and proposes a framework for mobile banking adoption from an interaction perspective (Sitorus et al., 2016). The interaction perspective framework analyzes mobile banking adoption by studying four elements in the mobile banking adoption system, the individual, technology, tasks, and the environment, and elaborates three types of interaction: (1) individual-technology interaction; (2) individual-environment interaction; and (3) individual-task interaction.

We conducted a preliminary study of the first type of interaction in the framework, individual-technology interaction, which focused on two main concepts: usability and compatibility (Sitorus et al., 2017). We included five constructs in the research model: user satisfaction, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived learnability (derived from the usability literature), and compatibility. Although we only used a relatively small number of samples, the study indicated that usability and compatibility affect the intention to continue using mobile banking. An empirical study involving a larger number of samples is needed to provide better evidence to confirm the important role of usability and compatibility in mobile banking adoption behavior.

This paper reports on the findings of our research project, which examined mobile banking adoption behavior in Indonesia from an interaction perspective. Specifically, the paper examines the role of usability, compatibility and social influence in explaining users’ intention to continue using mobile banking in Indonesia. While our preliminary work investigated the first type of interaction in the interaction perspective framework, this paper extends the examination to the second type, i.e. individual-environment interaction. Many people, especially in Indonesia, have close relations and interactions with their social environment. We believe that the influence of the social environment also plays a crucial role in driving individual behavior. While Venkatesh et al. (2003) argue that the role of social influence has been debatable, empirical evidence has shown the positive effect of social influence on mobile banking adoption (Zhou et al., 2010; Bidar et al., 2014).

This paper makes a theoretical contribution by providing an empirical study of mobile banking adoption using a new perspective. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to combine usability, compatibility and social influence constructs in mobile banking adoption research.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The following section explains the conceptual model development and data collection method, and is followed by discussion of the results in Section 3. The conclusion and proposals for future research are presented in Section 4.

The study has found that the intention to continue using mobile banking is significantly determined by satisfaction, compatibility, perceived usefulness, perceived learnability and social influence. Satisfaction is found to have the highest influence on continued usage intention. This shows that satisfaction is not only important for bank customers in direct interactions at the physical bank branches, but also in their experience in using mobile banking applications.   Therefore, banks must focus their efforts on increasing customer satisfaction in using such applications. We found that satisfaction is largely determined by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, therefore banks should ensure that their mobile banking is easy to use and beneficial in order to improve customer satisfaction.

Our findings confirm that perceived learnability could be analyzed separately from perceived ease of use. In addition, this study is the first to find a significant effect of perceived learnability on the intention to continue using mobile banking.

The research model has been proven to be able to explain a high percentage of continuance usage intention variance. This suggests that examination of the interaction between individuals and technology, represented by usability and compatibility, along with the interaction between individuals and the social environment, can help to understand mobile banking adoption behavior.

The research used convenience sampling to collect empirical data, thus limiting the generalization of the findings. The study also only partially investigates the interaction perspective framework; future work will be to examine all the interaction types in the framework. An analysis of the differences between different sample characteristics and their influence on the intention to continue using mobile banking would also contribute to better understanding of bank customer adoption behavior.

The authors wish to thank Direktorat Riset dan Pengabdian Masyarakat and Direktorat Jenderal Penguatan Riset dan Pengembangan, Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia for their financial support in this research through Hibah Penelitian Disertasi Doktor 2017 (Research Contract No. 1598/K4/KM/2017).

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