Extension of TAM explaining the determinants of I-banking adoption: Bangladesh perspective

The advancement of technology and rapid growth in the number of internet users throughout the world has been pushing people to do all sorts of transactions online. This move towards digitization requires banking services to be automated and online. With its dream to become a digital nation by 2021, Bangladesh is striving hard to enter into the world market online. Hence, though late, banks in Bangladesh have started their I-banking services. However, the acceptance level of users is essential to understand before its full-fledged implementation. Thus, this study aims at explaining the determinants of internet banking with extended Technology Adoption Model (TAM) as the base. Though a good number of studies have already been undertaken using TAM, the study is justified in the sense that it would mitigate the research gap considering two country-specific variables like security and privacy risk. The variables are selected on the backdrop concerning the absence of a strict regulation for the use of the internet and a much-talked issue of internet speed and quality in Bangladesh. A questionnaire survey has been conducted among the internet users to identify the determinants of the intention to use I-banking (IUIB) and hence the adoption of it. A total of 200 questionnaires have been administrated using three different forms called an in-person survey, postal mail and google form. Out of 200 questionnaires, 150 fully completed and usable questionnaires have been received with a success rate of 75%. All the independent variables called perceived usefulness; perceived ease of Use, perceived enjoyment, access to information, security and privacy (S.P.) and quality of internet connection (QIC) are found to be significant in explaining the users’ IUIB. The IUIB is also found to be highly significant to explain the -banking Adoption by the users. The country-specific variable like the S.P. has a negative impact on I-banking adoption while the QIC found to have a positive impact in Bangladesh context. Hence, the study recommends the policymakers of Bangladesh to initiate strong laws for protecting the security of data over the internet with a special urge to the telecommunication regulatory authority and telecom companies to ensure technology infrastructure for high speed and smooth internet services.