Innovation Diffusion and Sustainable Development of Deposit Money Banks in South-South Nigeria: The Moderating Role of Entrepreneurial Marketing

Many deposit money banks in Nigeria are utilizing new technologies to innovate their products and services. But amidst these wins are some legitimate concerns about the credibility of the banks, customer trust, banks’ technical competence, capability to adopt innovations and the ability to sustain development. Framed by the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, this study explored the relationship between innovation diffusion and sustainable development of deposit money banks in Nigeria and the moderating role of entrepreneurial marketing. A quantitative and cross-sectional survey research design was adopted to consider three (3) hypotheses formulated for the study. Based on a population size of twenty-two (22) deposit money banks in south-south Nigeria, (Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), 2022), two (2) respondents; branch managers and marketing managers were drawn randomly from each of the banks for the survey. Therefore, forty-four (44) copies of questionnaire representing the total respondents were suitably designed and administered to obtain primary data. The face validity of the questionnaire was determined by experts comprising of researchers and business practitioners with satisfactory knowledge of the subject matter. The construct and content validity were established from earlier researchers who used it, but with few adjustments. The Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient reliability measure was also applied to determine the internal consistency of items in the questionnaire using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The Pearson moment correlation coefficient was used to determine the degree of relationship between the dimensions of innovation diffusion (product innovation diffusion and process innovation diffusion) and sustainable development. Partial correlation was used to examine moderation of entrepreneurial marketing on the relationship between innovation diffusion and sustainable development. Findings reveal that inn