Investigating the Determinants of Internet Banking Adoption in Greece

Abstract

Since its first introduction in the ‘90s, internet banking is increasingly being adopted by bank customers all over the world. This relatively new banking transactions channel offers its users “round the clock” access to bank services, reduced time, direct access from anywhere in the world, lower costs and elimination of the anxiety caused by cash carrying. However, internet banking has not yet been widely embraced by Greek bank customers. In fact Greeks have also been rather slow in adopting internet as well. This reality prompted the pursuance of the present research, whose aim is to identify the most salient factors that influence Greek bank customers regarding internet banking adoption. Field research was conducted by utilizing an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on an adaptation of the widely used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), incorporating also external variables found in relevant literature and was initially successfully pilot-tested by the directors of 3 bank branches and 11 bank customers. The field research target sample consisted of internet experienced bank customers in the Greek region of Thessaly, while the final sample comprised 266 correctly answered questionnaires. Principal component analysis was initially conducted to identify latent factors within the questionnaire items measuring customer perceptions and inter-item analysis was used to verify the scale's factors for internal consistency and reliability. The Cronbach's alpha values, calculated for each construct, ranged between 0.88 and 0.93. Finally, linear regression analysis was performed to investigate the effect of the external variables and TAM-based constructs on internet banking adoption. Data analysis confirmed the significant influence that customer perceptions about usefulness, credibility and easiness of use of internet banking have on intentions towards using this banking channel. Moreover domain specific innovativeness and satisfaction with ATMs were also proved strong predictors of customer use intentions.