Personality matters: does an individual's personality affect adoption and continued use of green banking channels?

Abstract

PurposeTechnology has revolutionized banking, and “green banking” has been the most recent phenomenon to have caught the financial world's attention. In this paper, the authors look at how personality traits of individuals influence their adoption and continued use of green banking channels. The authors also propose a comprehensive model integrating the “big five” personality traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, openness and neuroticism) into the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), along with expectation confirmation theory. The integrated proposed model is used in this longitudinal study to predict the continued use of green banking channels once adopted.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected data during two time periods about 24 weeks apart from 826 green banking channel users from different regions in India. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling.FindingsThe authors found that traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion favor an individual adopting green banking channels, while conscientiousness and openness were only associated with its perceived usefulness (PU).Research limitations/implicationsThe results offer valuable insights for understanding the adoption and use behavior of people regarding green banking channels. This study would help develop effective segmentation strategies for promoting green banking channels.Originality/valueBy incorporating the big five, along with TAM and Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM), coupled with “trust” as an additional construct, we believe that our study enlarges the boundaries of Information Technology (IT) theories, especially in the context of green banking channels. This study also contributes to advancing the personality theory by exploring how personality traits significantly relate to adopting and using green banking channels.