South African millennials’ acceptance and use of retail mobile banking apps: An integrated perspective

Abstract

Mobile banking is gaining prominence as an innovative delivery channel for financial services, especially in developing countries where access to banking services is low. Mobile banking through an application (app) is a recent technological innovation with enormous potential to improve the banking experience of retail bank customers and to streamline the banks' operations. So retail banks are interested in promoting the rapid acceptance of this innovation among their customers. Millennials, who rely heavily on technology, are more likely to adopt mobile banking apps; yet there is scant research on the acceptance and use of mobile banking apps among this cohort, particularly from the perspective of African emerging economies. This study analyses the determinants of mobile banking app acceptance and use from a sample of millennial retail banking customers. An innovative multi-perspective framework is used, based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2), multi-dimensional institution-based trust, and risk. The findings suggest that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, habit, perceived risk, and institution-based trust are significantly associated with millennials' intention to adopt mobile banking apps, and that facilitating conditions, perceived risk, and behavioural intention have a significant direct influence on millennials' mobile banking app behaviour. These findings bridge an important gap in research into millennials’ mobile banking behaviour, and provide retail banks with useful insights to increase the uptake of mobile banking apps by this consumer cohort.