There are several factors that affect the behaviour and intension of users to adopt e-commerce. Some of the behavioural factors include perceived ease of use, security, safety, initial trust and environmental factors such as government support developments in ICT and regulation just to mention a few (Poon, 2008). The following section will briefly discuss some of these factors in line with the reviewed literature and empirical studies.
2.3.1 ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE INTENDED USER
Akturan and Tezcan (2012) in their study on the adoption of mobile banking by students at a Turkish university found out that the most important determinant for the adoption of e-commerce technology such as mobile banking is the attitude and behaviour of the intended user. They went further to suggest that security and safety of users or consumers should be upheld when using any form of e-commerce technology. Attitude is in turn affected by perceptions of potential benefits to be derived from using technology versus the associated risks.
2.3.2 GENDER
Laforet and Li (2005) cited gender as one of the determinant factors for the adoption of e-commerce namely mobile banking and online banking in China.
Akturan and Tezcan (2012) in their study on mobile banking in Turkey and Riquelme and Rios (2010) in their study on adoption in Singapore found out that female consumers were risk averse than male consumers and hence adopted less to new technology. Their studies were consistent with the study by Laforet and Li (2005) in China, which found out that most online and
19 mobile banking users were male, although most of them were in senior management positions, employees who were salaried or owners of small.
This study seeks to find out if gender has an effect on the adoption of e-commerce in FBC Holdings Limited. This gap provides a platform for FBC to
also direct marketing and promotional efforts towards female consumers, without necessarily neglecting current and prospective consumers.
2.3.3 PERCEPTION OF RISK
Aldás-Manzanoet al. (2009) and Yousafzaiet al. (2003) in their studies on the adoption and usage of mobile banking in the Mauritian banking sector argue that adoption and usage of new technology such as mobile and internet banking was affected by the perception of risk by users. Their arguments were that introducing new technology created fears amongst the intended users, as they would prefer the old channel of banking, which they deemed to be safe from fraud and loss of information. Laukkanen and Kiviniemi (2010) suggested that banks should aim at reducing the perception of risks and increase the potential benefits of using mobile banking by educating and giving relevant information to the intended users. These suggestions provided the researcher the basis to explore if perceived risks, potential expected benefits and adequate information about e-commerce products have an effect on the intention of the user to use or adopt e-commerce products in FBC Holdings Limited.
2.3.4 PERCEIVED USEFULNESS
Banks offer various e-commerce products or services such as e-banking, ATMs, international and local debit or credit cards or mobile banking to customers. It is necessary for banks to ensure that their product or service offering are understood by their customers and are easy to use. Liu and Li (2009) defined perceived ease of use as the extent that the intended user considers the use of a certain service or product to be effortless whilst perceived usefulness was defined as the extent to which a prospective user recognises the use of a certain system to have the capacity to improve job performance. Aldás-Manzano et al. (2012) referred perceived usefulness to benefits of mobile banking and usefulness of mobile phones in transacting whilst perceived ease of use was referred to as the easiness to use and learn
20 mobile banking. Riquelme and Rios (2010) suggested that perceived usefulness is an important determinant for the successful adoption and use of banking services.
A meta-analysis study on the technology acceptance model (TAM) by Ma and Liu (2004) and King and He (2006) revealed that perceived ease of use has an effect on perceived usefulness whilst both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness had an influence on behavioural intention. Akturan and Tezcan (2012) on the other hand found out that there was no direct correlation between perceived ease of use and attitude and perceived usefulness and intention to use. Tobin (2012) highlighted that knowledge had an effect on the perception of ease of use of e-commerce by customers and suggested that banks craft strategies to create knowledge, understanding and awareness of e-commerce products.
2.3.5 CUSTOMER INVOLVEMENT IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Akturan and Tezcan (2012) argue that customers can be involved in the implementation of products or services in order to enhance chances of the product or service being adopted. They suggested that Turkish banks could involve customers in new technology related product development and implementation to ensure that the needs, requirements and expected benefits of the customers are met by the product or service. Akamavi (2005) suggested that involving customers in new product or service development makes it easier for managers to educate consumers about new products or services.
2.3.6 ALIGNING ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE TO TECHNOLOGY Phillips and Wright (2009) in their study on the impact of e-business on the flexibility of the organisation found out that firms should align their organisational structures to new technology to enable them to optimise the benefits of implementing new technology. An empirical study by Chau (2003)
21 on the use of e-commerce on 24 Australian SMEs (including banks) established that the benefits derived from e-commerce increase if the firm aligns its organisational structure and processes to e-commerce technology.
Such changes may include recruiting technical or specialised skills in line with new technology or laying off employees whose work would have been replaced by adopting new technology.
2.3.7 STRUCTURAL ASSURANCE AND INFORMATION QUALITY
Zhou (2011) suggested that variables such as structural assurance and information quality have an effect on the initial trust of potential users of e-commerce products or services such as mobile banking. These factors were also observed to have an effect on the perceived usefulness of m-commerce.
Laukkanen and Kiviniemi (2010) identified that making quality information about products or services available and giving guidance to customers resulted in increased perceived added value derived from using e-commerce products and reduced the perceived risks. Users of e-commerce need safety and security before, during and after using e-commerce driven products and services. They need to have that comfort that their transactions do not result in potential loss of money or losing their confidential information (Koening-Lewis et al., 2010 & Akturan and Tezcan, 2012).
2.3.8 TRUST
An empirical research by Zhou (2011) on the effect of initial trust of mobile banking in China revealed that initial trust had an effect on the perceived usefulness. The findings revealed that information quality and structural assurance are the major variables that affect initial trust whilst system quality and information quality affect perceived usefulness. In turn, all the variables were found out to have an impact on the prediction of the intention by customers to use mobile banking. From the findings, it can be noted that various factors such as information quality, system quality and structural assurance affect initial trust, which in turn affect the intension of the users to adopt e-commerce.
22 Figure 2.3 summarises and puts into context some of the factors that determine the extent to which potential customers are willing to adopt electronic commerce.
Figure 2.3 E-commerce acceptance model.
Adopted from Pavlou (2003).
Pavlou (2003) suggested a hybrid model that brought together the theory of reasoned action (TRA) applicable in analysing technology-driven environments and the technology acceptance model (TAM) to come up with the e-commerce acceptance model. The model brings together factors such as the intention of the user to transact, on-line transaction behaviour, perceived usefulness, ease of use, perceived risk and trust. These are some of the factors that affect the adoption and acceptance of e-commerce by the users of e-commerce, which were consistent with a study by Juwaheer, Pudaruth and Ramdin (2012) on the factors that affected internet banking adoption in Mauritius.
Intention to Transact
Perceived Usefulness Perceived
Risk
Trust
Perceived Ease of Use Actual
Transaction
23 2.3.9 JUSTIFICATION AND APPLICABILITY OF THE E-COMMERCE
ACCEPTANCE MODEL
The e-commerce acceptance model was used to predict the behaviour of on-line retail customers in the United States of America, mostly in California (Pavlou, 2003). The model assisted in enhancing the understanding of B2C e-commerce, the effect of trust and perceived risk on the consumer’s intention to transact and the need to eliminate uncertainty (Pavlou, 2003). Davis (1989) came up with the (Technology Acceptance Model) TAM model to help in analysing the acceptance of technology. Rogers (1962) came up with the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DIT) to explain how technology is distributed from inception to the final users.
Several researchers such as Chong et al. (2010), Koenig-Lewis et al. (2010), Drennan (2010), Riquelme and Rios (2010), and Dineshwar and Steven (2012) have combined the TAM Model and DIT (or IDT) theory together with factors such as perception benefits, perception of risks, perceived cost and compatibility in trying to analyse how technology was adopted in Mauritius and Malaysia. The proposed e-commerce acceptance model integrates various factors such as environmental uncertainty and behavioural factors with the technological acceptance variables that affect the intention of the prospective user.
The e-commerce acceptance model has the weakness that its application has mostly been theoretical and for academic use or purpose. This model may not be fully applicable in situations where internet access is restricted, where there is limited ICT literacy and where culture does not promote use of online banking. The e-commerce acceptance model was therefore deemed to be acceptable for the purposes of applying it in carrying out this research as it captures the main variables that affect the intention of the user to transact and the actual transaction (Pavlou, 2003).
2.3.10 GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
Tan and Teo (2000), Jaruwachirathanakul and Fink (2005) in their study of internet banking strategies in Thailand revealed that government support has
24 an effect on the adoption of e-commerce. A study by Chong, Ooi, Lin and Tan (2010) on the adoption of online banking in Vietnam revealed that the Vietnamese government restricted online banking to transaction viewing and balance enquiry only, which dissuaded people from using online banking.
Lemon (2006) suggested that countries such as Malaysia and Singapore made Wi-Fi easily accessible to users or even for free so as to promote the
use of online banking. This means that the successful adoption of e-commerce by FBC, the financial sector and Zimbabwean industry would be
achieved through government and regulatory policies that promote and support e-commerce. A study by Abdulghader, Dalbir and Ibrahim (2011) on the adoption of e-commerce in Libyan organisations recommended that the government create a favourable policy environment for e-commerce and encourage mass usage through G2B, G2C and G2G e-commerce. This support includes promoting access to inexpensive and easy internet;
protection of intellectual property, rights and privacy; and legal recognition of e-commerce transactions (Abdulghader et al., 2011).
Legal, regulatory and supervisory issues also have an impact on the extent to which e-commerce is adopted (Boateng et al., 2012). Monetary authorities dictate the terms and conditions under which e-commerce can be adopted.
The Reserve Bank of India for instance limited internet banking to banks that were licensed and supervised only in India, only to account holders and to Indian products (Ali, Malik and Imam, 2012). The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (2013) has come out in full support of co-opetition between banks, telecommunications companies and payment solutions service providers in the use of non-cash transactions, money transfers and payment of goods and services.
2.3.11 MACRO AND MICRO ENVIRONMENT FACTORS
Other factors that have an effect on the extent to which e-commerce is adopted include macro-environment variables such as the level of development in telecommunications technology, socio-economic variables and commercial infrastructure (Tassabehji, 2003). Micro environment
variables such as quality of human resources, business process
25 re-engineering and availability of funding to finance the acquisition of the necessary technology also affect the successful adoption of electronic commerce (Tassabehji, 2003).