Investigating the adoption of banking services delivered over remote channels: the case of Chinese Internet banking customers

Customers adoption of Internet banking has become a widely-researched topic, although it is fair to state that some research gaps still exist. This research aims to fill some of the research gaps by examining the factors that determine the relevant behaviour of three different categories of Internet banking customers in China (i.e. current users, non-users, and discontinued users), and by developing two conceptual models that are derived from different, but complementary, theoretical approaches. The Decision Making Model and the Service and Relationship Evaluation Model are developed in this research. The Decision Making Model is grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM) and it incorporates an additional construct of perceived value of using Internet banking. Additionally, the Service and Relationship Evaluation Model is derived from the service quality evaluation and relationship quality evaluation literature. Unlike in most other Internet banking adoption studies, these two conceptual models are used complementarily to deliver a comprehensive understanding of customers Internet banking adoption in China. The models are tested using a sample of 614 Chinese Internet banking customers collected via mall-intercept personal interviews based on questionnaires. Partial Least Square (PLS) path modelling and mediation analysis are applied to test the hypotheses advanced in the two models. The key findings of this research show that perceived value is a major factor for explaining customers Internet banking adoption, thus indicating to the banks that they should reduce costs associated with using Internet banking while providing more (perceived) benefits to customers; the importance of incorporating perceived value in Internet banking adoption model(s) is also demonstrated. The findings also confirm that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are important factors that determine the adoption of Internet banking by all categories of customers. Current users and non-users perceptions of their behavioural control over using Internet banking contribute to their adoption of Internet banking, and such control perceptions are shaped by self-efficacy, perceived government support and technological support. Additionally, it is demonstrated that both current users and discontinued users perceived value and perceived service quality of Internet banking have positive associations with their satisfaction with Internet banking, which lead to their Internet banking adoption. Moreover, the findings reveal that current users are more likely to continue with Internet banking if they are affectively committed to their banks; they are less likely to continue with Internet banking if they are calculatively committed to their banks due to the costs associated with leaving the banks. These therefore indicate the importance of establishing high-quality customer-bank relationships and placing less strict switching cost barriers that impose less pressure on their existing customers. This research contributes to the Internet banking adoption literature by (i) identifying the important category of Internet banking discontinued users, apart from current users and non-users; and (ii) using two complementary conceptual models, which are grounded in different theoretical streams, to investigate the relevant adoption behaviour of all three categories of Internet banking customers. It hence delivers a comprehensive understanding of personal customers adoption of Internet banking in China.