Participatory action research: An exploration of electronic banking adoption in Saudi Arabia

Banking leaders in Saudi Arabia have invested significantly on introducing and implementing new banking technologies, hoping that such technologies will lead to increase in return on investments [1]. The purpose of this qualitative participatory action research is to understand further the contextual factors needed for electronic banking leaders in Saudi Arabia to improve the adoption of electronic banking products. The focus of the study is developing and examining a model for electronic banking business using the serviceoriented architecture framework. The implementation of service-oriented architecture in electronic banking enhances the customer experience and expectations in countries other than Saudi Arabia [2]. This participatory action research study indicates that banking leaders in Saudi Arabia lack a comprehensive electronic banking services representation that treats customer interaction services. The model entails organizational transformations to promote the broader public adoption of electronic banking services in Saudi Arabia [3]. Keywords-component; service-oriented architecture; electronic banking; technology adoption model; Saudi Arabia Introduction The effect of information technology (IT) on business has been the subject of many studies in developed countries such as the United States [4]. Researchers have also analyzed managerial, infrastructural, organizational, and economic factors of diffusing IT with commerce in developed countries [5], but have not studied the same factors in developing countries such as Middle Eastern countries, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Only a limited number of researchers have explored how IT and business have diffused and evolved together to form new means of conducting business [6,7]. An example of diffusing IT with business is electronic banking. Electronic banking is a transformation of traditional financial processes [8]. The use of electronic banking has led to minimizing the traditional barriers of time and space, such as faceto-face interactions between customers and bank officers and clerks. Electronic banking channels have been gradually introduced as substitutes to traditional banking [9]. Increasingly, leaders of financial institutions are implementing electronic banking as a method of reducing operational costs and improving efficiency [10]. Although the Arabian Gulf region has undergone many technological and financial developments during the last year [11], researchers have not adequately addressed barriers limiting the large-scale use of electronic banking in the literature. Researchers have examined the public adoption of electronic banking products and services in countries neighboring Saudi Arabia, such as Oman and the United Arab Emirates [6,12,13,14,15]. The literature contains little evidence of a previous study or analysis on the adoption of electronic banking products by the public within the Saudi Arabia [16,17,18]. Problem Statement From 2002 to 2007, Saudi gross domestic product income grew 85% from US$190 billion to US$345 billion, leading to benefits of growth in educational opportunities and an expanded technological infrastructure [11]. Saudi government leaders adopted a plan of deploying advanced technologies in the country, including creating a dedicated ministry for information and telecommunication technology [19]. The general problem is that the Saudi population has been reluctant to adopt technology despite increasing governmental expenditure on technology promotion [19]. In 2007, only 2.5% of the Saudi population subscribe to broadband services. Countries with similar characteristics to Saudi Arabia had higher rates of broadband subscriptions (Information and Communication Technology Commission, 2007). The developed country of South Africa had a rate of 64% and Estonia, which is a developing country, had a rate of 17% [20,21]. The expanding technological infrastructure in Saudi Arabia contributed to transforming the delivery channels banks use to provide better service to their customers [17]. From 2002 to 2007, banking leaders in Saudi Arabia invested in introducing Internet banking [1], but only 12.6% of banking clients used Internet banking in Saudi Arabia [11]. In 2006, the percentage of Internet banking customers of total banking clients was 20% in the United Arab Emirates, 40% in Singapore, and 60% in South Korea [22]. A number of researchers indicated how banking leaders in the Arabian Gulf region lacked an understanding that could lead to expanding the adoption of electronic banking by the public [6,17,23]. The specific problem is that banking leaders in Saudi Arabia, who represented the general population in the current study, lack an effective technology adoption methodology to strategically identify and classify the managerial, cultural, and environmental factors responsible for the lack of wide public acceptance of electronic banking products and services. Performing the qualitative action research study led to a greater understanding of the contextual factors that could improve the adoption of electronic banking products and services in Saudi Arabia. Understanding the contextual factors could enable electronic banking leaders in Saudi Arabia, who represented the specific population in the study, to identify, explore, plan, and implement the necessary organizational and managerial actions to promote a broader use of electronic banking products and services in Saudi Arabia. Purpose Statement The purpose of the current qualitative action research was to understand further the contextual factors needed for a serviceoriented architecture model for electronic banking leaders in Saudi Arabia to improve the adoption of electronic banking products. A greater understanding of how electronic banking leaders can evolve and implement the service-oriented architecture model in Saudi Arabia might enable the participating electronic banking leaders to identify, explore, plan, and implement the necessary strategies to promote a broader use of electronic banking products and services in Saudi Arabia. Understanding the contextually relevant factors of service-oriented architecture implementation could also support electronic banking leaders playing an active role in the economic growth of Saudi Arabia by more effectively promoting electronic banking products and services [1]. The qualitative research methodology was appropriate for understanding the perceived barriers of the public toward the adoption of electronic banking practices and allowed for an exploration of the changes necessary to transform the perceived barriers. The action research design was appropriate because it helps researchers to develop iteratively the knowledge necessary to investigate and examine service-oriented architecture organizational change. The action research design was also appropriate for use in the research because an anticipated outcome of the study was to provide electronic banking leaders in Saudi Arabia with a better understanding and a better method of implementation to promote the broader adoption of electronic banking. Research Questions The fundamental question for the research was as follows: What contextual and organizational knowledge might assist electronic banking leaders in Saudi Arabia to make more informed decisions concerning the design and implementation of electronic banking processes? The strategic research outcome was to support an increased public acceptance of electronic banking products and services offered at banks in Saudi Arabia. The fundamental research question included the potential for implementing and adopting service-oriented architecture in organizations in Saudi Arabia following the successful implementation in several other countries [2,15,24,25,26]. The development of the service-oriented architecture framework occurred to increase the efficiency of organizations through the enhancement of organizational agility and to reduce the overhead costs of operations [27]. The research study involved an attempt to answer the fundamental research question through the following additional research questions: 1. What are the results of observing how current workplace practices and processes hinder a wider public acceptance of electronic banking products and services in Saudi Arabia? 2. What actions, including the acquisition of local contextual knowledge, could bank leaders in Saudi Arabia take to expand public adoption of electronic banking products and services offered at banks located in Saudi Arabia? 3. What do banking leaders in Saudi Arabia learn when engaging with each other to derive a service-oriented architecture model to expand the public adoption of electronic banking products and services offered at banks located in Saudi Arabia? Engaging with the research questions required an understanding of the service-oriented architecture framework and terminology, qualitative action research, and modeling of business and service processes. Conducting the research provided additional contextual and organizational knowledge that might assist banking leaders in Saudi Arabia in making more informed decisions concerning the design and implementation of electronic banking processes. Attempting to answer the research questions also provided the electronic banking leaders in Saudi Arabia with a plan of action regarding a contextually relevant service-orientedarchitecture-based model for enhancing the adoption of electronic banking products and services by the public. The results of the qualitative action research could encourage banking leadership in Saudi Arabia and along the Arabian Gulf to focus on the serviceoriented architecture framework as a methodology for enhancing organizational agility and reducing operational expenditures. Literature Review Scholarly literature in which researchers describe how service-oriented architecture enhances the efficiency of electronic banking in Saudi Arabia is rare. The focu