Online published on 28 February, 2020.
Internet technology has been playing a significant role in fulfilling the aim of cashless transaction. However, in case of rural areas due to the unavailability or lack of availability of banking services facility; mobile phone is playing a major role to connect with the banking services for undergoing financial transactionsin less timeandexpenses. But thechallengelies in the mind-setof thecustomers who had been undergoing with a traditional mind set to avail the banking services in terms of their physical presence in the bank. Even though the rate of availing financial services through various banking channels is huge in number but in case of online banking especially when it comes to mobile; is quite negligible in percentage which is less than 3 per cent in case of North East India (SBI, 2016). Banks are investing heavily in mobile banking technology to provide banking services ubiquitously.
The adoption of mobile banking services might synergize the way people do banking today. It will not only save the time and cost of the users; rather it would suffice by providing some additional benefits like SMS alert, various scheme related information, booking of tickets, purchasing of goods and many more.
It has been found that in case of metropolitan cities the rate of adoption of mobile banking is higher as compare to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. In the present research tier 2 and tier 3 cities like Shillong (Capital of Meghalaya), Agartala (Capital of Tripura) and Silchar (Prominent business city in the state of Assam) which are belonging to the North Eastern part of India have been considered. It is also require mentioning here that this region is very much isolated in its geographic location because the area is mostly based on a mix of tribal and non-tribal population and their views might differ with the people of the other part of the country.
Hence to understand if there is any change of view prevails in the mind of such consumer belonging to this North Eastern partof India;an attempt has been taken tofind and analyse the factors responsible for the adoption of mobile banking and also to understand if there is any difference in the behaviour towards mobile banking in terms of various demographic profile of the users. The theoretical framework used in the study is the widely accepted Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).
Nine hypotheses have been constructed to understand the usage behaviour of mobile banking users. The analysis of variance and regression analysis has been used to identify influence of behavioural factors on mobile banking usage attitude and also analyse the influence of users’ attitude on mobile banking usage intention in North Eastern States of India. Reliability and validity of the data were checked. The study investigates the impact of various factors like perception towards, usefulness, perception towards easiness to use perception towards society influence, perception towards competence, perception towards benevolence, perception towards privacy and security, perception towardscommunicationonattitude towards mobilebankingand further the impactofattitude towards intention to use mobile banking.
The study has found no significant difference among users of different age, income, education and gender groups of three different states Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya about the opinions regarding themobile banking usage. Itisalso notedthatusersof each of thestatesdid not differamong themselves when analysed based on their demographic factors except gender. In case of gender groups there were some significant difference noted in terms of mobile banking usage opinion. Hence, one of the keys finding of the study is no significant variation among the users based on the demographic factors except gender groups.
The impact of various components on mobile banking has been found in terms of age, income, education and gender groups. Wherein, the effect was different for different components. It was found that perception towards usefulness and perception towards easiness to use mobile banking had been positive with regard to all the demographic variables while factors like facilitating condition, society influence were not much in tune with the influential factors for mobile banking usage. Moreover, competence, benevolence, privacy and security also significantly influence the mobile banking usage attitudewith regard tothedemographicvariables. Hence, the marketer needsto consider their affect while formulating strategies. It has also been observed that the opinion of the users of various gender groups differ significantly. Male are mostly in agreement with the various opinions regarding mobile banking usage intention while female show a disagreement or neutral position towardsvariouscomponents influencingattitude towardsintention to mobile bankingusage intention. Moreover, due to lack of communication support from the banking firms it has become difficult for the older people to create a positive attitude towards mobile banking. The study provides the evidence that there exist differences among consumers in terms various income levels too. This study provides the evidence that there exist a positive attitude towards mobile banking usage intention, only the lack of communication need to be improvised for creating better attitude towards intention to use mobile banking. It provides reason for further investigation of consumer behaviour with a non-users group including both nationalized and private banks.
