Parental usage of mobile banking-Children as change agents

Demonetization of high denomination currencies in India has created a disruptive innovation in a cash dependent economy like India. To combat the menace of a contraction in cash supply, many people started looking for alternate transaction mechanisms such as use of digital technologies with the consequence of redesigning the entire banking transactions. However, the shifting of the long practiced configuration of banking services to accommodate sophisticated technologies present a challenge to many customers, especially those belonging to the older generation. The elder generation has, by necessity, come to terms with the fact that they cannot sustain their resistance to innovative practices like mobile banking, net banking etc for long on grounds of inability to learn new things. In such circumstances, the younger generation who were born into this digital world and therefore more knowledgeable and competent in the use of digital banking or mobile banking compared to their parents tends to turn out as ‘change agents ’ for the parents. This paper is an attempt to explore how children act as ‘change agents’ and thus enhance parental adoption of mobile banking. To investigate into the problem, study uses an exploratory sequential design based on qualitative data obtained through in-depth interviews among parent child dyads which were subsequently supplemented by quantitative data to substantiate the findings. The finding reveals that knowledge of children in mobile banking has ignited positive attitude in their parental mindset and that they attach importance to children as a change agent in their adoption of mobile banking.