Factors that influence the adoption of internet banking by South Africans in the eThekweni metropolitan region

Abstract

Information technology is fundamentally changing the banking industry worldwide. The advent of internet banking offers banking firms a new frontier of opportunities and challenges. An understanding of how demographic characteristics, social factors, and consumer perceptions and attitudes towards internet banking influence the adoption of internet banking can allow banks to create solutions and plans to attract consumers to their internet banking services, thus enabling them to gain a greater share in the banking market. In South Africa little is known and understood about the emergence of internet banking even though this is now beginning to represent an important share of the banking market. This is because internet banking is a new industry here, and so consumer acceptance and use of internet banking is still limited. To date very little research has been conducted into factors which influence consumer adoption of internet banking, and so therefore there is a need for a study such as this.

This study investigates attitudes of retail banking customers in South Africa, specifically in the Ethekweni metropolitan region, towards the adoption of internet banking.