Alternative structural models for e bank

Alternative Structural Models for E-Banking Adoption in Vietnam
Long Pham, Minot State University, USA
Nhi Y. Cao, National Economics University, Vietnam
Thanh D. Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam
Phong T. Tran, National Economics University, Vietnam

ABSTRACT
E-banking is seen as the newest delivery channel of banks in many developed countries and is
believed to have a significant impact on the bank market. It is contended that e-banking is
providing numerous opportunities for banks and non-bank financial institutions to add a low
cost distribution channel to their existent distribution channels in order to better serve their
customers by offering various products and services with high quality. Little research on factors
influencing the adoption of e-banking has been implemented in countries that are emerging as
new potential markets (such as Vietnam) with very high economic growth rates. Thus, this study
has, based on an extensive review of literature on e-banking benefits for both banks and their
customers and relevant theories on innovation adoption, proposed alternative models (including
both moderator and mediating effects) of e-banking intention to use by customers in Vietnam.
Furthermore, a set of model hypotheses presenting relationships among factors influencing ebanking intention to use have been set up. Practical implications and future studies were also
discussed.
Keywords: E-banking; E-banking Adoption; Theory of Reasoned Action; Theory of Planned
Behavior; Decomposed of Theory of Planned Behavior; Technology Acceptance; Extension of
Technology Acceptance; Diffusion of Innovation.

Introduction
Banking can be considered as an intensive information activity based on communication and
information technologies for the purpose of gaining, processing and distributing information to
users involved. Such technologies play an important role not only in the three stages of
information, but also in making favorable conditions for banks to differentiate their products and
services from their rivals. In order to be successful in a highly competitive banking market,
banks are required to innovate and update their products/services offered in an attempt to retain
their demanding and discerning customers. Facing challenges related to gaining a larger share of

the banking market, a number of banks have been making significant investments in building
more brick and mortar branches to expand their geographical penetration, while others have been
utilizing a breakthrough approach to the distribution of banking products/services to customers
through a new medium, namely, the Internet. Recently, the Internet has been rapidly gaining
popularity as a potential medium for electronic commerce (Crede, 1995). Such a rapid growth of
the Internet has brought about numerous new opportunities as well as threats to businesses.
Today, the Internet is believed to be a full-fledged delivery and distribution channel supporting

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consumer-oriented applications aimed at effectively and efficiently providing financial products
and services to customers in the banking sector (Pham, 2010).
In the US, banks have been offering their services/products to customers via the Internet and a
number of Internet banks, such as Bank of Internet, have emerged. In addition, the Internet is
viewed as a strategic weapon that is expected to bring about new comparative advantages for
banks, especially when competitive advantages of traditional branch networks are rapidly
eroding (Seitz & Stickel, 1998) and brick and mortar only banks may largely disappear.
Indeed, the emergence of e-banking has induced many banks to rethink their information
technology strategies in order to stay competitive. Customers are today increasingly demanding
with respect to the quality of banking services. They want better levels of convenience and
flexibility with banking products and services that traditional retail banking could not offer
(Lagoutte, 1996). E-banking has made favorable conditions for banks and other financial
institutions to offer such products and services by taking advantage of an extensive public
network infrastructure (Ternullo, 1997). However, in spite of such potential benefits, there still
exist a number of problems that need to be dealt with before e-banking can become widely
adopted.
Up to now, a great deal of literature has identified key factors influencing the adoption of ebanking in developed countries – North America and Europe and to a lesser extent in other
regions including a mix of developed and developing countries, such as Singapore, Taiwan,
Malaysia, and Thailand. However, little research on factors influencing the adoption of ebanking has been implemented in countries that are emerging as new potential markets with very

high economic growth rates. Among these countries is Vietnam where its average economic
growth rate (GDP) was over 7% during the 1990s and early 2000s, and more than 8% in 2006,
which made it one of the highest growing economies in the World (World Bank, 2006). Together
with Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization dated on 7 November 2006, its banking
sector is increasingly being deregulated in accordance with the requirements set up by the World
Trade Organization. These moves suggest that fierce competition among local banks and foreign
banks in the Vietnamese banking sector have been occurring, and Vietnamese banks may have to
adopt the Internet as a primary service delivery channel in order to survive. Thus, the objectives
of this study are as follows:
1. Investigate e-banking benefits for both banks and customers.
2. Conduct an extensive review of literature on relevant theories on adoption of an
innovation; and
3. Construct alternative structural models based on integration of the innovation
theories, trust, and perceived benefit for e-banking adoption in Vietnam.

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Background
E-Banking
E-banking can be considered as a high-order construct comprising several distribution channels.
E-banking is a larger concept than just banking conducted by the Internet. Nonetheless, the most
popular kind of e-banking is today believed to be banking through the Internet - Internet banking.
There are a number of ways to describe the e-banking term. In its simplest sense, it is viewed as
the provision of information or services by a bank to its customers based on a computer,
television, telephone, or mobile phone (Daniel, 1999). For instance, under the view of Jun and
Cai (2001), Internet banking is seen as an electronic connection between banks and customers
aimed at preparing, managing, and controlling numerous financial transactions. By utilizing ebanking, it is very convenient for consumers to access their banks and accounts to implement
their banking transactions. At its sophisticated sense, e-banking is named transactional online
banking due to the fact that it embeds the provision of facilities, such as accessing accounts,

transfer of funds, and buying financial products or services online (Sathye, 1999). In this paper,
without loss of generality, the term e-banking and online banking (or even Internet banking) are
interchangeably utilized with the same meaning.
E-banking is seen as the newest delivery channel of banks in many developed countries and is
believed to have a significant impact on the banking market (Jayawardhena & Foley, 2000).
Nehmzow (1997) contends that e-banking is providing numerous opportunities for banks and
non-bank financial institutions to add a low cost distribution channel to their existent distribution
channels in order to better serve their customers by offering various products and services with
high quality. However, he further contends that e-banking also brings about challenges to
traditional banks due to the fact that it neutralizes competitive advantages rooted in a traditional
banking network.
It is predicted that e-banking will continue mushrooming in the times to come. When e-banking
is widely utilized and becomes more popular, it is very interesting to forecast the future of
traditional banks operating based on their branches. According to Wah (1999), it is not
reasonable to say that such traditional banks are likely to disappear in the near future. Rather,
they will be placed on a new level of banking services/products with the support of new and
modern distribution channel technologies. Furthermore, Wah (1999) argues that traditional banks
can take advantage of new and modern technologies and they are very likely to effectively and
efficiently serve their customers. Finally, Wah (1999) concludes that e-banking is really
beneficial to customers and that e-banking and traditional banking can coexist.
E-Banking’s Benefits
For Banks
E-banking can bring about various benefits for banks and their customers. Cost savings,
efficiency, gaining new segments of customers, improvement of the bank’s reputation and better
customer services and satisfaction are primary benefits to banks (Jayawardhena & Foley, 2000).

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Booz-Allen and Hamilton (1997) argue, based on their global survey, that setting up a

specialized e-banking infrastructure costs about US$1 – 2 million, which is much lower than
setting up a banking branch. In addition, the authors conclude that costs for running a traditional
bank account for 50% to 60% of its revenues.
Under the view of Robinson (2000), relevant costs for conducting a banking transaction via
online are much lower than via a brick and mortar branch. Moreover, Sheshunoff (2000)
contends that one of the most important factors influencing the adoption of e-banking by banks is
the need to build up strong barriers to customer exiting. Under the view of the author, once
customers become familiar with the utilization of full service e-banking, it is unlikely that they
will change to another financial institution. Such an argument can be supported by the consumer
behavior theory that switching costs are often very high in terms of time and efforts by
consumers. Finally, the author emphasizes that the implementation of e-banking can bring about
many competitive advantages for banks in today’s highly competitive banking market.
Research on e-banking has been carried out in Denmark by Mols (1998). The author argues that
e-banking can play an important role in enhancing cross-selling and price differentiation. Ebanking can make favorable conditions for banks to provide customers numerous services 24
hours a day and 7 days a week. E-banking can improve customer satisfaction with the bank due
to the fact that it makes customers less price sensitive, and improves their intention to
repurchase, and more loyalty to the bank via providing more positive words of mouth about the
bank.
For Customers
E-banking not only brings about benefits to banks but also to their customers. Thanks to the
emergence of the Internet, banking transactions are no longer limited to time and geography. It is
very easy for consumers throughout the world to have access to their bank accounts 24 hours per
day and seven days a week. Customers can enjoy a variety of services, especially services which
are not provided by traditional bank branches. It is argued that one of the greatest benefits that ebanking brings about is that it is not expensive or may even be free for customers to utilize ebanking products/services. However, some people believe that prices appear to be one factor that
is impedimental to the diffusion of e-banking (Sathye, 1999). The price debates often revolve
around geographical differences and disparities between costs of Internet connections and
telephone call pricing. It has also been believed that e-banks have been changing to respond to
customers’ increasingly changing demands (Jun & Cai, 2001). There has been a tendency that
customers don’t want to travel to or from a bank branch to conduct some banking transactions. In
other words, they want to utilize e-banking to save time and money. E-banking can bring about

convenience and accessibility, and have positive effects on customer satisfaction and loyalty
(Karjauloto, Mattila, & Pento, 2002; Pham, 2010). It is possible for customers to manage their
banking transactions whenever they want and to enjoy improved privacy in their interactions
with the bank. In addition, customers can enjoy more benefits at lower cost levels by utilizing ebanking (Mols, 1998).
It is contended by Turban, Lee, King and Chung (2000) that e-banking is really beneficial to
customers in terms of cost savings, no limit on time and space, quick response to customer

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complaints, and better services/products. Such benefits are believed to elevate customer
satisfaction. In a word, e-banking offers many benefits to both banks and their customers (Pham,
2010).

Alternative Structural Models for E-Banking Adoption in Vietnam
International Studies of Consumer Adoption of E-Banking
The banking market has become highly competitive along with the emergence of new banking
technology which is believed to have strong effects on consumer behavior. Hence, banks
implementing e-banking services are required to better understand their customers regarding
attitudes of customers towards technology. If banks are successful in doing so, it makes
favorable conditions for them to positively impact and even determine consumer behavior.
Impacting and determining consumer behavior in an effective and efficient manner will, in turn,
make a significant contribution to creating a competitive advantage for banks in the future.
Interactions between the adoption and marketing of new electronic delivery channels through
relationships between banks and their customers have been establishing new environments in
which customers are better served (Mols, 1998). There have been so far a significant number of
discussions in the literature about the adoption process of e-banking services. Appendix 1
summarizes the results of such studies.

A Conceptual Model for E-Banking Adoption in Vietnam

Figure 1. A Conceptual Model for E-banking Adoption in Vietnam
Bank Image

Perceived Risk
Intention to Use

Perceived
Benefit
Subjective
Norms

Perceived Ease
of Use
Trust

Perceived
Behavioral
Control

The following are theoretical support and resulting hypotheses that elicit causal relationships
postulated in the model.

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Corporate image refers to the extent to which reputational knowledge of an organization has
been accumulated and developed by customers. Such a reputational knowledge is rooted in the
minds of the customers. Specifically, reputational knowledge can be represented by a distinctive
reputation by a firm in offering products/services with very high quality (Olavarrieta &
Friedmann, 1999). Gronroos (1984) argues that corporate image is very likely to make

significant contributions to the development of service quality. Image is believed to function well
to overcome complexities generated by distinct attributes of service and when small problems
occur from functional and technical aspects of quality. In addition, the results of a study
conducted by Kang and James (2004) revealed that corporate image plays as a mediator between
service quality dimensions and the overall service quality, and the overall service quality is
positively related to customer loyalty.
Furthermore, corporate image can be understood as customers’ affective preconceptions towards
the service provider, accumulated and developed via continuous service experiences (Zins,
2001). Based on this definition, a bank image plays a vital role in the adoption of e-banking.
Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we hypothesize that:
H1. Bank image will have a positive direct relationship with intention to use ebanking.
An e-banking transaction is considered as a mode of trusting behavior due to the fact that
customers are themselves engaging in vulnerable situations regarding such e-banking
transactions. Customers are willing to utilize e-banking as long as they believe that e-banking
functions well and performs what they expect it to do.
In e-settings, people from almost everywhere in the world are easily to get access to documents
stored on computers and in the same vein, information is easily to be transferred through etechnologies with computer networks. That is why under the security perspective, e-banking is
considered as being risky. In addition, e-banking is characterized by highly uncertain
transactions since people who make such transactions very often come from different places in
the world. The utilization of e-banking can be considered as a new information and
communication technology and under the marketing perspective, it is also viewed as a new
distribution channel technology based on which customers can easily contact with their bank. In
the marketing field, a number of empirical studies have been conducted to show that perceived
risk is a very important construct (Gefen, 2004). In such studies, perceived risk is shown to have
significant effects on customer loyalty. Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we hypothesize
that:
H2. Perceived risk will have a negative direct relationship with intention to use ebanking.
Perceived benefit is, in the literature of technology acceptance, defined as an individual’s
positive or negative evaluation of performing a type of behavior (Chau & Hu, 2001). Hansen,
Jensen and Solgaard (2004) found that there is a significantly positive association between

perceived benefit and behavioral intention to use online shopping for groceries. In a same vein,

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other prior research has indicated that perceived benefit has strong impacts on behavioral
intention to utilize an innovation, for example, word processing software (David, Bagozzi, &
Warshaw, 1989) or spreadsheet software (Mathieson, 1991). If someone has a feeling that
utilizing e-banking will bring about positive outcomes, then such a person will have more
intention to adopt e-banking. In contrast, if someone has a negative feeling of outcomes resulting
from utilizing e-banking, he or she will have a lower adoption intention. Thus, under Vietnam’s
e-banking setting, we hypothesize that:
H3. Perceived benefit will have a positive direct relationship with intention to use
e-banking.
Subjective norms refer to the person’s perception that most people who are important to him
think that he should or should not perform the behavior in question (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).
Several theories suggest that subjective norms are important in shaping user behavior. For
example, TPB suggests that subjective norms influence a person’s behavioral intention.
Venkatesh and Davis (2000) explain the effect of subjective norms on behavioral intention to use
in the way that potential users may choose to use the technology if the people who are important
to them say that they should use it. Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we hypothesize
that:
H4. Subjective norms will have a positive direct relationship with intention to use
e-banking.
A person’s sense of self-efficacy in terms of the utilization of an innovation is positively related
to his or her behavioral intention to utilize such an innovation (Chau & Hu, 2001). That is why if
people are confident in their ability to effectively utilize an innovation, their intention to use such
an innovation will substantially increase since they will not feel timid about using the innovation.
Perceived behavioral control can be defined as the general ability that a person feels that he or
she has to participate in a certain behavior (Ajzen, 1985; Ajzen & Madden, 1986).

Under the view of Chau and Hu (2001), perceived behavioral control is very likely to have
strong impacts on behavioral intention. In a same vein, prior research (e.g., Benhan & Raymond,
1996; Riemenschneider, Harrison, & Mykytn, 2003) have found that there is a significantly
positive relationship between perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention in a variety
of settings. Thus, it can be inferred that under the e-banking setting, a person’s behavioral
intention to utilize e-banking is very likely to be influenced by the confidence that such a person
has in his or her general ability to utilize e-banking. Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we
hypothesize that:
H5. Perceived behavioral control will have a positive direct relationship with
intention to use e-banking.
Trust has been shown to have a mediating role in IS adoption models (Gefen, Karahanna, &
Straub, 2003; Ribbink, Liljander, & Streukens, 2004; Chen & Dhillon, 2003; Jarvenpaa,
Tractinsky, & Vitale, 2000; Rotter, 1971). Trust plays an important role in many transactional

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buyer-seller relationships, especially in settings containing risks (McKnight, Cummings, &
Chervany, 1998). It is argued that trust has been serving as a critical role under online business
settings at which it is almost impossible to have physical touching and interaction with staff. In
general, trust can be defined as an expectation one chooses to trust in others who are believed to
not behave opportunistically or trust can be defined as one’s belief that others are going to
behave in a dependable, ethical, and socially desirable manner (Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, &
Camerer, 1998). Moreover, trust can be conceptualized as a combination of such factors as
trustworthiness, integrity, honesty, and benevolence of e-vendors that are expected to escalate
behavioral intentions via reduced risks among potential but inexperienced customers (Jarvenpaa
& Todd, 1996; Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003). Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we
hypothesize that:
H6. Trust will have a positive direct relationship with intention to use e-banking.
The relationship between trust and perceived benefit has been widely discussed in a variety of

contexts including online based business settings (Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003; Pavlou,
2003; Saeed, Hwang, & Yi, 2003; Gefen, 2004). Specifically, trust and TAM is well integrated
in the online shopping setting (Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003). Such an integration showed
that trust is an antecedent of perceived benefit. Trust is contended to serve as an important
determinant of perceived benefit, especially in the online environment due in part to the
guarantee that consumers expect the perceived benefit from the website with the sellers behind it.
Furthermore, trust is strongly believed to have positive impacts on perceived benefit on the
ground that trust make favorable conditions for consumers to be vulnerable to e-vendor to ensure
that they achieve expected useful interactions and services (Pavlou, 2003). While consumers
initially trust their e-vendors and have a feeling that online service adoption is efficient to their
job performance, they intend to believe that such online services are useful (Gefen, Karahanna,
& Straub, 2003). Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we hypothesize that:
H7. Trust will have a positive direct relationship with perceived benefit
Many studies have been conducted and found that there is a strongly positive correlation between
users’ and IS units’ mutual trust and mutual influence (Nelson & Cooprider, 1996). Moreover, it
is elicited by Decomposed TPB that users can be influenced by their peers and superiors in
determining subjective norm towards the IS utilization (Taylor & Todd, 1995). To put it another
way, it is very possible that trust in peers and superiors regarding their beliefs of the IS
utilization plays an important role in determining subjective norm. In a similar vein, trust in evendors regarding their reputation, brand name, and service might have positive impacts on
subjective norm over online transactions’ behavior. Additionally, aspects of reputation, brand
name, and service might elicit certain relationships between trust in peers and superiors and trust
in vendors. Hence, whatever types of trust are with direct and indirect impacts on subjective
norm, they are all serving as important antecedents of subjective norm in the online setting.
Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we hypothesize that:
H8. Trust will have a positive direct relationship with subjective norms.

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The relationship between trust and perceived behavioral control has been investigated with

regards to numerous aspects where trust is found as a common antecedent of perceived
behavioral control (Bandura, 1986; David, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989; Hosmer, 1995;
McKnight & Chervany, 2002; Pavlou, 2003). Trust is very likely to escalate perceived
behavioral control over online transactions due to the fact that such virtual interactions between
customers and e-vendors turn out to be more expectable (Pavlou, 2002).
Specifically, trust has impacts on perceived behavioral control via factors such as self-efficacy
and increased favorable conditions. Based on many psychological reports, self-efficacy in
personal relationships is built on self-confidence and mutual trust (Matsushima & Shiomi, 2003).
So, mutual trust embedded in such relationships between customers and e-vendors is expected to
escalate customer self-efficacy and in turn escalate perceived behavioral control. In addition,
trust is viewed as a perceptual resource that makes favorable conditions for customers to achieve
their control over e-transactions (Pavlou, 2002). Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we
hypothesize that:
H9. Trust will have a positive direct relationship with perceived behavioral
control.
The relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived benefit can be explained in the
manner that if other things are equal, the easier the technology is to use, the more beneficial it
can be (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). If using the technology is easy, potential users do not have to
spend too much time to learn how to use the technology; this may influence the performance of
the user. Besides, TAM has verified the effects of perceived ease of use on perceived benefit
(Davis, 1989; David, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989). Extensive research has shown significant
effects of perceived ease of use on perceived benefit (e.g., Chan & Lu, 2004). Thus, under
Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we hypothesize that:
H10. Perceived ease of use will have a positive direct relationship with perceived
benefit
Perceived ease of use is, in many studies, found to have positive impacts on trust since perceived
ease of use is very likely to escalate customers’ favorable impressions towards e-vendors in the
online service initial adoption and lead customers to be willing to make investments and
commitments in buyer-seller relationships (Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003). Under the view
of social cognitive theory, perceived ease of use is strongly contended to have positive impacts

on an individual’s favorable outcome expectation towards an innovative technology adoption
(Bandura, 1986). Such a contention is based on the fact that cognition-based trust, as mentioned
above, is primarily constructed on the first impression of the individual towards a certain
behavior. Specifically, perceived ease of use under the online service setting is viewed as the
first feeling or expectation set up for continued online transactions. Thus, under Vietnam’s ebanking setting, we hypothesize that:
H11. Perceived ease of use will have a positive direct relationship with trust

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Theories of reasoned action (TRA) and planned behavior (TPB) and their derivatives have been
utilized to predict possible adoption of information technology (Benbasat & Barki, 2007). While
such studies have escalated our understanding of how the theories’ main contructs have effects
on IT adoption, they ignore nonlinear relationships among the constructs. The fact that ignoring
the nonlinear effects is very likely to either understate or overstate the main effects which might
lead to erroneous, partial, or incomplete interpretations (Ping, 2002). That is the reason Ping
(2002) strongly argue that investigating complicated and contingent relationships among the
main constructs will bring about finer grained knowledge about determinants of individual IT
adoption. Thus, under Vietnam’s e-banking setting, we hypothesize that:
H12. The relationship between perceived benefit and intention to use e-banking
will be positively moderated by perceived ease of use.
H13. The relationship between perceived benefit and intention to use e-banking
will be positively moderated by trust.
H14. The relationship between perceived benefit and intention to use e-banking
will be positively moderated by subjective norm.
H15. The relationship between perceived benefit and intention to use e-banking
will be positively moderated by perceived behavioral control.

Formal Representation of the Conceptual Model
The research hypotheses can be integrated to form a set of structural equations. Since the

moderator effects of perceived ease of use, trust, subjective norm, and perceived
behavioral control on the relationship between perceived benefit on intention to use have
not been clearly tested in the literature, we create five competing structural models from
the conceptual model illustrated in Figure 1. Model A is without any moderator effects.
Model B is Model A plus the moderator effect of perceived ease of use on the
relationship between perceived benefit and intention to use. Model C is Model B plus the
moderator effect of trust. Model D is Model C plus the moderator effect of subjective
norm. Model E is Model D plus the moderator effect of perceived behavioral control. The
following abbreviations are used for simplicity: bank image (BI), perceived risk (PR),
perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived benefit (PB), trust (T), subjective norm (SN),
perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intention to use (IU).
Model A can be represented by Eqs. (1)-(5):
IU = β1(BI) + β2(PR) + β3(PB) + β4(SN) + β5(PBC) + β6(T) + e1 (1)
PB = β7(PEU) + β8(T) + e2 (2)
T = β9(PEU) + e3 (3)
SN = β10(T) + e4 (4)
PBC = β11(T) + e5 (5)

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To represent Model B, we modify Eqs. (1):
IU = β1(BI) + β2(PR) + β3(PB) + β4(SN) + β5(PBC) + β6(T) + α1(PEU*PB) + e1 (6)
Eqs. (2)-(5) are kept unchanged
By the same token, Model C can be represented:
IU = β1(BI) + β2(PR) + β3(PB) + β4(SN) + β5(PBC) + β6(T) + α1(PEU*PB) + α2(T*PB) +
e1 (7)
Eqs. (2)-(5) are kept unchanged
Model D can be represented:
IU = β1(BI) + β2(PR) + β3(PB) + β4(SN) + β5(PBC) + β6(T) + α1(PEU*PB) + α2(T*PB) +

α3(SN*PB) + e1 (8)
Eqs. (2)-(5) are kept unchanged
Model E can be represented:
IU = β1(BI) + β2(PR) + β3(PB) + β4(SN) + β5(PBC) + β6(T) + α1(PEU*PB) + α2(T*PB) +
α3(SN*PB) + α4(PBC*PB) + e1 (9)
Eqs. (2)-(5) are kept unchanged
We suggest that these alternative structural models (Model A, Model B, Model C, Model
D, and Model E) need to be tested independently and their results need to be compared
and contrasted.

Conclusion and Directions for Future Research
Up to now, a great deal of literature has identified key factors influencing the adoption of ebanking in developed countries – North America and Europe and to a lesser extent in other
regions including a mix of developed and developing countries, such as Singapore, Taiwan,
Malaysia, and Thailand. To put it another way, little research on factors influencing the adoption
of e-banking has been implemented in countries that are emerging as new potential markets with
very high economic growth rates. Among these countries is Vietnam where its average economic
growth rate (GDP) was over 7% during the 1990s and early 2000s, and especially more than 8%
in 2006, which made it one of the highest growing economies in the World (World Bank, 2006).
Together with Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization dated on 7 November 2006,
its banking sector is increasingly being deregulated in accordance with the requirements set up
by the World Trade Organization. These moves seem to indicate that fierce competition among
local banks and foreign banks in the Vietnamese banking sector have been occurring, and
Vietnamese banks have to adopt the Internet as a primary service delivery channel in order to
survive. However, there are no comprehensive models or frameworks to explain the e-banking
adoption by customers in Vietnam.

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This study has, based on an extensive review of literature on e-banking benefits for both banks

and their customers, trust, perceived risk, corporate image, and relevant theories on innovation
adoption, proposed alternative structural models (including both moderator and mediating
effects) for e-banking adoption in Vietnam. Furthermore, a set of model hypotheses presenting
relationships among factors influencing e-banking adoption have been set up.
The next step in the development of such models is to statistically test the aforementioned
hypotheses in the Vietnamese setting. Each of the factors identified in the previous discussion
will form the basis for analysis in the empirical study of e-banking adoption in such a new
context. The models presented in this paper are unique as at present, there are no comprehensive
theoretical and practical models for analyzing e-banking adoption in newly emerging countries
such as Vietnam. None of the prior models have taken into account the interactions between
innovation theories, trust, perceived risk, corporate image, intention to use, and actual use
regarding e-banking. These models can provide an impetus for future research, structuring them
along the lines of interactions between such above theories and factors that will expand the
frontiers of knowledge in e-banking adoption.

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APPENDIX 1
International studies on e-banking adoption
Authors
Name of study
Models utilized
Hussein and Zolait, An examination of
TPB (theory of
2010
the factors
planned behavior)
influencing Yemeni TRA (theory of
bank users’
reasoned action)
behavioral intention
to use Internet
banking services

Determinants
+ Attitude
+ Subjective norm
+Perceived
behavioral control
+ Ease of use
+ Awareness

+ Advantage
+ Media
This study, based on a self-administered survey involving a convenience sample of 369
Yemeni bank customers, investigates the potential prominent factors relating to the
adoption and use of the financial services of Internet banking in Yemen. The authors of
this study show that the overall prominent predictors include Relative
Advantage/Compatibility, User's Informational-Based Readiness, Attitude, Observability,
Technology Facilitating Condition, Perceived Behavioural Control and Self-efficacy. The
model accounted for 75 per cent of the variation of an individual's behavioural intention
to use IB.
Ozdemir and Trott,
Exploring the
TAM (technology
+ Socioeconomic
2009
adoption of a
acceptance model)
factors
service innovation:
Diffusion of
+ Situational factors
a study of Internet
Innovation
+ Perception factors
banking adopters
Theory of perceived related to Internet
and non-adopters
Risk
banking use
+ Related

experiences
Findings:
The authors show that Internet banking adopters and non-adopters have different
perceptual, experience-related, socioeconomic and situational characteristics. In addition,

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besides the perceptual factors related to Internet banking use, perceptual factors in
relation to the banks in Turkey have significant impacts on Internet banking adoption.
Alhudaithy and
Rethinking models
TAM
+ Website features
Kitchen, 2009
of technology
TRA
adoption for Internet TPB
banking: the role of
website features
Findings:
The authors show that website features have significant impacts on technology adoption,
and specifically Internet banking.
Yousafzai, Pallister Multi-dimensional
Model of trust for
+ Trust
and Foxall, 2009
role of trust in
Internet banking
+ Perceived risk

Internet banking
adoption
Findings:
The authors show that trust and perceived risk are direct antecedents of intention, and
trust is a multi-dimensional construct with three antecedents: perceived trustworthiness,
perceived security, and perceived privacy.
Ndubisi and Sinti,
Consumer attitudes, Decomposed TPB
+ Banking needs
2006
system’s
+ Compatibility
characteristics: an
+ Complexity
internet banking
+ Trainability
adoption in
+ Risk
Malaysia
+ Utilitarian
orientation
+ Hedonic
orientation
Findings:
The authors show that attitudinal factors play an important role in explaining the ebanking adoption. In addition, utilitarian orientation of the website, not hedonic
orientation, has significant impacts on adoption.
Fink, Eriksson,
Internet banking
Decomposed TPB
+ Features of the

Kerem and Nilsson, adoption strategies
web
2005
for a developing
+ Perceived
country: the case of
usefulness
Thailand
+ Risk and privacy
+ Personal
preference
+ External
environment
+ Culture
Findings:
The authors reveal that the attitudinal factors, such as features of the website and
perceived usefulness, are very likely to have positive impacts on the e-banking adoption
in Thailand, while the most salient impediment to the e-banking adoption is a perceived

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behavioral control, or external environment. Besides such above factors, the important
moderating factors are gender, educational level, income, internet experience and internet
banking experience, but not age.
Eriksson, Kerem
Customer
TAM
+ Trust
and Nilsson, 2005

acceptance of
+ Perceived
internet banking in
usefulness
Estonia
+ Ease of use
+ Use
Findings:
The authors indicate that the utilization of e-bank is very likely to elevate if customers
perceive e-banking as useful. Specifically, the perceived usefulness is very important due
to the fact that it determines if the perceived ease of use of e-bank results in increased use
of e-bank. In other words, e-banking services which are well-designed and easy to use
might not be realized if they are not perceived as useful. Hence, the authors conclude that
the perceived usefulness of e-banking plays an important role in motivating customer
usage. Moreover, the authors contend that technology acceptance models need to be
redesigned with more emphasis placed on the importance of the services’ perceived
usefulness offered by the technology.
Pikkarainen,
Consumer
TAM and focus
+ Perceived
Pikkarainen,
acceptance of online group
usefulness
Karjaluoto and
banking: an
+ Perceived ease of
Pahnila, 2004
extension of
use

technology
+ Perceived
acceptance model
enjoyment
+ Information on
online banking
+ Security and
privacy
+ Quality of internet
connection
Findings:
The authors conclude that perceived usefulness and information on online banking of the
Website are viewed as the primary factors that are very likely to have impacts on the
acceptance of online banking.
Wang, Lin and
Determinants of
TAM
+ Trust/Perceived
Tang, 2003
users acceptance of
credibility
internet banking
+ perceived
usefulness
+ Ease of use
+ Computer selfefficacy
+ Intention
Findings:
Based on the results of the study, the authors conclude that individual difference variables
such as computer self-efficacy have significant effects on behavioral intention via

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perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived credibility. In addition, the
authors show that users with a higher computer-self efficacy are likely to have more
positive usefulness and ease of use beliefs, but have more negative credibility beliefs in
e-banking. Such results are in line with that of the prior studies which have indicated that
there is a significant direct e-banking relationship between computer-self efficacy and
perceived ease of use of e-banking. Finally, the authors show that computer-self efficacy
has a negative impact on perceived credibility; however, its total impact on behavioral
intention is positive.
Shih and Fang, 2003 The use of
TPB and
+ Behavior intention
decomposed theory Decomposed TPB
+ Actual usage
of planned behavior
+ Attitude
to study internet
+ Subjective norms
banking in Taiwan
+ Perceived
advantage
+ Relative
advantage
+ Compatibility
+ Complexity
+ Normative
influences

+ Efficacy
+ Facilitating
Findings:
It is, based on the decomposed TPB model, shown in this study that only relative
advantage and complexity are related to attitude, but compatibility is not related to
attitude. In terms of subjective norm, the causal path starting from subjective norm to
intention is not statistically significant. Nevertheless, self-efficacy is found to be a
significant determinant of PBC. Finally, the authors show that facilitating conditions do
not have impacts on perceived behavioral control.
Suh and Han, 2002
Effects of trust on
TAM
+ Trust
customer acceptance
+ Perceived
of internet banking
usefulness
+ Ease of use
+ Attitude
+ Intention to use
Findings:
It is shown in this study that trust plays the most important role in explaining a
customer’s attitude towards utilizing e-banking. In line with TAM, in this study,
customer perception of the usefulness and ease of use also have significant impacts on
attitude. Moreover, behavioral intention to use e-banking is significantly related to
attitude, perceived usefulness, and trust. Such findings elicit that trust is much
emphasized by customers in e-environments with a lot of sensitive information.
Karjaluoto, Mattila
Factors underlying
TAM

+ Prior computer
and Pento, 2002
attitude formation
experience
towards online
+ Prior

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banking in Finland

technological
experience
+ Prior banking
experience
+ Reference group
influences

Findings:
It is shown in this study that prior computer experience, prior technology experience,
personal banking experience, reference group and computer attitudes have significant
impacts on attitude and behavior towards e-banking. In addition, there is a significantly
positive relationship between personal banking experience and attitude.
Black, Lockett,
The adoption of
Decomposed TPB
+ Relative
Winklhofer and
internet financial

advantage
Ennew, 2001
service: a qualitative
+ Compatibility
study
+ Trainability
+ Observability
+ Complexity
Findings:
The authors of this study concentrate on innovations related to delivery of financial
services via the e-channels and on reassessment of Rogers’ (1983) model’s applicability.
The data was colleted via the focus group members based on their usage of the internet.
There are differences between people who utilize the internet to buy financial services
(S3) and people who utilize the internet to buy goods/services (not financial services)
(S2) in terms of income and the utilization of information technology (higher levels for
S3). When S2 is compared with S1 (people who utilize the internet without buying
anything over the internet), there are also differences in terms of income and the product
related environment (higher levels for S2).
Based on such comparisons among the three groups, it is shown that considering factors
of Rogers’ model, similar attitudes exist in S1 and S2 regarding their perceived
advantages by utilizing e-banking compared to utilizing bank branches and risks
involved. S1 and S2 attitudes are much less positive than that of S3. In addition,
compatibility with a person’s values and previous experience with the product category is
proved to be one of the most important factors affecting the adoption of the internet to
carry out financial transactions. Trialability is considered important for the future
adoption, but its availability needs to be better communicated. In spite of the fact that
Rogers’ model utilized to assess an innovation’s perceived attributes is thought of as a
useful starting point, there are still other issues emerged that should be taken into
consideration, such as societal issues and the sense of fatalism. It seems that the former
may have a negative effect on the adoption, while the latter may have a positive effect on

the adoption.
Tan and Teo, 2000
Factors influencing TPB and Diffusion
+ Relative
the adoption of
of Innovation
advantages
internet banking
+ Compatibility
with values
+ Internet

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experiences
+ Banking needs
+ Complexity
+ Trialability
+ Risk
+ Self efficacy
+ Government
support
+ Technology
support
+ Social norms
Findings:
The findings from the study uncover that factors such as attitudinal and perceived
behavioral control factors, not social influence, have a significant role in influencing the
intention to adopt e-banking. Specifically, perceptions of relative advantage,

compatibility, trialability, and risk towards utilizing the internet have impacts on
intentions to adopt e-banking services. Furthermore, the confidence in utilizing e-banking
services and perception of government support for e-commerce also have impacts on
intentions to adopt e-banking services.
Liao, Shao, Wang
The adoption of
TPB and Diffusion
+ Attitude
and Chen, 1999
virtual banking: an
of Innovation
+ Relative
empirical study
advantage
+ Ease of use
+ Compatibility
+ Result
demonstrability
+ Perceived risks
+ Subjective norms
+ Belief of image
+ Belief of visibility
+ Critical mass
+ Perceived
behavioral control
+ Voluntariness
+ Trialability
+ Support
+ Learning
Findings:

In this study, TPB is partially utilized for the prediction of the adoption of e-banking.
Nevertheless, there are four major relationships of TPB presented as the four hypotheses
and three of them were tested. The first hypothesis stated that attitude towards virtual
banking was dependent on relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, result
demonstrability, and perceived risk. Reliable measures on perceived risk could not be
obtained and only the first four constructs were tested. The hypothesis was supported but
the two factors found were not clear cut. One of them was a combination of ease of use,

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compatibility and result demonstrability whereas the other was a mixture of relative
advantage, compatibility and result demonstrability. The explanation power of this
relationship is 0.56. The second hypothesis claimed that subjective norms about virtual
banking were dependent on image, visibility and critical mass. Visibility was not used as
no reliable measure was available. The hypothesis was also supported. However, the R
square value was only 0.29, which meant that image and critical mass alone could not
provide a powerful explanation of subjective norms.
The third hypothesis was that perceived behavioral control about virtual banking was
dependent on voluntariness, trialability, support and organizational learning. However,
this hypothesis could not be tested in this study due to an unavailable reliable measure.
The last hypothesis stated that intention to use virtual banking was determined by
attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Dependency on subjective
norms could not be tested due to the absence of reliable measure. Dependency on the
other two factors was founded statistically significant. Nevertheless, the low R square
value of 0.056 indicated very low explanation power.
Sathye, 1999
Adoption of internet TPB and Diffusion
+ Security concerns
banking by

of Innovation
+ Ease of use
Australian
+ Awareness of
consumers
service and its
benefits
+ Reasonable price
+ Resistance to
change
+ Availability of
infrastructure
Findings:
The author of this study reveals that security concerns and lack of awareness about ebanking and its benefits are considered as the main impediments to the adoption of ebanking in Australia.

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Copyright of Academy of Business Research Journal is the property of Academy of Business
Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print,
download, or email articles for individual use.


Copyright of Academy of Business Research Journal is the property of Academy of Business
Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print,
download, or email articles for individual use.