Behavior intention to Use internet Banking in Korea: adoption Perspective

This study is aimed at analyzing adoption and usage behavior within the context of Internet banking services in South Korea. In a country where the penetration rate of the Internet is very high, it seems that the self-efficacy would play a crucial role in affecting the Internet banking adoption. To pursue this research question, this study adopts TAM and incorporates the self-efficacy into TAM as one of antecedent variables such as risk, Internet experience, facilitating conditions. The proposed research model is tested empirically with 185 usable questionnaires and partial least square (PLS) method. Experimental results showed that the self-efficacy plays a prominent role in influencing the Internet banking usage compared to other factors. DOI: 10.4018/jea.2009092902 IGI PUBLISHING This paper appears in the publication, International Journal of E-Adoption, Volume 1, Issue 3 edited by Sushil Sharma © 2009, IGI Global 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey PA 1 033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.igi-global.com ITJ 5464 International Journal of E-Adoption, 1(3), 30-47, July-September 2009 31 Copyright © 2009, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. in many countries, e-commerce is widening its portion and gaining gravity in commerce activities (Cheng, Lam, & Yeung, 2006). For instance, U.S. B2C e-commerce revenues reached $76 billion in 2002, $90 billion in 2003, $109 billion in 2004, and $133 billion in 2005 (Cheng et al., 2006; Ebusiness Engineering, 2003). In South Korea, the e-commerce transaction reached US$330 billion in 2004, the portion of which in total transactions is almost 19.1% in 2004 (Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce, 2005). Common feature observable in the two countries is that traditional commerce is rapidly either replaced with or backed up by the e-commerce. Therefore, this study also assumes that the Internet banking needs more rigorous empirical analysis from a perspective trying to explain why its adoption rate is so high in a specific country. In this sense, this study was conducted to investigate the Internet banking environment of South Korea, a country that features outstanding Internet infrastructure. First serviced July 1997, Internet banking is offered by 18 banks in Korea as of September 2005. The number of Internet banking users reached 10 million in November 2001, surpassed the 20 million mark in June 2003, and stands at 24.27 million as of December 2004 (Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce, 2005). The average number of Internet banking transactions such as balance enquiry, fund transfer and loan service is 9 million each day, which is a 24.7% increase from 7.22 million the previous year. Internet banking is now responsible for 27.4% of all bank transactions in South Korea. Although usage of Internet banking in South Korea is substantially higher compared to other Asian economies like Hong Kong and Singapore, studies have yet to be released to describe the South Korean consumer behaviors of adopting and using Internet banking (Chan & Lu, 2004; Cheng et al., 2006; Kim, Shin, & Lee, in press; Lai & Li, 2005, Liao & Cheung, 2002). In turn, this study attempts to analyze the factors that affect the behaviors of consumers who use Internet banking in Korea, placing an emphasis on the importance of selfefficacy because South Korea is one of the highly Internet-driven societies and it is natural for us to believe that many South Koreans are accustomed to using the Internet for various purposes in their daily lives. Therefore, the research question of study is presented as follows. First, an expanded model is presented that reflects internal constraint and external constraint in the Technology Acceptance Model. Second, this study shall be compared with results from other research activities to provide theoretical and practical suggestions for other countries where Internet banking and its applications have yet to mature. In this paper, we first provide the study’s prior literature on Internet banking, and describe the theoretical model and hypotheses. We follow by presenting our research design, methodology and data analysis, results. We conclude with a discussion and suggestions for further research. Prior literatUre oN iNterNet BaNKiNG Since 1999 there have been studies on acceptance of Internet banking conducted by numerous researchers in various countries based on theories such as TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), TRA (Theory of Reasoned Action) and TPB (Theory of Planned Behavior) (Chan & Lu, 2004; Cheng et al., 2006; Hoppe, Newman, & Mugera, 2001; Lai & Li, 2005; Laukkanen, 2007; Liao & Cheung, 2002; Moutinho & Smith, 2000; Sathye, 1999; Tan & Teo, 2000). Table 1 presents the comparison of studies conducted in different countries, that is, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Table 1 indicates that although studies on the acceptance factors of Internet banking use similar variables, their significances vary for some influential relationships. For example, in the case of banking needs and government support, a study performed by Tan and Teo (2000) claims that intention is a variable that has significant effect, whereas a study conducted by Hoppe et al. (2001) states that it is not. In terms 16 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the publisher's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/exploring-antecedents-behavior-