An empirical examination of customers’ mobile phone experience and awareness of mobile banking services in mobile banking in Saudi Arabia

Aim/Purpose This work aims to understand why a disparity between the popularity of smart phones and the limited adoption of m-banking exists. Accordingly, this study investigates factors that affect a person’s decision to adopt m-banking services. Such an investigation seeks to determine if and to what extent customers’ mobile phone experience as well as their awareness of m-banking services influence their intention to use such services? Background This study developed a conceptual model to determine the influence that users’ mobile phone experience as well as users’ awareness of m-banking services had on users’ behavioral intention to use m-banking in Saudi Arabia. Methodology The quantitative method used to collect data was a survey questionnaire technique. A questionnaire with non-structured (close-ended) questions was formulated. A random sample, targeting banking customers in Saudi Arabia, was selected. This study collected data using a cross-sectional survey. Of those surveyed, 389 provided valid responses eligible for data analysis. SPSS v.22 was used to analyze the data. Contribution This study produced helpful results and a new m-banking conceptual model. The developed conceptual model focused integrally on users’ awareness and experience as antecedents of m-banking adoption and highlighted the importance of differentiating between measuring the users’ characteristics in adopting e-banking in general and m-banking services in particular. In addition, this type of model has the ability to synthesize new control variables as well as to study technology acceptance in developing countries. This study, based on an extended UTAUT model, set out to discover what factors might affect customers’ intentions to use m-banking in Saudi Arabia. Findings The results show that service awareness has a direct effect on performance and effort expectancy, but not on perceived risk. Moreover, mobile phone experience fails to impact the relationships in the same hypothesized direction. As anticipated, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and perceived risk have direct and significant effects on behavioral intentions to use m-banking. However, customer awareness fails to impact the relationships of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and perceived risk on behavioral intentions to use m-banking. Recommendations Banks should target customers by distributing useful information and applying for Practitioners measures to increase acceptance. Banks need to introduce something imaginative to convince bank customers to abandon existing service channels and adopt m-banking services. Banks should make m-banking services the easiest service for conducting bank transactions and/or help customers conduct transactions that they cannot do any other way. Recommendation Other factors, such as trust, culture, and/or credibility should be investigated for Researchers along with user’s awareness and experience factors in m-banking services. There is a need to focus on a specific type of m-banking. Thus, it may be fruitful to study the adoption of different systems of m-banking services. Impact on Society This study suggests that m-banking services should be designed and built based on a deep understanding of customers’ needs using extensive testing to assure that applications and sites function well in a mobile setting. Future Research Future researchers should apply the conceptual model developed in this study in different settings, different countries, and to different technologies.