1- Introduction

2- Mobile banking in developing countries

3- Egypt and the U.S. – insights into innovation adaptation based on cultural differences

4- Theoretical framework and research model

5- Method

6- Results

7- Discussion and conclusion

8- Limitations and future research

References

Abstract

This study provides insights into the potential impact of country culture on consumers’ perceptions toward usage of new innovative technological services. Focusing on mobile banking (m-banking), this work compares responses from three distinct consumer segments, including– 1) consumers living in Egypt, 2) consumers from Egypt who are living in the U.S. and 3) U.S. consumers. The study utilizes constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) including, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, along with perceived risk, trust and social influence to examine the differences between these three distinct consumer segments’ usage intentions toward mobile banking. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicate that country culture (both primary and secondary) can, to some degree, influence consumers’ perceptions and intentions toward mobile banking. Implications and future research suggestions are provided.

Introduction

Recent years have witnessed major advances in the tools used to provide financial services to consumers both business to business (B-to-B) and business to consumers (B-to-C) (Laukkanen, 2007). Many of the most impactful and important advancements have been in the area of mobile banking. Zhoua, Lu, and Wang (2010) define mobile banking or m-banking as “the use of mobile terminals such as cellphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access banking networks via the wireless application protocol (WAP)” (p.760). It represents a means to obtain banking services needed to administer financial affairs through mobile devices (Anderson, 2010). Mobile banking as an innovative technology is valuable for key institutions in the financial sector (e.g., traditional banks and other lending organizations) but also has the ability to improve the quality of life of underserved populations (Malaquias and Hwang, 2016). For consumers of all types, mobile-banking allows financial transactions to be undertaken from any place, at any time (Zhou, 2012). It permits consumers to make payments, transfer money, manage bank accounts and buy and sell stocks and other financial instruments using multiple types of mobile devices (Gu et al., 2009; Laukkanen, 2007). Mobile banking, if embraced, could have a significant impact in developing, nonwestern countries where multitudes of consumers do not have access to traditional banking services or the cost of such services are prohibitive (Gutierrez and Singh, 2013). Despite impressive advantages, the usage penetration of m-banking services by traditional banking establishments is still limited in many countries (see – Akturan and Tezcan, 2012; Alalwan et al., 2016; Lin, 2011; Malaquias and Hwang, 2016; Zhou, 2012).

Introduction

Literature review

Research hypotheses and model

Research methodology

Results

Discussion

Implications for theory and practice

Conclusion and limitations

References

Abstract

Although cloud computing has a number of benefits, privacy risks play a critical role in organizations’ decisions to switch to cloud services. However, few studies on cloud adoption have investigated effects of both benefits and costs on switching intention. Based on cost-benefit analysis and technology acceptance model, this study develops a research model to investigate how benefits (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) and costs (perceived risk and privacy concerns) influence organizations’ switching intention to cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The model also accounts for trust and perceived control in the context of cloud computing. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and privacy concerns significantly affect switching intention. Trust can enhance perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and reduce perceived risk. Perceived control can also reduce perceived risk and privacy concerns. The findings are useful to understand switching issues from traditional ERP to cloud ERP for both researchers and practitioners.

Introduction

In recent years, cloud computing has become an emerging information technology (IT) development. It provides business products, services, and solutions that are delivered and consumed in real-time over the Internet (Gen 2008). Cloud-based models can be categorized into public, private, and hybrid clouds. In the public cloud model, services and resources are provided by cloud service providers and accessed over the Internet; in the private cloud model, IT resources and services remain within an organization and are accessed via the Intranet. Hybrid clouds mix the models of public and private clouds. Recently, public clouds have received increasing attention in IT industries. As International Data Corporation (IDC) reports, public cloud services reached US$47.4 billion in 2013. Furthermore, the market for cloud services is expected to reach US$107 billion by 2017 (Mishra 2013). Several organizations tend to switch to public cloud systems because of the benefits and useful interfaces of cloud computing (Low et al. 2011). However, the switch from traditional systems to cloud systems is still in the early stages (Park and Ryoo 2013). Accessing to data and services over the Internet increases the chances of compromising security.

Drawing upon the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research investigated the impact of information communications technology (ICT) on self-efficacy, social capital, and empowerment in the overlooked context of women micro-entrepreneurs. In addition to testing the original TAM constructs of usefulness and perceived ease of use, this research extended TAM to ICT use outcomes. Data were collected from 199 women micro-entrepreneurs in South Africa using an online survey and were analyzed via structural equation modeling. The results suggested that ICT usage decisions were influenced by women’s perceptions of ICT ease of use and usefulness. Additionally, ICT usage influence on social capital bridging was moderated by self-efficacy, while ICT usage had a strong direct influence on self-efficacy and social capital bonding. Social capital bridging and bonding and self-efficacy had varying influence on women empowerment measured as goal internalization, perceived control, competence, and impact. These findings were robust even after controlling for potentially confounding variables identified in the literature. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Introduction

One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals launched on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (United Nations, 2018). Referring to Keller and Mbewe (1991), Rowlands (1995, p. 104) defines empowerment as: “A process whereby women become able to organise themselves to increase their own self-reliance, to assert their independent right to make choices and to control resources which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination.” Empowering women in emerging economies will not only improve household welfare but will also positively impact the social and fiscal health of nations through better education, poverty reduction, and decreased violence (De Vita, Mari, & Poggesi, 2014; Dolan & Scott, 2009; Scott, Dolan, Johnstone-Louis, Sugden, & Wu, 2012). One tool identified by scholars with the potential to facilitate women empowerment in emerging economies is that of information communications technology (Ajjan, Beninger, Mostafa, & Crittenden, 2014; Maier & Nair-Reichert, 2007; Wamala, 2012).

1- Introduction

2- Literature review

3- Research model and hypothesis

4- Research methods

5- Conclusion

References

Abstract

With the development of the smartphone and mobile Internet, a platform-based mobile payment service has emerged that can handle all banking services with a smartphone alone. In the meantime, many studies have been made on the analysis of new emerging financial technologies. However, most studies have analyzed financial technologies from the consumer perspective, and there has been no analysis of the intention to accept the financial technology in terms of retailers. This study analyzes the factors affecting financial technology adoption from consumer and retailer perspectives respectively, and suggests an integrated model in which each adoption influences each other’s demand from the perspective of the two-sided market.

Introduction

With the everyday use of smartphones, mobile-based banking and shopping have increased, and financial innovation based on information and communication technology (ICT) has become necessary. Fintech, which is a combination of finance and technology, has emerged in response to this trend (Dahlberg et al., 2015). It is the convergence of ICT and financial services including mobile payment, crowdfunding, remittance, and asset management, and it is expected to meet the demand for various financial services due to the increase in shopping. The most popular service among the various fintech services is the mobile payment service. Mobile payment is a payment method that uses a mobile device to pay or transfer money, and it has the advantage of being able to use the convenience of wireless infrastructure and can be used anywhere and anytime (Iman, 2018). Mobile payment has been a promising alternative to declining cash use and has been proposed as a solution for the activation of the electronic marketplace (Ondrus and Pigneur, 2006a). Menke and de Lussanet (2006) have argued that mobile payment services have already been successful in the marketplace. As a result, credit card companies and banks, which had previously been mainly used for payment, are launching mobile payment services. They have the advantage of securing the financial experience and trust of consumers, but they also have the disadvantage of lacking mobile technology or experience and lacking mobile consumers.

Purpose – The popularity of e-commerce has increased significantly over recent years. However, this growth is not shared by all European Union states. One reason for this discrepancy is culture which impacts on e-commerce acceptance. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the effect of acculturation process on e-commerce acceptance. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modelling is employed to test three research models: technology acceptance model, theory of planned behaviour model and motivational model. Findings – The findings show that attitudes towards e-commerce change in relation to the perception of control and the influence of subjective norms, which impact intentions to use e-commerce before movement to a host country’s culture. However, its effect diminishes after the exposure to the influence of a host culture. Originality/value – This is the first study to demonstrate the existence of the effect of acculturation process on mingling and migrating consumers and their changing attitudes towards e-commerce acceptance.

Introduction

Online shopping or e-commerce has become a common practice for consumers. In 2015, nearly 1.5bn consumers worldwide purchased products via e-commerce (Statista, 2017a) and this number is forecasted to be in excess of 2bn globally by 2019. E-commerce therefore is a vital shopping channel for consumers worldwide (Chaparro-Pelaez et al., 2016). Furthermore, it is an important accelerator of global trade (Deng and Wang, 2016) as it generates US$3.4tn in B2C e-commerce sales worldwide (Statista, 2017b). North America is currently the largest regional market for online shopping, with predicted sales growth of US $1.5tn by 2018 (Statista, 2017c). This is followed by China and Europe, where among the 28 European Union member countries (EU), one out of five businesses sell its products via e-commerce (Eurostat, 2017). To this end, the EU represents an interesting case study. Despite the lack of internal borders ensured by European Single Market policy, there appears a wide variation in the share of e-sales across its member countries. For example, while e-sales in the UK in 2016 exceeded €71.05bn, e-sales in countries such as Poland and Sweden only amounted to €6.03bn and €5.74bn respectively. Furthermore, despite the EU directive of free movement of goods and people, it appears that cross border e-commerce has not been fully exploited by EU businesses. Statistics show only 8 per cent of EU businesses made e-sales to other EU countries (Eurostat, 2014). This implies that although e-commerce, being an unarguably attractive strategy for consumers and businesses, not all EU consumers uniformly use it as a shopping channel. There is evidence to suggest that this discrepancy is due to the effect consumers’ culture has on technology acceptance.

Purpose – The purpose of the research is to examine the process of consumer satisfaction formation for e-commerce. The study also predicts that the satisfaction formation model of ecommerce will differ between US and Korean consumers due to differences in cultural background. Design/methodology/approach – The study integrates the expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM). The hypotheses are examined by analyzing a structural equation model for consumers in the US and Korea. Findings – The results show that the model demonstrates good fit for both groups. For consumers in both countries, when purchasing fashion products on a new e-commerce site, the performance of the site’s usefulness was found to be a crucial variable in their satisfaction and intention to use the site. While there was no significant difference in the multiple group measurement model invariance test, our findings are meaningful because the slight differences in the standard coefficients of the two groups are considered. Originality/value – It is meaningful to apply EDT and the TAM to the daily deal site environment. The influence of related variables can be reconfirmed and new consumer behaviors can be better understood. The research provides fresh insights into consumer behavior that can benefit managers when they make decisions in the e-commerce field.

Introduction

As the market for smart phones and tablets for mobile entertainment and reading are expanding, a new e-commerce platform is emerging. Connected with social networks and social relationships, this platform is called “social e-commerce.” Social e-commerce differs from existing online shopping in two ways. First, communication among consumers is different since social e-commerce is a consumer participating market where consumers directly use the network effect on, participate in, and create their own markets. It integrates with social networking services (SNSs) to increase consumer participation. Second, most of the prominent social e-commerce business models today are focused on radical price discounts of more than 50% for a limited time. The most common social e-commerce platform is group-buying sites with a daily deal service, as characterized by Groupon. This is also referred to as social shopping because consumers form relationships in the process of sharing shopping information and make purchases based on public opinions formed by those relationships. According to recent surveys, the total transaction value of the online group-buying market in the US reached US$19.7 billion in 2011 and revenue was expected to reach US$41.7 billion in 2015 (Sina, 2011). Online group buying websites are also experiencing rapid growth in Asia (CNN, 2010). In Korea, in 2010, US$45 million was transacted in the market, but by 2011, the market was estimated at US$724 million. Moreover, the market was projected to reach US$4.5 billion in 2014 (Park, 2014). Recently, Coupang, one of the group buying sites in Korea, was listed among the world’s 50 smartest companies for 2016 as selected by the MIT Technology Review, a magazine published by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (MIT Technology Review, 2016).

Have you ever been in a situation, where you were completely convinced and enthusiastic about ‘‘something’’? A ‘‘something’’ that would solve multiple problems at once leading to overall improvements and profits that everybody would benefit from. A ‘‘something’’ where the necessity was crystal clear to you and was supported by valid arguments and profound research that supported all your assumptions scientifically. A solution that all stakeholders would benefit from as soon as everybody was on board. There was no doubt that you will receive endless glory and a life-size statue of yourself for your inspiring and worldchanging solution. You first introduce your ‘‘something’’ to a friend… ‘‘Yes, great… you should absolutely do that’’. Then, you explain to your peers…‘‘Hmmm… but this ‘‘something’’ would interrupt another already existing ‘‘something’’ (actually a ‘‘something’’ the peers had once received a live-size statue for) which still works fine after several years and, unfortunately, you need to realize that a third ‘‘something’’ already needs our full attention at the moment; and, by the way, Mr. Somebody (a very important somebody you never met) once said something about that this kind of ‘‘something’’ you mention does not work’’. Still interested in managing change? It is a rough road with twists and turns; full of emotions and challenges, but crucial for building up organizations and necessary when learning about how organizational development works (or does not work). Organizations face serious challenges when implementing change on a large scale in complex environments. As a precondition, Change Management (CM) requires thorough planning and an execution attitude that consists of positivity and endurance, especially, within organizational development that is closely intertwined with CM. Change within organizations starts with diverse initiatives to enforce strategical, tactical, and operative measures to achieve the desired change goals. In cost-driven markets, organizations often express their change intentions, but they also need to mobilize dedicated and shared resources to conduct the change successfully (Beer and Nohria 2000; Creasey 2016). A very prominent example of organizational development and organizational change is illustrated by the approach of Atos with their target of abolishing email from internal communication. ‘‘We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives. At Atos we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organisations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution’’—Thierry Breton, 2011 (Atos 2017b). With this statement, Atos Chairman and CEO Thierry Breton announced the so-called Zero Email initiative in 2011 with the ambitious goal of eliminating all internal emails at Atos within the next 3 years (Atos 2013).

As the banking industry becomes increasingly competitive, each bank must develop proprietary services and products to serve existing customer needs and attract new clients. Banks should bring the greatest utility and convenience to their customers and thus need to focus on customer satisfaction and provide incentives to influence customer loyalty. The services that meet customer requirements should be simple, compatible, and personalized with complementary services. In addition, banks should have a digital platform with fast and secure access (Shaikh & Karjaluoto, 2015). In the current digital age, Financial Technology (FinTech) plays an important role in helping banks gain new customers and scale their business operations. Banks and other financial services companies found that FinTech has brought innovations into the financial market (Gulamhuseinwala, Bull, & Lewis, 2015) with mobile technologies as an essential platform supporting FinTech. A wide range of new mobile technologies have been developed specifically for financial services and the banking industry. The number of mobile payment transactions worldwide has increased by approximately 58.33 percent from 2014 to 2015 (Dapp, Slomka, & Hoffmann, 2015). Hence, banks should integrate mobile payment systems in order to eliminate the need for customers to enter their personal payment details for each transaction. Thailand’s payment environment, while challenging, supports the use of electronic devices such as the mobile phone. According to the mobile banking usage statistics for Thailand published by the Bank of Thailand, the number of customer transactions conducted via mobile banking services has rapidly increased in the last five years (Trairatvorakul, 2014). Takorn Tantasith, the SecretaryGeneral of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) Thailand, noted that the latest estimates indicate approximately 93.7 million registered mobile phone users, and yet only 20 percent of bank customers presently use mobile banking services. This shows a low uptake of mobile banking services despite high mobile phone use by the Thai population. The main barrier to using mobile banking in Thailand is the preference for cash payment, followed by security concerns, and finally consumer behavior (Tavilla, 2015). Extensive review of extant research on technology adoption reveals that many authors have previously attempted to combine two or more theories to explore customer adoption of information technology (ArenasGaitan, Peral, & Jeronimo, 2015; Chan & Lu, 2004; Martins, Oliveira, & Popovic, 2014; Oliveira, Faria, Thomas, & Popovic, 2014). In the current research, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the secondgeneration theoretical model known as Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) are used to empirically study mobile banking adoption.

We hope for high quality healthcare services with low costs in our lifetime. Internet of Things (IoT) has the power to make this real. More sensor devices mean more patient monitoring for chronic issues, and more patient monitoring means fewer checkups and unnecessary appointments, all resulting in cost reduction. Early diagnoses and early interventions can be supported with IoT technologies to enhance the identification of the nature of an illness or other problems by examination of the symptoms. After the invention of the internet, IoT is expected to be the next pivotal digital revolution. IDC (2017) predicted that IoT-covered smart wearable devices will grow by 250 per cent in 2019. It means that digital revolution will be supported by IoT especially in healthcare products This study focuses on adopting the intention of IoT healthcare products. Technology acceptance model was chosen to identify the mobile users’ adoption intention of any emerging technology. Also, technological innovativeness was used to evaluate the individual’s adoption to an innovation. An innovation diffuses via communication channels over time among the members of a social system. Thus, innovation diffusion theory was adopted to evaluate this impact on IoT-enabled healthcare products. For identifying the “threat and coping” of the innovation for individuals, protection motivation theory was taken into account, and privacy calculus theory was adopted to present anticipated benefits and perceived risks which affect an individual’s decision to share information with others. ITU report (2005) says that IoT is described as network connectivity between people and things from anywhere, anytime by anyone. IoT is the connectivity of everything (even dust) through wireless technologies by assigning an internet address to every single thing. First generation of IoT (RFID and Sensors) starts with the tagged objects in EPCglobal, machine to machine (M2M) in oneM2M standard, and integration RFID with Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The second generation (Web Services and Internetworking) covers Internetworking with IETF 6LoWPAN, ROLL RPL, IEEE 802.15.4 standards, Web of Things with IETF CoAP, OASIS DPWS standards and Social Networks. Social Internet of Things, Semantic (W3C, SSN), Future Internet (IETF ICNRG), Cloud and RFID-IoT integration are constructs of the third generation (Social, Cloud and ICN) of the IoT (Atzori et al., 2017). Nowadays, IoT developments are actualized and accelerated almost in every area of life and industry. IoT is efficient, accurate and effective in operations. For instance; a parking application was developed to share timely information and reduce waiting time for parking via smart sensors in San Francisco (Cosgrave et al., 2013). We will discuss in this article the application of IoT in healthcare field. IoT plays a significant role in healthcare sector from managing to preventing chronic disease. An IoTbased healthcare system provides network connectivity between all available resources to perform healthcare activities such as remote surgeries over Internet, diagnosing and monitoring (Tarouco et al., 2012). In health and wellbeing, the main contribution of the IoT includes monitoring people’s health and quality of life by features such as pervasivity, transparency, wearability and security (Atzori et al., 2017).

During the last decade, the number of mobile lines in the world has been increased significantly. In fact, according to the last report of International Telecommunications Unit (ITU, 2015) there were more than 7.000 million users in the world with a mobile line by end 2015. In Europe, ITU estimates the mobile users penetration around 125% and the Internet rate will reach 75% by end 2014. These figures show the importance that these new technologies have in the Society. This trend has affected different sectors as Education, Medicine, and Communication. The way people interact among them and the way they have to communicate each other have evolved completely, incorporating the mobile gadgets and the mobile technologies as part of them. Due to this reasons, there have been some researches about the inquiries and the use of mobile technologies in education and learning (Briz-Ponce, Juanes-Mendez,
& García-Penalvo, 2014a; ~ Huang, Lin, & Chuang, 2007; Tsinakos & Ally, 2013). This publications report the importance of these resources in the learning process, claiming that many Universities are implementing mobile learning to provide flexibility or even to prepare students and teachers for the developing digital area. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have recommended Governments to adopt technological infrastructure to ensure equal access to mobile connectivity in order to allow students accessing to an important and increasing range of learning possibilities. This Organization has affirmed that m-learning has a great potential in the quality of learning and enhancing the good student’s results (UNESCO, 2009). The drivers that could influence in students’ behaviour to use mobile technologies for learning, have been considered an engaging factor to assay in many researches (Arteaga, Duarte, & García, 2013; Briz-Ponce & García-Penalvo, 2015; Chen, 2011; ~ Hong, Thong, & Tam, 2006; Lee & Lehto, 2013; S
anchez & Hueros, 2010; Sezer, 2016; Thakre & Thakre, 2015). For example Thakre and Thakre (2015) explain what are the main uses of smartphones by students, reporting that communication, learning and entertainment are the most popular ones. Briz-Ponce and García-Penalvo (2015) ~ makes a description of a TAM model applied to medical students making a confirmatory factorial analysis in order to explain the relationship between the dimensions included in the study. Lee and Lehto (2013) makes a research based on a TAM model as well reporting the determinants that may influence in the behavioural intention to use new technologies. Sanchez and Hueros (2010)
make an analysis of virtual teaching platforms for distance learning and the use of TAM whereas Sezer (2016) reveals that the factors of gender and the academic success affects significantly towards students’ attitudes towards elearning. The authors Hong et al. (2006) make a comparison between three models in order to understand the usage behaviour of mobile Internet. Arteaga et al. (2013) investigate the factors that determine the acceptance of WEbCt learning system among students and the findings published by Chen (2011) show that educational compatibility and expectancy are important determinants of e-learning acceptance.

Regardless of economic and political volatility in global banking industry, the Islamic banking is a rapid growing industry. The concept of Islamic banking has gained widespread attention of economist, bankers, financial experts and investors from global traditional banking industry. The history of establishment of present Islamic banks can be traced back from 1940s (Khan and Bhatti, 2008) and since then it has become huge trillion dollar industry. According to Islamic Financial Services Board (2015), there are more than 400 Islamic banks and approximately 191conventional banks with Islamic banking window operating in more than 75 countries. Tremendous growth and worldwide expansion of Islamic banking industry in the global financial markets are the main reasons behind it. The recent world Islamic competiveness report stated 16% of compound annual growth rate in global Islamic finance industry from 2010 to 2014 (Ernst & Young, 2016). It has become huge industry with assets reported in 2014 were estimated to USD I.87 trillion. The operations of Islamic banking are built on unique value based system that protect both moral and material wellbeing of the individuals and the society. Islamic banking follows Shariah compliance derived from the Holy Quran which prohibits the Islamic banks to invest in toxic assets. Due to this limit, Islamic banks were not severely influenced by the financial crisis (Hassan and Dridi, 2010). This caught attention of several customers, investors and other stake holder adding further encouragement to the acceptance of Islamic banking. With the intention to compete with the conventional banking, Islamic banks are setting up themselves with innovative technologies to gain competitive edge and market share (Goh and Sun, 2014; Sun et al., 2012; Sadeghi and Hanzaee, 2010). One of the most recent invention is mobile banking (m-banking) which is the usage of mobile phone to conduct financial transaction (Yu, 2012). With the distribution of wireless access protocol (WAP), establishment of 3G and 4G technologies people’s life style has switched as round the clock connectedness turn out to be inevitable (Ha et al., 2012). This life style change has made commercial prospects for the banks to present high value m-banking services (Goh and Sun, 2014) while eliminating the conventional banking limitation of time and place (Lin, 2013). These current alterations in customer’s lifestyle suggests the need to reinvestigate, in new context, the individual perceptions about Islamic mobile banking. Further adding to, many of the technology adoption barriers like cost, access and service quality has been greatly reduced so Islamic banks must develop a deep insight of all the factors affecting the adoption m-banking as the new context may alter already theorized relationship insignificant and perhaps may establish new relationship (Johns, 2006).