Communication Media for Banking Industry

Published Date: 28 Feb 2018

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introduction

Today's world is world of technology. Everyday a new technology is introduced that can assist people in order to do their daily works easily and finally increase the quality of their life. These new technologies help their users in different aspects of their life, by saving time, doing works faster and better with lower level of error. The rapid development of information technology has brought unprecedented influence on the life of millions of people around the globe. Various activities were handled electronically through the adoption of IT in the workplace or at home, for example, e-mail, e-commerce and e-government (Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006). One of these technologies that effects most people around the world is Internet, which was born in the last years of 20 century and rapidly broke boundaries, time and place. It brought more easily communication ways from usual daily activities to high level official activities. Online shopping and paying is a symbol of developing internet technology. People can stay at home, be at their work place, or their car or any other place, and order their food, clothes , shoes and pay online and receive their orders without spending time for going to the shopping center or finding parking .so online paying helped its users saved their time and their money. Next generation of online paying is internet banking, which means doing transactions online without going to the bank, staying in long queues, and without direct face-to-face interacting.

The terms of PC banking, online banking, Internet banking, and mobile banking refer to a number of ways in which customers can access their banks without having to be physically present at a bank branch. PC Banking relates to every banking business transacted from a customer's PC. This can be done through online banking, in which bank transactions are conducted within a closed network, or via Internet banking, which permits the customer to perform transactions from any terminal with access to the Internet. Mobile banking is the implementation of banking and trading transactions using an Internet-enabled wireless device. (Mobile phones, PDAs, handheld computers, etc.). Thus mobile banking (m-banking) is a subset of Internet banking, I banking, (Hazell and Raphael, 2001)

The banking industry is using the new communication media to offer its services to the customers with convenience. Using Internet banking and its nearest technology, mobile banking, is increased during these years around the world. Malaysian penetration of Internet banking and mobile banking, as the base infrastructure for this paper, is mentioned as below:

In all five continents, penetration of internet and mobile banking are rapidly increasing. Especially in most developed countries, trend of internet banking is increasing, also using mobile banking, is increasing. Most of Europe has embraced GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) as a format for wireless technology. This more standardized wireless telecommunications infrastructure has yielded a higher level of acceptance and penetration, which has led to speculation that Europe will drive innovations in wireless communications, this technology can use to do both internet banking and mobile banking. Although still need time to adapt the mobile banking. In most countries this service is available but Because of its price and some uncertainty about its security, mobile banking is not popular yet. North America represents the flip side of the European situation. Wireless communications, though far from rare, lag behind Europe's penetration levels, while participation in the wired Internet is the highest in the world. The North American wireless infrastructure is not as widespread as standardized as its European counterpart. In the Middle East, has secured 15 wireless infrastructure contracts in regional markets over the last 12 months, most recently in Kuwait. Motorola's work in Kuwait involves a $14 million contract with wireless GSM operator MTC to implement a countrywide capacity enhancement. The "dual-band" network implementation will enable cell phones to utilize the most efficient network route and frequency, thus optimizing network performance.

In spite of the fact that internet and mobile banking has rapidly growth in all countries, but still there are people from developing countries that do not interest in use this facility. People of these countries are concerning about their personal information, privacy and security, and these are factors that will increase their uncertainty level of using internet banking(East African and West African countries in Malaysia interviewing). This anxiety can refer to their cultural background. culture can refer to the customs and beliefs of a nation that stay with people for years, and changing of fundamental of this culture is not possible easily. So culture of a country can affect the culture of sub-societies in that country, such as organizational culture, educational culture and etc. So each nation and country has especial fundamental in order to go to the technology world and use technology as an assistant in their life.

Statement of the Problem

According to the previous discussion, although there is rapidly increasing in internet banking penetration but still there is some unsafe feeling towards it. That means there are factors that can affect acceptance and adaption of a technology, beside existing factors such as usefulness, ease of use, subjective norm and etc.

While essential research has been directed toward understanding the adoption and diffusion of IT (Prescott and Conger, 1995), there have been a few studies that specifically examine possible cultural effects on the adoption and dispersion of new information technologies (Raman and Wei, 1992). Research on the impact of corporate culture on IT acceptance provides a useful viewpoint (Cooper, 1994; Kydd and Jones, 1989) but ethnic or national culture research undoubtedly has a special character.

The problem to be investigated is that there is no enough research that works on the effect of national culture on acceptance a technology. Thereafter

This study examines the role of culture on technology acceptance model (TAM) adaption and tries to give an in depth view of Hofstede Cultural Dimensions towards acceptance of a technology (Power distance index:PID, Individualism/collectivism, Uncertainty avoidance).

It is hoped that conclusions can be drawn and opened a window for managers and all who want to bring world of technology to their life and work.

Research Objective

1. The main aim of this paper is finding the role of culture in acceptance a new technology. That can be interpreted to culture role on the Technology Acceptance Model.

Beside the main objective this study pursues following objectives:

1. Giving the overall view of Hofstede Cultural Dimensions in different countries base on their Power Distance Index, Individualism/Collectivism and Uncertainty avoidance
2. Opening a new window for all who work in IT and IS implementing, to bring technology in multinational and international organizations.
3. Handling the problem that faced in multi-cultural society according to each person cultural background.

Research Questions

Main question can be draw as below:

• Is there any effect by Hofstede cultural dimensions (PDI, IND/CLV, UAI) on TAM

This main question can be expended as below:

• Is there any effect by Hofstede cultural dimensions (PDI, IND/CLV, UAI) on Perceived Usefulness (PU)?
• Is there any effect by Hofstede cultural dimensions (PDI, IND/CLV, UAI) on Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU)?
• Is there any effect by Hofstede cultural dimensions (PDI, IND/CLV, UAI) on Subjective Norm (SN)?
• Is there any effect by Hofstede cultural dimensions (PDI, IND/CLV, UAI) on Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC)?
• Is there any effect by Hofstede cultural dimensions (PDI, IND/CLV, UAI) on Behavioral Intention(BI) to use internet banking?

Scope of the Study

In order to achieve the best results in finding different attitude towards technology acceptance (Internet banking) among different people from different nations, student of four universities in Malaysia have been selected to administer the questionnaire in order to examine attitude towards internet and mobile banking. Because of large scope of this study and necessity of collaboration of more than 30 countries from the five continents in Malaysia, embassy of ten countries and their referees took part in this research by filling up questionnaires that was distributed by hand and by e-mail, also staffs of some international organizations in Malaysia cooperate in this research, and the last one, social networks such as facebook came to assist this paper by finding the different others countries communities in Malaysia.

Significance of the Study

As firms internationalize, there is a growing need to understand how cultural factors might affect a multinational organization's ability to adopt and utilize IT. Further studies may lead to knowledge that will help IT researchers and practitioners in improving the technology transfer process. Such knowledge will be worth to practitioners, because it could spell the difference between achievement and collapse in implementing IT. In the movement toward globalization of markets and corporate multinationalism, the value of more cross-cultural research is clear (Cash, McFarlan, McKenney and Applegate, 1992). In a large survey of information systems more than half of the respondents felt that global IT issues were keys to their firms' future success (Ives and Jarvenpaa, 1991). As firms grow their operations in the international arena, there is a need to exploit the power of IT to communicate among these widespread locations and to coordinate activities both within and across countries. Hence, it is important for the managers of these firms to learn, as much as they can, about the cross-cultural adoption and use of IT (Couger,1986; Kumar and Andersen,1990) Such understanding can make the distinction between success and failure in executing information technology and system. The study will be clear the differences and similarities between countries cultures, and will give nations attitude towards technology acceptance. This study will be the first one that combines culture and TAM across the five continents. The result can assists managers and technology developers around the world in order to apply IT through international organization. The unique results of this study can be a base for future research and open a window to work on TAM as viewpoint of culture.

Summary and Organization of the Remaining Chapters

The main part of the dissertation is divided into five Chapters, which will be briefly introduced:

Chapter1: Introduction

The introduction section a projects a brief overview of the study is provided.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

In this section, selected academic literature related to Technology acceptance model, related theory and Hofstede cultural dimension and its related academic literatures. Then conceptual framework and steps to developing the hypothesis are discussed.

Chapter 3: Methodology

The methodology section critically examines a range of research approaches and techniques. Sample and the size of samples, also one of the most important for this study, finding the sample from different countries who stay in Malaysia for study or work. The research technique that is selected for this study is Design of Experiment.

Chapter 4: Analysis and Results

In the analytical section, the research findings are explained briefly according to the data collection and analysis.

Chapter 5: Discussion

In discussion section the further interpretation and explanation the findings is provided and comparisons is made between the findings with other literature in the area of the study. Then the findings are summarized; recommendations for future research and the practicing manager are made.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter is included of backgrounds and literatures in Technology acceptance Model, Hofstede cultural Dimensions and previous researchs including of cultural role on TAM. This chapter will prove the unique work of this paper.

Framework, definitions and hypothesis development for this study, will mention and discuss in this chapter.

Technology Acceptance Model

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is one of the most influential extensions of Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action (TRA) that has been widely used to predict user acceptance and use based on perceived usefulness and ease of use. According to TRA, an individual's behavioural intention, which results in actual behaviour, is influenced by person subject norm and attitude, and the attitude is influenced by individual beliefs (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).

According to the Davis (1989), TAM hypothesizes that behavioural intention is a significant determinant of actual system use, and that behavioural intention is determined by two relevant beliefs, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. In TAM, an individual's principle determines the attitude toward using the system. The attitude develops the intention to use. Perceived usefulness is related to productivity but perceived ease-of-use is related to effort (Venkatesh, 1999). This intention influences the decision of actual technology usage. These causalities were largely studied and accepted (Suh and Han, 2002; Morris and Dillon, 1997; Teo, Lim, Lai, 1999).

The most significant results of Davis study was the strong relation between Usefulness and Usage. Users of a technology try to cope with difficulties of a system, although difficulty of use can discourage adoption of a useful system, no amount of ease of use can give back for a system that does not perform a useful function.TAM used in several IS studies and proved useful determining technology acceptance, especially to explain computer usage behaviour. This justifies why TAM is suitable for studies in computer acceptance. Given the rising popularity of Electronic_ Commerce technology such as Internet banking and Mobile Banking and the dynamic user behaviors identified above, the TAM is a suitable framework for this study. There are other widely used and well known frameworks, such as ''uses and gratification" or ''diffusion of innovation", but the TAM is considered the best fit for this study because other frameworks focus on different levels of analysis (macro, mezzo, or micro) or different topics of emphasis (diffusion mechanisms, etc.). If modified appropriately, the TAM is the most effective tool for a study like this one, which investigates factors relating to usage and adoption, such as cultural dimensions. (Suh et al., 2002; Morris et al., 1997; Teo et al., 1999).

The TAM was stimulated by the theory of reasoned action(1980), which argues that both the attitude toward an action and subjective norms have an impact on behavioral intention, which in turn affects how people perform an action. The TAM was an early attempt to apply psychological factors to information systems and computer adoption. It assumed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were major influences on an individual's attitude toward using technology and, thus, ultimately, were related to actual use (Davis, 1989).

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been widely used to predict user acceptance and use based on perceived usefulness and ease of use (Davis, 1989). TAM conceives that behavioural intention is a significant determinant of actual system use, and that behavioural intention is determined by two main beliefs, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The perceived usefulness refers to ''the degree to which an individual believes that using a particular system would enhance his/her job performance''. The perceived ease of use refers to ''the degree to which an individual believes that using a particular system would be free of physical and mental efforts.'' In TAM, an individual's belief settles on the attitude toward using the system and, in turn, the attitude develops the intention to use. This intention influences the decision of actual technology usage. With the bang of the Internet and convergence technologies, researchers have modified TAM to demonstrate the empirical evidences of it in the convergence context. In fact, many researchers have proposed various extended TAM. For instance, Moon and Kim (2001) suggest a model where perceived playfulness was described as one of the antecedents of attitude toward Web surfing. They noted that most prior TAM research had focused only on extrinsic motivation, not on intrinsic motivation. Morris and Dillon (1997) found that TAM contributes to the prediction of individual usage of software. The motivational model that was adapted by Davis, Bagozzi, Warshaw (1992) employs two key constructs: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. According to Venkatesh and Speier (1999), extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity. Extrinsic motivation is perceived to help achieve valued outcomes that are distinct from the activity itself, such as improving job performance, pay, etc. Intrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity for no reason other than the process of performing it. In the case of technology acceptance studies, perceived usefulness is an example of extrinsic motivation. Davis et al. (1992) found that perceived enjoyment was significantly related to the perceived ease of use. In the research on the usage intentions for information systems, Heijden (2004) adds perceived an enjoyment to TAM model. Cheong and Park (2005) also develop a more comprehensive version of TAM to better reflect mobile Internet context.

Their model employs perceived playfulness, content's quality, system quality, Internet experience and perceived price level, in addition to perceived usefulness and ease of use. For the mobile services, Nysveen et al. (2005) investigate the consumers' intention to use mobile services, which shows the four overall influences on usage intention: motivational influences, attitudinal influences, normative pressure, and perceived control. Similarly, Fogelgren-Pedersen (2005) found that connection stability and geographic coverage are one of the significant variables of perceived relative advantage in mobile Internet. Also, in the worldwide mobile Internet user survey, Fife (2005) found that perceived enhanced utility of mobile services are the strong value motivating use of mobile technology. While these studies found the significant perceived variables, they still do not find variables specific to mobile Internet. Viswanath Venkatesh, Morris, B.Davis, D.Davis (2003) worked on this issue and eight prominent models are discussed, the eight models and their extensions are empirically compared, a unified model is formulated that integrates elements across the eight models, and the unified model is empirically validated. Using data from four organizations over a six-month period with three points of measurement, the eight models explained between 17% and 53% of the variance in user intentions to use information technology. Next, a unified model, called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), was formulated, with four core determinants of intention and usage, and up to four moderators of key relationships. UTAUT provides a useful tool for managers needing to assess the likelihood of success for new technology introductions and helps them understand the drivers of acceptance in order to proactively design interventions targeted at populations of users that may be less inclined to adopt and use new systems.

Theory of reason Action(TRA)

Drawn from social Psychology.TRA is one of the most fundamental and inflectional theories of human behaviour.

It has been used to predict a wide range of behaviours .Davis et al.(1989) applied TRA to individual acceptance of technology and found that the variance explained was largely consistent with studies that employed TRA in context of other behaviours

Technology Acceptance Model(TAM)

TAM is tailored to IS contexts, and was designed to predict information technology acceptance and usage on the job. Unlike TRA, the final conceptualization of TAM excludes the attitude construct in order to better explain intention parsimoniously. TAM2 extended TAM by including subjective norm as an additional predictor of intention in the case of mandatory settings (Venkatesh and Davis 2000). TAM has been widely applied to a diverse set of technologies and users.

Theory of Planned Behaviour

TPB extended TRA by adding the construct of perceived behavioural control is theorized to be an additional determinant of intention and behavioural .Ajzan(1991) presented a review of several studies they successfully used TPB to predict intention and behaviour in a wide variety of settings. TPB has been successfully applied to the understanding of individual acceptance and usage of many different technologies (Tailor and Todd, 1995). A related model is the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB). In terms of predicting intention, DTPB is identical to TPB. In contrast to TPB but similar to TAM, DTPB "decomposes" attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control into its the underlying belief structure within technology adaption contexts.

Combined TAM and TPB

It is a combination of TPB TAM to provide a hybrid model (Taylor and Todd,1995)

Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT)

Grounded in sociology, IDT (Rogers 1964) has been used since the 1960s to study a variety of innovations, ranging from agricultural tools to organizational innovation (Tornatzky and Klein 1982). Within information systems, Moore and Benbasat (1991) adapted the characteristics of innovations presented in Rogers and refined a set of constructs that could be used to study individual technology acceptance. Moore and Benbasat (1996) found support for the predictive validity of these innovation

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

One of the most powerful theories of human behavior is social cognitive theory (Bandura 1986). Compeau and Higgins (1995) applied and extended SCT to the context of computer; while Compeau and Higgins (1995) also employed SCT, it was to study performance and thus is outside the goal of the current research. Compeau and Higgins'(1995) model studied computer use but the nature of the model and the underlying theory allow it to be extended to acceptance and use of information technology in general. The original model of Compeau and Higgins (1995) used usage as a dependent variable but in keeping with the spirit of predicting individual acceptance,

In 2008, Ima, I., Kim, Y., Han, H. did a revising research on Venkatesh work. They claimed that in previous study there seem to be two critical factors that are overlooked or have received inadequate attention—perceived risk (PR) and technology type. PR has been recognized as an important factor and was modelled as a precursor of perceived usefulness (PU), and a sub construct of others, such as trust (or as its precursor). In their study PR and technology type, consider as additional to the moderating variables in UTAUT and was tested how they moderate the effects of PU and PEU on users' intention to use a technology. It was shown the PR and technology type were moderating variables. Kim (2006) added two new constructs, Perceived Cost Savings and Company's Willingness to Fund, and two causal relationships, Job Relevance and Experience, as moderating effects to previous existing model and proved that there is a strong significant relationships between PCS and CWTF and behaviral intention to use a technology. also moderating effects of job relevance was proved , also found that an individual's intention to use mobile wireless technology was significantly affected by CWF. Kim claimed that a company must provide technology to their employees to help them perform their jobs. Finally, the individuals adopt a technology if it is within their prior experience, which was found to be significant moderator between CWF and BI. Prior studies based on TAM did not examine the direct link from self-efficacy to behavioral intention assuming the full mediation of perceived ease of use but Khalifa (2008) integrated the theory of planned behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen and Madden, 1986) and the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) to explain the adoption of m-commerce as a new technology. He added subjective norm to the main block of TAM as an factors that have positive direct effect on the individual's intention and Self-efficacy as a positive direct effect on the individual's intention to adopt m-commerce.

During the years researchers examined different items and their relations with TAM models, they have used original framework of TAM and found relation between them.

In paper by June Lu at el.(2008) was worked on different aspects of new technology in china, such as WMDS, these items are type of technology ,functionality of that technology, interface design, Personal innovativeness in information technology (PIIT), Facilitating conditions, Social influences ,security, trust , privacy and reliability of that technology. The result of this paper showed that intention to use WMDS via mobile phones in China was dependent on an individual's perceptual beliefs about the target services in terms of their usefulness and eases of use, and also relied on PIIT and mobile trust belief.

According to Dong-Hee Shin(2007) , who work on Wi-Bro acceptance in Korea, users' perceptions are significantly associated with their motivation to use Wi-Bro. Specifically, perceived quality and perceived availability are found to have significant effect on users' extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. These factors play as enhancing factors to attitudes and intention.

In 2005, Kim et al. Work on a Value-based Adoption of a technology such as mobile banking. A Value-based Adoption Model (VAM) would be able to capture the monetary sacrifice element and present adoption as a comparison of benefits and costs. By combination of Value-based Adoption Model (VAM) of M-Internet and by integrating the most relevant findings of the technology adoption and value literature, Kim(2005) designed its framework by dividing it to benefits and sacrifices. He suggested that customers' evaluation of a product includes both cognitive and affective elements, and that products are purchased for their utilitarian and hedonic benefits, so it can be proved that usefulness and enjoyment as the benefit components of perceived value. Perceived sacrifices are both monetary and non-monetary. Monetary spending includes the actual price of the product, and it is generally measured based on customers' perceptions of the actual price paid. Non-monetary costs usually include time, effort and other unsatisfactory spending for the purchase and consumption of the product. Yang (2004) did a research that examines different items that could affect technology acceptance. Innovation, past adaption behaviour, knowledge, technology cluster, age, gender and specialization were items that were tested in relation with technology acceptance in Yang study. He provided insights into the relationships between PU, PEOU, AT, consumer innovation adoption behaviour, and demographic variables and also offers empirical data to support the suitability of the TAM through examining the emerging M-commerce technology and application. PU is found to predict consumer adoption of M-commerce. Consumer innovativeness introduced into the TAM research to expand the scope of TAM applicability to M-commerce that is yet to accumulate a critical mass in the diffusion process.

According to the Lo´ pez-Nicola´ s, Molina-Castillo, Harry Bouwman (2008), social factors are the important factors that influence on people's decision to adopt a new technology such as mobile services. They try to evaluate the impact of different determinants on Behavioural Intention in the adoption of advanced mobile services, by combining acceptance models with diffusion theory models theory. In particular, we assumed that social influence may be a key element in people's intention to use the services and applications. Social influence was defined as the degree to which individuals believed that others thought they should use advanced mobile services. The views of friends and relatives have a significant impact on using mobile services, Lo´ pez-Nicola´ s et al. proved that as a manager, that PEOU and behavioural intention depended significantly on social influences, so for bringing new services and technologies for organisations, notice to the employee's cultural background is important.

In a study by Amin (2008) who used original TAM model to finding factors affecting the intentions of customers in Malaysia to use mobile banking, proved that bank managers should create favourable perceptions concerning the usefulness and ease of use among mobile phone credit card customers. Creating these positive perceptions might be achieved by offering free seminars to customers about the ease of use of the system - Malaysian consumers often take up marketing initiatives of this type. Additionally, the banks should provide a mini-guide at all branches that provides succinct and cogent information concerning the efficiency, effectiveness and risk-free attributes of the mobile phone credit card system.

In 2009 GU, Lee, Suh, integrated the fragmented models such as the extended TAM and the trust-based TAM into a unified model of mobile banking. They found that self-efficiency is the strongest antecedent of perceived ease-of-use, which directly and indirectly affected behavioural intention through perceived usefulness, also was found the structural assurances are the strongest antecedent of trust, which could increase behavioural intention of mobile banking. Gu et al. research was listed most important work on technology acceptance that used TAM as base. For example Taylor and Todd (1995) selected computing resource center and worked on usefulness, ease of use, attitude and behavioural intention, they worked on Subjective norm and Perceived behavioural control as their study antecedence (complete list of work on TAM was brought in Appendix A)

Hofstede Cultural dimensions:

Culture has been defined according to several perspectives. Definitions go from the most complex and the most comprehensive (e.g. Kluckhohn, 1962) to the most simple (e.g. Triandis, 1972, Hofstede, 1997). According to Kluckhohn (1962), "Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts" (p.73).

Hofstede cultural dimensions served as the most influential culture theory among social science research (Nokata and Sivakumar, 2001). In addition, Hofstede cultural framework has also received strong empirical support by Sondergaard work (1994).Geert Hofstede research gives insights into other cultures so that it will be more effective when interacting with people in other countries. If understood and applied properly, this information should reduce level of nuisance, concern, and distress. But most important, Geert Hofstede will give the 'edge of understanding' which translates to more successful results.

In 1980 Hofstede offered his famous description of cultural dimensions. Geert Hofstede collected and analyzed a large data base of employee values scores of IBM between 1967 and 1973 .it was included more than 70 countries. He first used the 40 largest countries and then extended the analysis to 50 countries and 3 regions. From the preliminary findings, and later researches, Hofstede developed a model that identifies four primary Dimensions to define in differentiating cultures:

First dimension was Power Distance Index (PDI), second was Individualism/collectivism (IND), third dimension was Masculinity/femininity, and finally he offered Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI). Geert Hofstede added another dimension after carry outing an additional international study with an examination instrument developed with Chinese employees and managers. Description of each Hofstede cultural dimensions is listed below:

Power Distance Index (PDI) that is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally (Hofstede, 1980). This will be a symbol of inequality. He suggests that a society's level of inequality is approved by the followers as much as by the leaders. Power and inequality are extremely fundamental facts of any society and anybody with some international experience will be aware that all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others.

Individualism (IND) is another dimension that collectivism is its opposite that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups (Hofstede, 1980). On the individual culture, it was found that societies in which the ties between individuals are loose, that can be meant every person is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. In collectivism cultures, he pronounced that in societies that people from beginning are integrated into strong, cohesive in groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty(Hofstede,1980). The word 'collectivism' does not carry political meanings; it just refers to the group, not to the state.

Masculinity/Femininity describes to what extent, social gender roles are clearly distinct. Masculine societies emphasize on differentiated sex roles and independence. Male gender is assertive and focused on material values, while women are kind and think about the quality of life. In feminine societies, overlapping gender roles and interdependence are the norm. Men and women are supposed to be focused on material things and concerned with quality of life. (Hofstede, 1980)

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) comes with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It shows to what extent people in a society feel uncomfortable or comfortable with culture programs in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, and different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to decrease the possibility of such situations by severe laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth. (Hofstede, 1980). The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of activities different from what they are used to; they prefer have few rules, and on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many currents to flow side by side. People within these cultures are more apathetic and thoughtful, and not expected by their environment to express emotions.

Last dimensions that was defined and added to previous one is Long-Term Orientation (LTO) versus Short-Term Orientation: this dimension was found in a study among students in 23 countries around the world, using a questionnaire designed by Chinese scholars, it can be said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth. Values associated with Long Term Orientation are saving and persistence; values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one's face.

Technology Acceptance in View of Cultural Dimensions

Cross-cultural researchers have traditionally used Hofstede (1980, 1997) definition of culture that focus on the comparison of one culture with others. This is an etic definition of culture. Researchers that follow an etic approach in cross-cultural consumer research generally look for universal or culture-free theories and concepts. They search for variables and constructs common to all cultures that can be directly compared in order to discover how those cultures are different from or similar to each other. This approach is typical of cross-cultural psychology and other comparative social sciences (Luna; Gupta, 2001).

One study that tries to find the moderating effect of culture on the acceptance and adaption of a technology is Pavlou and Chai (2002) work. They used Hofstede cultural dimension in order to better understand what drives e-commerce across cultures, and applied a theory of planned behaviour (TPB) ,there are three types of beliefs in the TPB that affect three perceptual constructs: behavioural beliefs that influence attitudes, normative beliefs that affect subjective norm, and control beliefs that shape perceived behavioural control, perspective to capture behavioural intentions to transact online in two dissimilar countries - China and the United States, they worked on power distance , individualism/collectivism, and long term orientation dimensions. They proved that attitude had a significant effect on transaction intention for the collectivist society of China, but unexpected finding related to the impact of perceived behaviour control, where control has a stronger effect on transaction intention in the U.S. that in the Confucian Chinese society. Perhaps the reason lied in the utilitarian nature of the online consumer (Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1997), especially in the U.S. As noted by Koufaris (2002) online consumers demand more control, less effort, and higher efficiency.

Harris, Rettie, Kwan (2005) worked on attitude toward a new technology such as mobile commerce between to countries, United Kingdom and Hong Kong. They found significant differences between the UK and Hong Kong in usage of and attitudes to m-commerce services. Harris et al. (2005) used two Hofstede dimension for doing their research, power distance and individualism/collectivism. They proved that Hedonic M-commerce services and word of mouth recommendation as an influencer to use M-commerce will be more significant for Hong Kong collectivism culture with high power distance than United Kingdom with individualism and low power distance index.

In 1997, Straub; Keil and Brenner applied TAM model across three different countries, the united states , Japan and Switzerland, their aim of study was examine the cultural affected of different regions on acceptance a technology such as mobile. Straub et al. (1997) defined Hofstede cultural dimension and their impact on technology acceptance and adaption. Uncertainty avoidance, the degree to which members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and doubt, could affect technology acceptance by influencing choices of computer-based media in opposition to traditional media and cultural differences, in uncertainty avoidance, specifically, could affect the way in which individuals choose media for their communication tasks. With respect to organizational communication behaviour, prior research has focused specifically on uncertainty and ambiguity as principal factors in predicting media use. Information richness theory (1984; 1987) imagines that individuals choose a communication medium by matching the information requirements of the task to the information richness of the media. Richness in a medium is a function of the interactiveness of the feedback channel, the personal quality of the source, and the ability of the interface to express innuendoes. For tasks high in uncertainty and doubt (for example, negotiation and conflict resolution), it is thought that people will use rich channels, such as face-to-face communication. For tasks low in uncertainty and ambiguity (for example, information memos and simple information exchange), simpler channels suffice. Electronic media such as E-mail are believed to be rather simple channels because they carry only literally information and not the personal presence or force of the communicator. Totally, one effect on media choice is that cultures in which individuals tend to avoid uncertainty (that is, high uncertainty avoidance index, or UAI) are expected to use electronic media less often since these media are not well suited to uncertainty reduction as face-to-face and other rich channels (Straub et al; 1997). Straub's study showed that Power Distance that is other important dimension of culture can affect technology acceptance. In societies in which managers and workers are separated by a large power distance, the leveling effect of computer-based media is not seen or felt as a desirable feature.. in a culture with high power distance index , individuals may show deference to authority by abstaining from using media that do not allow them face-to-face contact (or, at the very least, access to a richer set of cues than simple textual messaging). Thus, the range of use of technologies such as E-mail and other electronic media should be restricted by such social norms. Workers in cultures in which relatively smaller power distance occur will, accordingly, be able to use such technologies in more communications settings. Next cultural index that Straub believed, has effect on acceptance a new technology is individualism/collectivism. Low individualism (low IDV) possibly affects a culture against computer-based communications because these media mute the group effect. People in collectivist cultures cannot pick up cues about the social situation as readily from computer-based media and, therefore, would be disposed, overall, toward media such as face-to-face across all communications tasks. The last index that Straub (1997) explained its relation with technology acceptance is Masculinity/femininity. High in Mas Index can be translated to the high relationship with interpersonal presence. According to Straub it can be predicted that media not conveying the social presence of the communicator, such as E-mail, would not be favoured in cultures in which masculinity is a strong cultural. By looking at the Straub (1997) study results, it was cleared that TAM would be successful in explaining the U.S. and Swiss experience but not the Japanese experience. This effect may occur in spite of the rational usefulness found in the medium. In case of Japan, cultural tendencies toward more uncertainty avoidance, greater power distances between managers and workers, collectivist opinions, and masculinity may limit E-mail use and disassociate usefulness from use (Straub, 1997). Straub gave a special explanation on cultural dimensions and their effect on using a technology.

Framework:

In purpose of finding the cultural dimensions role in technology acceptance, this paper will follow the Davis (1980), Pavlou & Chai (2002), and Straub et al. (1997) Cultural framework, explanation of relation between TAM and Hofstede cultural dimensions will use McCoy, Everard and Jones (2005) research.

But the unique way of this study is that it is trying to find differences and similarities in behaviours toward TAM in different levels.

Proposed framework is as below:

Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use that is Davis (1980) were explained in previous section of this literature.

Subjective norm is seen as a combination of perceived expectations from relevant individuals or groups along with intentions to comply with these expectations. In other words, "the person's perception that most people who are important to him or her think he should or should not perform the behavior in question" (Azjen and Fishbein, 1975). Morris and Venkatesh (2000) investigated age differences in adoption intentions and continued use of information technology using the theory of planned behaviour. They found that workers were strongly influenced by subjective norm, although age and length of exposure moderated the effects. Based on the TPB, it is expected that subjective norm will have an influence on the intentions of consumers to engage in online transactions.

Perceived behavioural controlrefers to an individual's perceived ease or difficulty of performing the particular behavior (Ajzen, 1988). It is assumed that perceived behavioural control is determined by the total set of accessible control beliefs.it can be have effect on individual's behavior to use a technology such as Internet Banking.

This paper will use PDI, IND/CLC and UAI as cultural dimension. From Pavlou and Chai research (2005), Individualism/collectivism and Power distance was selected and base on straub (1997), UAI was used, also from McCoy et al. (2005) research was used explanation of relation of UAI, PD and IND/CLV with Technology acceptance Model.

Next section under the literature part will explain designing of the countries table base on Hofstede cultural dimensions and developing t the hypothesis that explains the research hypothesis according to the TAM and Cultural Dimension.

There are two steps in order to develop hypothesis for this paper.

Design of Countries Table Base on Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

In the first step countries were selected according to the Hofstede Scores (1980). That means base on countries tables that Hofstede defined in his researches, a first design was draw of countries according to their PDI, IND/CLV and UAI .countries were divided according to their score in above three dimensions. For power Distance Index, countries were categorized from Low to Moderate, and Moderate to High. In order to find countries dimension in IDV/CLV again two scales, one Low to moderate and second, moderate to High were defined.UAI for technologies such as Internet Banking and Mobile Banking is an important dimension, because these type of technology that related to the security, privacy and personal information, always carry high level of UAI between people (Pavlou and Chai, 2002). Because of nature of these technology and situation that people cannot interact directly with the bank staff, was defined as an uncertainty level. So it was very important that countries in these dimensions were scored carefully. This paper used three different scales in order to divided countries according their UAI scores. Countries divided to low, moderate and high level separately from each other, revise the two other indexes that had two levels. In this step again countries were arranged according to their three dimensions while each country found its place in the table that show its PDI level, IND/CLV level and UAI level.

After arrangement countries according to the above direction, a table was designed with twelve cells. The table shows countries with similarities in dimensions in each cell. That means cells of this table show countries with similar cultural dimension in each cell. (Table 2.3)

The first cell of the table showed countries with low PDI, low IND and Low level of UAI (Jamaica)

In cell number two ,defined countries with moderate to high level of power distance, low to moderate level of IND and Low level of UAI.(China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam )

Low PDI and IDV, and Moderate level of UAI refer to countries that were in cell number three. (Austria, Iran, Taiwan, Pakistan)

Arab world, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, East Africa, West Africa, Venezuela, Thailand and Ecuador are countries in fourth cell, with high level of PDI and low level of individualism and moderate level of uncertainty avoidance

Cell number five fills up with countries that have low score in power distance and individualism but high score in UAI, (Argentina, Costarica, Greece, Israel, Japan, Malta, South Korea and Spain).

Cell number Six was included Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Surmania, Turkey, Uruguay , Bulgaria and Elsalvador that index as high power distance, low Individualism and high level of UAI.

Low dimension in power distance and high in individualism with low level of uncertainty avoidance refer to cell number seven that included Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, The United States, and United Kingdom.

Country in cell number Eight has moderate power distance to high, moderate individualism to high and low level of UAI (Slovakia).

Low level in power distance, high level in individualism and moderate level of UAI are characteristics of cell number Nine (Finland, Germany, Luxemburg, Netherland, Switzerland and Australia). Cell number ten carry moderate to high in power distance index, and moderate to high Individualism index and Moderate level of UAI. (Italy). Number Eleven was low PDI, High individualism and high UAI (Hungry)

And finally, cell number 12 had characteristics of high power distance index, high individual index and high level in uncertainty avoidance (Belgium and France).After preparing the above table of countries, second step of developing hypothesis was started. The table of countries according to their PDI, IDV/CLV and UCA was brought in the bellow:

Development of Hypothesis:

According to the figure 2.2, perceived usefulness, ease of use, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control and behavioural intention to use internet banking are this study's constructs. This paper will examine the Hofstede cultural dimensions effects on these constructs. In other word, here will be tried to find cultural effects on Technology Acceptance Model, whether they lead to different behaviours on various level of dimensions that will define in this study for each construct or not. So Main Hypothesis of this study will be:

• Cultural Dimensions have effect on Technology Acceptance Model.

By expended of this Hypothesis, the results can be written as bellow:

Perceived usefulness:

Perceived usefulness refers to the extent to which users feel using a technology will increase their performance. As stated above, culture is expected to affects the relationship between PU and BI. Specific arguments follow using each of the cultural dimensions.

Ha: the cultural dimensions in different levels of PDI (low and high), IND (low and high), and UAI (low, moderate and high) can lead to different behaviours toward usefulness construct in TAM,

Ease of Use:

Perceived ease of Use refers to the Perceived ease of Use refers to whether the user feels using a new technology is free from effort. So, culture is expected to affects the relationship between perceived ease of use and behavioural intention. In next pages each of cultural dimensions will be arguments.

Hb: for next construct, Ease of Use, the cultural dimensions in different levels of PDI (low and high), IND (low and high), and UAI (low, moderate and high) can lead to different behaviours toward ease of use construct in TAM,

Subjective Norm

Subjective norm refers to the influence others around users will have on their decision making to use technology, internet banking. Culture is expected to affects the relationship between subjective norm and behavioural Intention.

Uncertainty Avoidance:

Hc: for Subjective Norm, the cultural dimensions in different levels of PDI (low and high), IND (low and high), and UAI (low, moderate and high) can lead to different behaviours, also interact of these dimensions can lead to different behaviours in Subjective Norm construct in TAM.

Perceived Behavioural Control:

PBC refers to whether users feel using a system is within their control. In users of internet banking feel this is under their control, intention to use internet banking services will be high. This paper expects culture moderate to PBC and BI relationship.

Hd: for Perceived Behavior Control, the cultural dimensions in different levels of PDI (low and high), IND (low and high), and UAI (low, moderate and high) can lead to different behaviors, in Perceived Behavior Control construct in TAM

Behavioural Intention to use Internet Banking (BI)

Behavioral intention refers to an sign of an individual's willingness to make a given behavior.

He: for Behaviour Intention, the cultural dimensions in different levels of PDI (low and high), IND (low and high), and UAI (low, moderate and high) can lead to different behaviours, in Behaviour Intention to used Internet Banking construct.

In the next chapter, methods for prove hypothesis, analysis methods and the results of these analyses will be discussed.

Chapter 3: Methodology

Introduction

This chapter explains in detail the methodology used in gathering information necessary to conduct this study. It highlights questionnaire Design, Identifying the Constructs, sources of data used and the survey design which includes the sampling plan, assumption of this study and data analysis method employed. The steps involved were elaborated in details and have been carried out systematically in order to achieve a high degree of reliability and validity.

Identifying the Constructs

This paper has listed and searched literatures mainly from top journals in information system that reflects the topic of this study. Some of these referred journals are MIS Quarterly as one of the most important and reliable journal, Information & Management, Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Research, International Journal of Electronic Commerce (all these journals are under ISI), beside this journals, for cultural part in literature and definition of culture some reference book was used such as Culture and organizations: Software of the mind by Hofstede. Management Science is journal from management and organization field that was used in this paper.

A comprehensive review of the above literature was the basis for assuring the content validity of the instrument used in this study. Five dimensions of TAM (usefulness, ease of use, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and Behavioural Intention) are developed and itemized into five sets in order to find relation between each item with Behavioural Intention (BI).(Appendix B)

This paper constructed using items from instruments measuring Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use (Davis, 1980), Subjective Norm, perceived behavioural control and Behavioural Intention (Taylor and Todd, 1995), and culture (Hofstede, 1980). The technology acceptance items were adapted and changed slightly to fit the technology under investigation (internet/mobile banking), the cultural items were used exactly as they appeared in prior research of Hofstede (1980).

Sources of Data

Data sources are classified as being either primary sources or secondary sources. A source is primary if the data collector is the one using the data analysis. A source is secondary if one organization or individual has compiled the data to be used by another organization or individual. In this study, primary sources of data which are interviews, and distributed questionnaires are used to analyze the data gathered. The instrument or measure used is a structured questionnaire based on the literature review on the relevant topics. Face to face interview in order to find African sample was used in first step, and then give them questionnaires by hand. Because of cross-cultural aspect of this study and assumption that all samples must study or work in Malaysia, an e-mail version of questionnaires was sent to them. Another assumption for this study is that all samples have enough ability in English Language skills.

Selections of Measures

The survey instrument consisted of two parts. In part A of the questionnaire, Demographic of students was asked. Some were assigned to certain categories and it is mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

In part B of the questionnaire, survey respondents were asked to state their level of agreement of each statement for seven dimensions of TAM on a seven-point scale (-5 represent "Strongly Disagree" to 5 representing "Strongly Agree"; 0 'neither disagree nor agree"). According to Cooper (2000), this type of scale is considered to be a ratio scale. Therefore, measurement of central tendency and its dispersion can be made.

Sampling

Base on the main aim of this study to draw people according to their cultural value then finding cultural effect on TAM, framework and table, this paper needs different samples from different countries that stay in Malaysia. Gathering data for this research paper included different stage and level. Four university students (UM, UTM, MMU, Limkokwing), more than seven embassies in Malaysia (Belgium, Hungry, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Mexico, Jamaica, Bulgaria), and more than three international organization participated in this survey. The social networks such as facebook community in Malaysia were another source for handle sampling for this paper.

This paper tried to select necessary samples base on fair condition and ethical situation. Issues in international dimensions of survey were considered, such as language differentiation, time of data collected across culture and Ethical issues in data collection.(Sekaran,2003)

In the first stage, questionnaire was sent through the mail to the MBA student, University of Malaya. All Iranian and some Malaysian students replied through the mail. That means cell number three (countries with low Power Distance, low individualism and moderate level of uncertainty avoidance) and number two(High level of Power Distance, low level of individualism and low level of Uncertainty Avoidance ). So again a print out version of questionnaire was distributed to the UMGSB students, students was selected according to their nationality, and so the cell number two filled up by this way, also some sample for cell number four was gathered (Arab countries: Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia and UAE), but still was needed more sample for fourth cell (high Power Distance Index, high individualism and moderate uncertainty avoidance).

Finding samples for the cell number four was a little bit harder. For finding the people for this cell Multimedia University, Limkokwing University and University technology of Malaysia were selected. There were a lot of students from East and West African and Arab countries, sample from Arab countries who have used Internet banking or mobile banking, were found easily .problem raised for finding sample from East and West Africa. According to the short interview with them, it was found that most of them never used internet banking in their home countries, and in Malaysia have hardly tried it more than ten times. They said all of them have internet facilities and also internet banking service available in their home countries, but because of high uncertainty avoidance in their culture and fear of security problem and privacy, they never have used internet banking in their home countries.

In order to create a fair situation for all people who were participated in this research, choosing African samples was under one condition that none of the elements of samples have lived in Malaysia less than six months. Under this condition, they had enough time to adapt themselves with host country (Malaysia) internet banking facilities. After short interview and finding that users of online banking facilities are, questionnaires were distributed among them. By this way fourth cell in table was found its samples.

Cells numbers five and six, by visiting the embassy of countries, also finding people who work in Malaysia, were completed.

In order to find elements of samples for countries with low power distance, high individualism and low level of uncertainty avoidance (cell number seven), exchange student from European and the United States were participated to fill up questionnaire, also British council and ELS lecturers in KL were selected to fill up questionnaire by sending email or giving the printing version of questionnaire.

Cell numbers nine and twelve were completed by finding samples through people who work and study in Malaysia. Cells number one, eight, ten, and eleven were cells that samples of them completed by referring to the their embassy in KL, social networking such as facebook assists this paper finding the elements of sample through the Malaysia (community Slovakian in Malaysia).

Sampling Size

Roscoe (1975) proposes that the appropriate sample size for most research to be greater than 30 and less than 500. Needed samples for this research are at least 180 elements, and it is 15 for each cells.

Around 270questionnaires gathered from who work or study in Malaysia by mail or by hand.

Because of necessity of this study to collaborate people of different nation, some questionnaire were backed by email, it was around 105questionniares. Print out version of questionnaire that was collected is around 165.

Through these questionnaires, 243 questionnaires were used as a useful for analysis part.

Around 27 questionnaires were detected as unused questionnaires.

Data Analysis Method

Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) is used to analyse in this paper. The data was analyzed by Design of Experiment method (DOE), for reliability test, the cronbach's Alpha is used to ensure the measures are free from error and produce consistent results.

Factor Analysis was used in order to validity test of each construct; more information and tables about factor analysis and process of doing it were shown in Appendix C

In order to analyse and find results, General Linear Model, and 3way Analysis of Variances was used in this paper.

Chapter 4: Research Finding

Introduction

This chapter examines the results of the study. Descriptive statistics were explored the data to understand the nature and characteristics of the data. It helps the researchers in selecting and using the appropriate analyses or procedures in hypothesis testing.

Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

Descriptive Analysis: For part A, demographic data was collected on Gender, Age, Educational level and Occupation was in part A of questionnaire, beside these items, home country of respondent was asked as important item in this part.

From 243 respondents, 143 respondents were male and 10 respondents were female females that mean 58.8 male and 42% female. The age of respondents is in 19-66 age range. The youngest user of internet banking is 19year old, and the oldest user of it, is 66 year old.

Educational level of respondents from primary level to postgraduate level was divided. 50% respondents are in postgraduate level, and remains were divided between PMR, SPM, Diploma, professional or certified degree and others degrees. In occupational part, there are 7 Chief executive Officers (CEO), 2.9%, 37 middle management (15.2%), assistant managers or senior managers 40(16.5%)supervisor 35 (14.4%),and people who work for themselves as owner or individual 199(49%).more tables in Appendix X were shown.

With deeply look at the demographic part (part A of questionnaire), there is a items in questionnaire which asked about each respondent home countries. This part was used to design the table 2.3. The process was that, each respondent home country was defined and then, according to the part 2.6 of chapter2, each country was dedicated to its related cell in table 2.3. Summary of respondents of each cell was shown in table 4.1

Measure Reliability

The reliability of findings obtained using the survey instrument was assessed.

According to Nuunally (1978), the Chronbach's alpha is an estimate of reliability based on the average correlation between items with each factor, the score of over 0.7 is considered to be good (Nunnaly, 1978). In this study the Chronbach's alpha coefficient for all the dimensions are higher than 0.7. Summary of reliability information s provided in Table 4.2

For ease of use part, there was one question that it needed to revise. Because of its negative label, after revised , was used for calculating Alpha reliability level.

Summary Statistic

In order to analyse data General Linear Model in SPSS software was used. After factor analysis and be sure about the v