Determinants of intention to use the mobile banking apps: an extension of the classic TAM model

Determinants of intention to use the mobile banking apps An extension of the classic TAM model ARTICLE IN PRESS+Model SJME 8; No of Pages 14 Spanish Journal of Marketing ESIC (2016) xxx, xxx xxx www e[.]

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

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ARTICLE

F Mu˜ noz-Leivaa , ∗, S Climent-Climentb, F Liébana-Cabanillasa

aDepartment of Marketing and Market Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

bFaculty of Business and Business Administration, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

Received6May2016;accepted2December2016

KEYWORDS

Mobilebanking;

Mobileapps;

Trust;

Risk;

Socialimage;

TAM

Abstract Forfinancialinstitutionsmobilebankinghasrepresentedabreakthroughinterms

ofremotebanking services.However,many customersremainuncertainduetoitssecurity This studydevelopsatechnologyacceptancemodel thatintegratestheinnovationdiffusion theory,perceivedriskandtrustintheclassicTAMmodelinordertoshedlightonwhatfactors determineuseracceptanceofmobilebankingapplications.Theparticipantshadtoexamine

amobile applicationofthelargestEuropean bank.In theproposedmodel, anapproach to externalinfluences was included, theoreticallyandoriginally statedby Davis etal (1989) Theproposedmodelwasempiricallytestedusingdatacollectedfromanonlinesurveyapplying structuralequationmodeling(SEM).Theresultsobtainedinthisstudydemonstratehowattitude determinemainlytheintendeduseofmobileapps,discardingusefulnessandriskasfactors thatdirectlyimproveitsuse.Finally,thestudyshowsthemainmanagementimplicationsand identifiescertainstrategiestoreinforcethisnewbusinessinthecontextofnewtechnological advances

©2016ESIC&AEMARK.PublishedbyElsevierEspa˜na,S.L.U.Thisisanopenaccessarticleunder theCCBY-NC-NDlicense(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

PALABRAS CLAVE

Bancaparamóviles;

aplicacionespara

móviles;

confianza;

riesgo;

imagensocial;

TAM

Determinantes de la intención de uso de las aplicaciones de banca para móviles: una extensión del modelo TAM clásico

Resumen Paralasentidadesfinancieraslabancaparamóvilesharepresentadounainnovación

entérminosdeserviciosdebancaremota.Sinembargo,muchosclientessiguenconsiderando inciertasuseguridad.Esteestudiodesarrollaunmodelodeaceptacióntecnológicaqueintegra,

enelmodeloTAMclásico,la teoríadela difusióndela innovación,elriesgopercibido yla confianza,afindeclarificarquéfactoresdeterminanlaaceptacióndelasaplicacionesdebanca

∗Correspondingauthorat:DepartmentofMarketingandMarketResearch,UGR,CampusCartuja,Granada,Spain.

E-mail address:franml@ugr.es (F Mu˜ noz-Leiva).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sjme.2016.12.001

2444-9695/© 2016 ESIC & AEMARK Published by Elsevier Espa˜ na, S.L.U This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

para móvilesporpartedelusuario.Los participantestuvieron queexaminarunaaplicación paramóvilespertenecientealmayorbancoeuropeo.Enelmodelopropuesto,seincluyóuna aproximaciónhacialasinfluenciasexternas,quefueestablecidademanerateóricayoriginal porpartedeDavis etal (1989).Elmodelopropuestosetestóempíricamente utilizando la informaciónrecolectada medianteunaencuestaonline,aplicando elmodelodeecuaciones estructurales(SEM) Los resultados obtenidos enel estudiodemuestran elmodo en que la actituddeterminaprincipalmenteelusoprevistodelasaplicacionesparamóvil,descartando

lautilidadyelriesgocomofactoresquemejorandirectamentesuuso.Porúltimo,elestudio muestralasprincipalesimplicacionesparalagestión,eidentificaciertasestrategiasderefuerzo

deestenuevonegocioenelcontextodelosnuevosavancestecnológicos

©2016ESIC&AEMARK.PublicadoporElsevierEspa˜na,S.L.U.Esteesunart´ıculoOpenAccess bajolalicenciaCCBY-NC-ND(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Introduction mobile banking & mobile

commerce

Online banking services

Banksareconsideredhighlydynamicbusinessentitiesthat,

joinedinaglobalnetwork,offerbetterconditionstothose

clientswhodecidetouseonline bankingservices (Mu˜

noz-Leiva,Sánchez-Fernández, & Luque-Martínez, 2010) This

sector,asinmanyothers,convertstheInternetandmobile

applications or apps into the most effective channel for

offeringbankingproductsandservicestoclients.Asa

con-sequence, we are witnessing an increasingly competitive

bankingsectorwithincreasinglydemandingclients(Shaikh

&Karjaluoto,2015)

Sinceelectronicbankingfirstappeared, Webapps have

gainedrapid popularity due to the advantages they offer

bankingentities in terms of comfort and ease when

per-formingclienttransactions,increasingmarketcoverageand

servicequality.Incontrasttotraditionalbankingactivities,

onlinebankingprovidesmorefeaturesandfunctionalitiesat

alowercost(Laukkanen,2007)

Onlinebankingandmobileappsoffinancialentitiesallow

users to, among other advantages, access their accounts

fromanylocationandatanytime.Suchaccessibility

repre-sentsanadvantageovertraditionalbanks.Despiteallofthis,

itisimportanttohighlight thatthenumberofclientsthat

operatethroughonlinebankinghasnotincreasedasmuch

asitwasexpected.Aspectssuchasthelackof

differentia-tionbetweenbanks,lackoftrustinthesystem,impersonal

treatmentorlackofsecurityhavecausedreluctancefrom

manycustomerstousesuchtools(Mu˜noz-Leivaetal.,2010)

Accordingtoa recent study byPrice Waterhouse1

con-ductedin 2013involving157 managersfortechnologyand

systems for financial institutions in 14 major markets in

America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific, the weightof

digi-talchannelsin retailbankingwillgrowsignificantlyinthe

comingyears.Thenumberofmobilebanking(orm-banking)

userswillincreaseby64%until2016;andthosewhomake

Table 1 Previousstudiesapproachingtherateofadoption

ofmobilebankingapps

Performanceexpectancy,effort expectancy,facilitating conditions,hedonicmotivation

Hewetal.(2015)

Socialidentification,stickiness HsuandLin(2016) Perceivedcompatibility,attitude Harrison(2015)

purchases throughsocial networksanduse onlinebanking willalsosignificantly increases,56%and 37%respectively Thissituationwillbedetrimentaltoothertraditional chan-nelssuchasbankbranchesandtelephonebanking,whose userswillfallby 25%and13% respectively.However,they willnotdisappearandtheywillcontinuetohavean impor-tantrolefocusedonthemostcomplexbanking

In light of theabove,the bankingsector has notbeen immunetothedevelopmentofmobileapps.Inthiscontext, Lee,McGoldrick, Keeling,andDoherty(2003)statedor m-bankingappstobeaninnovationthatcouldbecomeoneof m-commerce’svalue-addedapps.Zhou,Lu,andWang(2010) definedm-bankingastheuseofmobiledevicessuchascell phonesandpersonaldigitalassistants(PDAs)toaccess bank-ing networks via the wireless application protocol (WAP) Andfinally,Luo, Li,Zhang,andShim(2010)describeitas

an innovative methodfor accessingbankingservicesvia a channel whereby the customer interacts with a bank via

a mobile device Upon considering these definitions, we propose todefine mobilebankingasaremoteservice(via mobilephone,PDAs,tablets,etc.)offeredbyfinancial enti-tiestomeettheneedsoftheircustomers

Regardingresearchesexploringmobilebankingapps(for smartphones)andtheirrateofadoption,itisworthnoting that this study only found a few previous research stud-iesapproachingthemostsignificantantecedentsregarding users’ intention to use of said apps (see Table 1) Hew, Lee, Ooi, and Wei (2015) suggested that apps which are easy to use would attract consumers to use them; fur-thermore,thesignificantandpositiveassociation between effortexpectancyandeaseofusehadalsobeenconfirmed, andfinallyconsumers’perceptionontheusefulnessofapps

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

would directly influenced by the user-friendliness of the

apps.Ononehand,Harrison(2015)suggestedthatperceived

compatibilityhadthestrongesteffectonbehavioral

inten-tion; and on the other hand, credibility, performance

expectancy,effortexpectancy,andsocialinfluence,ordered

bytheireffectsize,significantlyinfluenceattitudetoward

mobilebanking,whichinturninfluencedbehavioral

inten-tion.Finally,HsuandLin(2016)suggestedthatstickinessand

socialidentificationsignificantlyinfluenceauser’sintention

tomakein-apppurchases

Furthermore, despite recent and different extensions

of the Davis et al.’s (1989) TechnologyAcceptance Model

(TAM),justafewstudieshavefocusedonthefactorsthat

influencetheacceptanceofthesemobileappsfroma

holis-ticapproachintegrating severalprinciplesassociatedwith

the theory of trust, risk and social image (e.g Liébana

Cabanillas,2012;Liébana-Cabanillas,Sánchez-Fernández,&

Mu˜noz-Leiva,2014a,2014b)orsocialinfluencesor

subjec-tivenorms(Bashir&Madhavaiah,2015;Sellitto,2015;Slade,

Dwivedi,Piercy,&Williams,2015)

In order to fill this gap, the present paper proposes

a conceptual model thatintegrates the main determining

variables regarding user behavior relatedto the adoption

ofaninnovativetechnologyinonlinebanking.Thearticle,

using the TAM model asa framework and its subsequent

extensions, aims to model the m-banking user behavior

throughtherelationshipsthatexistbetweendifferent

varia-bles such as: social image, usefulness, user-friendliness,

trust,intention toadopt thetechnology, etc These

rela-tionships between variables will beexplained in detailin

nextsection

With regard to the structure, this article consists of

these sections:the next section refers tothe conceptual

frameworkthat willsupporttheresearchhypotheses; the

subsequentsectionscorrespondtotheempiricalresearch;

andthefinalsectionextractsthemainfindings,and

contrib-utionsandlimitationsarisingfromtheresearch

Scientific literature review, research

hypothesis

In the nextparagraphs, the theoreticalframework of the

proposedresearchwillbesummarized,specifiedinthe

con-textofa behavioralmodel.The literaturereview andthe

useoftheTechnologyAcceptanceModel(TAM)asastarting

point have ledtothedevelopment ofa behavioralmodel

that explains the process of adoption of m-banking apps

amongpotentialusers

Hypotheses for research related to the TAM

Inordertoanalyzethe userbehavior regardingthe

adop-tion of innovative technology, several behavioral decision

theories and intentional models have been developed by

scientificliteratureoverthelastfourdecades.Accordingto

theaim of thisstudy,anddue totherelevance regarding

theexplanationofonlineconsumerbehavior,wehaveused

theseattitudinalmodelsandtheoriesbasedonSocial

Psy-chology,suchastheTechnologyAcceptanceModel, orTAM

(Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989) The TAM model, was

designedbasedontheTheoryofReasonedAction,or TRA

(Fishbein& Ajzen,1975; Ajzen& Fishbein,1980)withthe aimof making predictions onacceptance and use ofnew information technologies and systems, by identifying the featuresthatdrivesuccess forcompany’sinformation sys-tems and their adaptability to work-related needs (Davis

etal.,1989)

Theseattitudinalmodelsarebasedonthebenefits pro-vided by information systems, eliminating the negative traits of itsuse The modelsare basedon describing the characteristics of the information processes that lead to intentionstoeitheracceptorrejecta technological inno-vation

The TAM hasbeen regardedas themost robust, parsi-monious and influential model in innovations acceptance behavior(Davisetal.,1989;Pavlou,2003),andtherefore,

weconsider thistheoreticalmodel asa base for the pur-poseof the present study.The TAMmodel statesattitude towarduseofnewtechnologyasaconstructexplainedby twoperceivedvariables:usefulnessandeaseofuse Perceivedeaseofuseisdefinedas:the degree to which a

1989:985).Theapproximationtothisconstructisbasedon measurestodeterminehowsystemsallowyou toperform tasksfaster, increase productivity, performance and work efficiency.Theeffectofperceivedeaseofuseonattitude hasbeenshowninvariousstudiesappliedtodifferent con-texts(Chau&Lai,2003;Hernández,2010).Itwasalsofound thatthisconstructhasapositiveimpactonattitudetoward mobilesocial networkgames(Park, Baek,Ohm,& Chang,

2014);andaccordingtoHa,Yoon,andChoi(2007)on atti-tudetowardmobilegames.Consideringthesefundamentals,

wehaveformulatedthefollowinghypothesis:

H1. Theeaseofuseoftheproposedm-bankingappshasa positiveimpactontheusers’attitudetowardit

In addition, it was found that ease of use has a posi-tiveimpactonusefulnessofvirtualcommunities(Hsu&Lu,

2007),intheelectronicbankingsector(Aldás,Lassala,Ruiz,

&Sanz,2011;Mu˜noz-Leivaetal.,2012;Liébana-Cabanillas, Mu˜noz-Leiva, & Rejón-Guardia, 2013), or in the case of mobilegamesapplications(Haetal.,2007).Thus:

H2. Theeaseofuseoftheproposedm-bankingappshasa positiveimpactonitsperceivedusefulness

Since the original TAM, perceived usefulness has been appliedtoawiderangeofITstomeasureinnovation perfor-manceforjob,lifeandstudy(Liu&Li,2011).Accordingto Davis(1989),perceivedusefulnesscanbedefinedas:‘‘the

severaloccasions,perceivedusefulnesshasalsobeenseen

asa perceivedrelative advantage;for thisreason,Rogers (2003)considersasimilarconstructnamed‘‘relative advan-tage’’definedas‘‘thewayitisperceivedasbeing‘better’ thanitspredecessor’’

Inourstudy,thisvariableisrelevantsincemobile appli-cations of banks are considered innovative within online banking,andthe usefulnessprovidedconsumersis closely relatedtotheadvantagesthatitoffers

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

Severalstudies have demonstrated thedirect

relation-ship between perceived usefulness and attitude (Mu˜noz

etal.,2012;Aboelmaged&Gebba,2013;Krishanan,Khin,

Teng,&Chinna,2016).Althoughalsowiththeintentionto

use(Gu, Lee, & Suh,2009; Jeong& Yoon,2013; Ko, Kim,

&Lee, 2009; Kulviwat etal.,2007; Liu& Li,2011;Zhang

&Mao,2008).Inconnectionwiththeabove,we statethe

followinghypotheses:

H3. Perceived usefulness hasa positive effecton users’

attitudetowardtheproposedm-bankingapps

Studiesrelatedtotheeffectsofperceivedusefulnessin

thefieldofnewtechnologiespresentdifferentresults.Some

studiessupportthesignificantandpositiveeffectofthis

con-structonintentiontousing(Pham&Ho,2015),whileothers

donotshowsignificantresultsforthisrelationship(Li,Liu,

&Heikkilä,2014)

Inthissense,weconsideritevenmoreimportantto

con-trastthishypothesissincetheuseofm-bankingappsisstill

consideredan innovation withinexistingpaymentsystems

andtheusefulnessitprovidestotheconsumerwillbeclosely

relatedtoitsadoption

Therefore,weproposethefollowinghypothesis:

H4. Perceivedusefulnesshasapositiveeffectonthe

inten-tionofuseoftheproposedm-bankingapps

Furthermore,boththeTRAandTAMhaveshownthat

atti-tudeisanessentialantecedenttointentionswhenitcomes

todevelopinga particularbehavior According toFishbein

andAjzen(1975),attitudecanbedefinedasa

multidimen-sionalconstruct, consistingof threedimensions:cognitive

(experience, beliefs andopinions),affective or emotional

(feelings,emotionsandsubjectiveevaluations)anda

cona-tiveorbehavioraldimension(intentiontopurchase,respect

topurchaseandresponsetorejection)

The main criticism received by this concept revolves

aroundthefactthatmostconsumers respondtothe

emo-tionalcomponent,withoutgiving muchimportancetothe

rest,whichcomplicatesthemeasurementofconsumer

atti-tudes.Itisforthisreasonthatthemultidimensionalconcept

isabandonedinfavorofaone-dimensionalconcept,sothat

thecognitiveandconativecompoundsarerelocatedoutside

theattitudeconcept;thefirstasbeliefsor knowledgeand

thesecondasintention(Alcántara,2012)

According to our research, it is expected that

atti-tude facilitates transactions and serve to reduce barriers

towardtheadoptionofinnovation(Pavlou,2002;

Liébana-Cabanillas et al., 2014a) It is also expected to favor

intendeduse ofthe proposedmobileapplication (Saghafi,

Moghaddam,& Aslani, 2016).According tothe above,we

haveproposedthefollowinghypothesis:

H5. Users’attitudetowardusingtheproposedm-banking

appshasapositiveeffectontheirintentionofusingit

Shaikh and Karjaluoto (2015) performed a systematic

reviewofliteratureonm-bankingadoptionpublishedfrom

January2005toMarch2014,concludingthattheTAMmodel

anditsadaptationsisthemostemployedinpublishedworks

Inthisvein,wehavefocusedourstudyontheoriginalTAM

modelconsideredthemostrelevant,althoughwehavealso included the following external influences: social image, trustandperceivedrisk

Extension of the TAM: social image, trust and perceived risk

AccordingtoGoffman(1967)socialimageisadesiredsocial value that each person creates through interaction with others.Inourresearch,social imageisimportantbecause innovation can provide users witha sense of uncertainty about the consequences of consumption, and therefore, usersmay choose toseekadvice fromothersfor opinions andpersonalexperiences

Socialimageis associatedwithfactorssuchasrespect, honor, status, reputation, credibility, competence, social connection,loyalty,trust,feelingproud/ashamed,etc.(Bao

etal., 2003).Lin andBhattacherjee (2010)defined social imageasthe‘‘extenttowhichusersmayderiverespectand admirationfrompeersintheirsocialnetworkasaresultof theirITusage.’’Inordertokeepadistinctsocialimage,the presenceofotherpeoplesurroundingtheusertoreinforce

orrejectsaidimagebecomesnecessary(Whiteetal.,2004) Therefore,social imageis capableofinfluencingthe ease

ofuseofadvancedmobileservices(López-Nicolás, Molina-Castillo,&Bouwman,2008).Asaconsequencetotheabove mentioned,weproposethefollowinghypotheses:

H6. Socialimagehasapositiveeffectontheeaseofuse

ofm-bankingapps

Furthermore,socialimageiscapableofinducingthe use-fulness of mobile data services and 3G adoption, as it is foundedinpreviousstudies(Hong&Tam,2006;Chong,Ooi, Lin,&Bao,2012;respectively).Thus,weproposethenext:

H7. Socialimagehasapositiveeffectontheusefulnessof m-bankingapps

In this regard, social image is also expected of being capableofdirectly influencingtheattitudetowardmobile services (Grandón, Nasco, & Mykytyn, 2011; Liang, 2016; Schierz,Schilke,&Wirtz,2010).Therefore:

H8. Socialimagehasapositiveeffectonattitudestoward m-bankingapps

Trust has been widely studied and its definitions are numerous Gefen, Karahanna, and Straub (2003b)defined trustas‘‘theexpectationthatotherindividualsor compa-nieswithwhomoneinteractswillnottakeundueadvantage

ofadependence uponthem’’(p.308) Traditionally,trust hasbeenformedbytwobasiccomponents:acognitive com-ponent that defines trust as ‘‘the belief that the other party’swordorpromiseisreliableandthepartywillfulfill itsobligationsinanexchangerelationship’’(Dwyer,Schurr,

&Oh,1987:18;Schurr&Ozanne,1985:940);anda behav-ioralcomponentthatisdefinedasthewillingnessordesire

tofollowaparticularpatternofbehavior,whichdetermines thesuccessrateofacceptanceoftheinnovation( Liébana-Cabanillasetal.,2014b:154)

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

The generationoftrusthasbeen considered adecisive

factor in stimulating purchases over the Internet (Gefen,

Rao,&Tractinsky,2003a;Gefenetal.,2003b).Thereason

for such importance liesin the fact that, in the absence

ofanypracticalguarantee,theconsumercannotbecertain

that the seller willnot resort toundesirable,

opportunis-ticbehavior,suchasviolationofprivacy,unauthorizeduse

of credit card information, unequitative pricing or access

tounauthorizedtransactions(Reichheld&Schefter,2000)

Theconsumerwillthereforebeaffectedbyasenseof

inse-curityandconcernabouttheprivacy andcontrolof hisor

herpersonalinformation.Generationoftrustcan

compen-satethisconcernaboutsecurityandprivacy(Rifon,LaRose,

&Choi,2005)andsocompanieswithelectroniccommerce

seekfeasible,efficientmeansofincreasingperceivedtrust

and,thereby,theirtrafficandsales (e.g.,Stewart,2003)

Therefore,weproposearelationshipbetweentrustandrisk,

beingthesecondoneaconsequenceofthefirstone(Harris,

Brookshire,&Chin,2016;Sladeetal.,2015).Therefore,we

proposethefollowinghypothesis:

H9. Perceivedtrustintheproposedm-bankingapphasa

negativeeffectonusers’perceivedrisktowardit

In ourresearch, trustis proposed asan antecedentto

easeofuse,basedontheideathattrustreducestheneed

tounderstand,controlandmonitorthesituation,

facilitat-ing theuse of the toolfor the user without much effort

In thecontext of the Internet,authors like Pavlou (2002,

2003)andBounaguiandNel(2009)haveidentifiedapositive

relationshipbetweentrustandeaseofuse.Thus:

H10. Perceivedtrustintheproposedm-bankingapphasa

positiveeffectontheeaseofuseofit

Other studies have also shown a positive relationship

between trust and attitude (Agag and El-Masry, 2016;

Chauhan,2015),aswellasbetween trustandrisk(Park&

Tussyadiah,2016;Pavlou,2003).Therefore:

H11. Perceivedtrustintheproposedm-bankingapphasa

positiveeffectonusers’attitudetowardit

Lastly,perceivedrisk wasinitiallyapproachedbyBauer

(1960) through the analysis of two factors: uncertainty

(lack of consumer knowledge regarding the possible

out-come of a certain transaction) and the possible negative

consequencesderivedfromthepurchasingprocedure

(trans-action).Thesameauthoralsostatedlateronthatanygiven

userbehaviorisassociatedwithaparticularrisksincethe

consequencesofsaidbehaviorcannotbeproperlyassessed

beforehand (Bauer, 1967) Also, Gerrard and Cunningham

(2003)approached the sameconcept as‘‘the uncertainty

Kim(2010)as‘‘a customer’s perception of the uncertainty

multidi-mensional construct built from several different factors

explainingtheoverallriskassociatedwiththeadoptionof

a certain innovation, purchase or service (Featherman &

Pavlou,2003;Aldásetal.,2011),aswehavedefinedinthis

research

Various studies have revealed that perceived risk neg-atively influences attitude (Zimmer et al., 2010) and, therefore,intentionofadoptinge-commerce(Crespo&del Bosque,2010;Herrero & SanMartín,2012)andremoteor mobilepaymentsystems(Liébana-Cabanillasetal.,2014a; Liébana-Cabanillas, Mu˜noz-Leiva, & Sánchez-Fernández, 2017; Slade etal., 2015).In our research, perceived risk

iscrucialsinceitisconsideredan antecedentofintention

touse.Therefore,weproposethisresearchhypothesis:

H12. The perceivedriskoftheproposedm-bankingapps hasanegativeeffectonusers’intentionofusingit

Fig.1summarizesourproposedmodel

Methodological aspects

Sampling procedure

As for the methodological aspects of research applied to carry out the experience, a web study was applied that consisted of the viewing of an explanatory video of the mobile application of Banco Santander (Fig 2), which describedthetool’soperation,featuresandadvantages.At theendofthevideo,weproceededtogatheranswersfrom

anonlinequestionnaire designedinGoogleDocssenttoa randomselectionofsubjectswhoeitherhadusedamobile bankingapporwerefamiliarwithit.Theinvitationtothe onlinesurveywasconductedbyemailduetoitshighsocial impactandthereforefasterresponse

According to the last report published by Price WaterhouseCoopers(2013)on‘‘Globalinsightsandactions forBanksinthedigitalage’’,thenumberofmobile bank-inguserswillincreaseby64%by2016.Inthesameline,the datagatheredbyTecnocomReport(2012)showthatSpain’s userbaseincreasedby113%between2011and2012, reach-ingalmost6millionusers.Thesedatacollectedissimilarto theinformationfoundintheTecnocomReport(2012),which pointsoutthat15.1%ofSpanishadultsuseeitheramobile versionor amobileapp oftheir bank’swebsite Concern-ingtheir environment, according tothe ING International SurveyonFinancialEmpowermentintheDigitalEra(2013), theSpanishpopulation hasthehighest userate ofmobile bankingamongEuropeans,rankingonlybehindTurkey.This

is the reason why Banco Santander wasselected for this study,sinceitisthelargestSpanishbankintermsofstock capitalizationaccordingtotheBritishmagazineTheBanker (www.thebanker.com) anditoccupies the14thpositionin theglobalranking

FieldworkbeganonAugust15,2014,andendedonAugust

31,2014,andparticipationwasentirelyvoluntary.Thefinal sample was composed of 103 regular users of electronic banking,andobtainsasamplingerrorof9.66%inthe esti-mation of a proportion, under the assumptions of simple randomsampling The final sample wasintegrated by 53 male(51.5%)and 50 female(48.5%) participants, with55 individualsagedinthe18 -34range(53.4%)and48(46.6%) aged35orolder

Table2liststhespecificationsofthestudy

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

Perceived trust

Perceived ease of use

use Social image

Perceived usefulness

Davis et al (1989) TAM

Perceived risk

H10

H11

H1 H2

H6

H8

H7

H3

H4 H5

H9

H12

Figure 1 Them-bankingadoptionmodel

Figure 2 Videoimagesshowntosubjects

Source:Youtube(2012)

Table 2 Technicaloverview

Fieldwork 15 -31August2014

Population Potentialmobilebanking

applicationusers Populationsize 5.9billiononlinebankingusers

Samplesize Conveniencesamplingmethod

Contactby Typeofsurvey Online

Averageinterview

duration

6minand18s Samplesize(surveys

started)

103 Samplingerrora 9.66%,estimatingp=q=0.5and

trustlevelof95%

a Under the assumptions of simple random sampling.

Surveys and measurement scales used

The measurement scales used in the online survey were adaptedfrompreviousresearch(AppendixA).Socialimage wasmeasured basedonadaptationsofthe scalesusedby VenkateshandBala(2008),VenkateshandDavis(2000)and Moore and Benbasat (1991) The ease of use scale was adaptedbystudiesfromVenkateshandBala(2008) The final questionnaire consisted of 22 items The questions were divided into three sections: 1) questions relatingtoevaluation;2)questionsrelatingtothesubject

of the investigation; and 3) questions relating to socio-demographic data All these questions correspond to the conceptualtheoreticalmodeldefinedabove,collectingthe hypothesizedrelationships.Themajorityofitems(18) pre-sented a graduation according to the Likert-type scales: from1(stronglydisagree)to7(stronglyagree),anitemfrom

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

Table 3 Convergentvalidityandinternalconsistencyanalysis

Relationshipsbetweenconstructs Standardcoefficient Cronbach’s˛ CR AVE

Perceivedease

ofuse

Perceived

usefulness

Attitudetouse

Socialimage

Trust

Perceivedrisk

1(likeit)to7(don’tlikeit),anotheritemfrom1(boring)

to7 (interesting);andone lastitemfrom1 (absurd)to 7

(interesting)

The datacollectedfor thesemeasurementscales were

subsequentlyanalyzedbytheAMOS18software

Research findings

Reliability and validity analysis

First, to measure the reliability of the scales, the

Cron-bach’salphaindicatorwasused,consideringthereference

value 0.6(Malhotra,1997),or tobemore restrictive, 0.7

(Nunnally,1978)

Inordertocontrasttheconvergentanddivergent

valid-ityof thescales,a confirmatoryfactor analysis(CFA) was

subsequentlyperformed.Thisanalysisincludedallscalesof

measurementtoextractthevarianceextracted fromeach

one of them, as well as correlations between constructs

andtheirconfidenceintervals.Inparticular,the

maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) method was used under the

resamplingtechnique(bootstrap)with500replicates,since

the traditional MLE is very sensitive to sample size and

requiresthat thevariablesfollow amulti-normal

distribu-tion(Finney&DiStefano,1996), afactthatdidnot occur

inoursample.Inthebootstraptechnique,thep-value

cor-rectedbyBollen-Stineandthestandarderrorcorrectionsof

theconstructswereused(West,Finch,&Curran,1995)

Convergentvaliditywasassessedbythefactorloadings

of the indicators Itwas found thatthe coefficients were

significantlydifferent fromzero, and also,that the loads betweenthelatentandobservedvariableswerehighinall cases(>0.7).Therefore,wecanstatethatthelatent varia-blesadequatelyexplainedtheobservedvariables(DelBarrio

&Luque,2012)

Regarding discriminant validity, it was found that the varianceswere significantly differentfrom zero and also, that the correlation between each pair of scales did not exceed0.9 (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & William, 1995) or, betteryet,0.8(Flavián,Guinalíu,&Gurrea,2004) Again,thereliabilityofthescalescanbeevaluatedbased

onaseriesofindicatorsextractedfromconfirmatory anal-ysis.Indeed,thecompositereliabilityoftheconstructand theanalysisof thevarianceextracted (AVE)exceededthe thresholdusedasreference,0.7 and0.5, respectively, as wellasotherindicatorsofoverallfitforthemeasurement model(Table3)

Evaluation of the discriminant validity between latent constructs

Having assessed the qualityof all proposed measurement scales,weverifiediftogetheralllatentconstructshave dis-criminant validity, i.e that the constructs that make up the model are significantly different, since the discrimi-nantvaliditybetweenthedimensionsofasamescaledoes notguaranteethatdiscriminantvaliditywillhavedifferent latentconstructs(Luque,1997)

Discriminantvalidityoccurswhen(Mu˜noz,2008):1)the value 1 is not situated in the confidence interval at 95%

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

forthecorrelationsbetweentheconstructs,takeninpairs

(Anderson&Gerbing,1988),2)thecorrelationbetween

dif-ferentpairsoflatentvariablesislessthan0.9(Hairetal.,

1995)and3)thesharedvariancebetweenaconstructandits

measures(extractedvariance)exceedsthesharedvariance

betweenthe constructandother constructs of themodel

(Fornell&Larcker,1981)

Inthecaseofourstudy,itwasfoundthatthecorrelations

betweenconstructs(extractedfromtheCFA)werenottoo

high,noconstructhadthevalue1initsconfidenceintervals

andthecorrelationsbetweenindicatorswerebelowtheroot

ofthe extractedvariance ofeach of theconstructstaken

inpairsoftwo, whichallowedustoconcludethatoverall

therewasdiscriminantvaliditybetweenthedifferentlatent

constructsconsidered

Discussion of findings: testing the hypotheses and

the structural model

Afteranalyzingthereliabilityandvalidityofthe

measure-mentscales,weproceededtotestthehypothesesderived

from previously conducted research, checking previously

that the adaptation of the proposed structural equation

model (SEM) was reasonably good according to the

rec-ommendedlevels:RMSEA<0.08,CFIandNFI>0.85(Bollen,

1990;Lai&Li,2005)(Table4)

To evaluate the SEM, the statistical significance of its

structuralloadswasanalyzed.Table5andFig.3showthe

resultsoftheappliedstructuralequationanalysisandthe

resultsoftheresearchhypotheses

Withregardtorelationships,wehavetotakeintoaccount

theassociatedp-valuelessthan0.05showsignificant

rela-tionshipsassociated(orquasi-significant0.05 -0.10).Inour

particularcase, allrelationshipsaresignificant exceptfor

thoseproducedbetweenusefulnessorriskandintentionto

use(H4andH12)

First,withrespect tothe effects of perceived ease of

use,wefoundempiricalevidencetosupportthestatements

ofthehypothesesH1andH2.Specifically,the importance

of the usefulness variable regarding the adoption of the

Table 4 Goodness-of-fitindicatorsinthestructuralmodel

Notes:RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation; RFI, relative fix index; GFI, goodness-of-fit index; AGFI, adjusted goodness-of-fit index; NFI, normed fit index; CFI, comparative goodness of fit; IFI, incremental fit index; TLI, Tucker -Lewis index.

proposed m-banking app is demonstrated through the attitudetowardsuchapp(oneˇ=0.21;p=0.058),asitwas pointedoutinresearchconductedbyChauandLai(2003)

ine-bankingcontextorHernández(2010)andMu˜nozetal (2012)fortravel2.0tools.Wecanalsoconfirmthepositive effectoftheeaseofuseontheusefulnessoftheproposed app (ˇ=0.61; p=0.000), as it appeared in researches conductedbyStern,Royne,Stafford,andBienstock(2008) andMu˜nozetal.(2012)

As for the effects of usefulness, empiricalevidence is found to acceptH3, demonstrating the relevance of use-fulness through the attitude of the proposed mobile app (ˇ=0.46; p=0.000),asit appearedin researchby Wuand Chen(2005)andMu˜nozetal.(2012).Bycontrast,thereisno empiricalevidencetoacceptH4(ˇ=−0.18;p=0.134),thus failingtodemonstratetheimportanceofusefulnessthrough theintentiontousethem-banking

Regarding the effects of attitude, empirical evidence

is found to accept hypothesis H5 Thus, we can con-firm the importance of attitude toward intention to use

a mobile application (ˇ=0.88; p=0.000), as it had been demonstrated in researchby Changand Wu (2012) in the e-commercecontext

Table 5 Non-standardizedcoefficients(ˇ)ofthemodels

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

Perceived trust

Perceived ease of use

use Social image

Perceived usefulness

Perceived risk

0.70***

–0.67***

0.22*

0.21*

0.61***

0.46***

0.88***

=.64

R 2 =.54

*** P<.000

** P<.05

* P<.10 n.s not significant

R 2 =.45

n.s.

n.s.

0.19*

0.24**

0.21*

Figure 3 Behavioralmodel(standardizedbetas)

Furthermore, there is empirical evidence to accept

the referenced hypotheses onthe effectsof social image

(H6 -H8)

Also,theimportanceofsocialimagethroughtheuseof

them-banking appproposal (ˇ=0.24, p=0.003)is shown,

as noted in researches of Rouibah and Abbas (2011) and

Zhang,Yue, andKong (2011).It isalso proventhe

impor-tanceofsocialimageoneaseofuse(ˇ=0.21;p=0.007),as

alsodemonstratedinresearchbyLu,Yao,andYu(2005)and

Bhatti(2007).The positive effectof socialimage on

atti-tude toward the proposed application (ˇ=0.19; p=0.006)

is also confirmed, asstated in previous studies by Taylor

andTodd(1995).Moreover,theimportanceofsocialimage

through the usefulness of the proposed mobile

applica-tion(ˇ=0.24;p=0.003)isalsoshown, aspreviouslynoted

in studies by Rouibah and Abbas (2011) and Zhang et al

(2011)

Asfor theeffectsoftrust,empiricalevidenceexiststo

accept hypotheses H10 and H11, thus demonstrating the

positive effect on the ease of use of the app (ˇ=0.70;

p=0.000), as shown in research by Pavlou (2002, 2003)

and Lin, Shih, and Sher (2007) Also shown is the

impor-tanceoftrustthroughtheattitude(ˇ=0.22;p=0.027),as

confirmed instudies by Oh etal.(2009) andAlsajjan and

Dennis(2010).Also,thenegativeeffectoftrustonrisk -H9

(ˇ=−0.67;p=0.000)isconfirmed,asstatedinresearchby

Pavlou(2003)andSilva-Bidarra,Mu˜noz-Leiva,and

Liébana-Cabanillas(2013)

Finally,thereisnotempiricalevidencetoaccept

hypoth-esisH12,thatis,thenegativeeffectofperceivedriskonthe

intentiontousethem-bankingapplication happensin the

expecteddirection, ashad been noted inresearch of Lu,

Yang,Chau,andCao(2011),Huang,Tsay,Huan,Li,andLai

(2011)andChen(2013),butitisnotstatisticallysignificant

(ˇ=−0.12;p=0.104)

Final discussion, limitations and future research

Main conclusions.

Theresearchaimofthisarticleistostudythosebeliefsand behavioralvariablesthatinfluencetheuseofmobilebanking applications,aswellasprovidingconclusionsbeyondmere descriptiveanalysis.To achieve the aim of this study,we havebasedonthetraditionalTAMmodel,towhichrelevant variableshavebeenaddedintheadoptionofaninnovation suchassocialimage,trustor riskassociatedwiththe pro-posedapp.Foranalysisoftheproposedtheoreticalmodel,

anonlinesurveyhasbeenlaunched

A total of 12 hypotheses were formulated in order to analyze the relationships between the constructs of the proposedtheoretical model Finally, almost all significant assumptionshavebeenprovenempiricallyandstatistically significant

Thus,researchanddataanalysismakeseveral theoreti-calandpracticalcontributions.First,andaftertheanalyses weredone,wefoundthattheattitude,withthestrongest effect,determines predisposition to use m-banking apps,

aspreviousstudiesfound out(e.g.Schierz etal.,2010,in mobilepaymentservices)

Wehavetohighlightthepositiveeffectofeaseofuseon theusefulnessoftheproposedapp,asobtainedinresearch

ofAldás et al.(2011) and Mu˜noz etal (2012) Theyalso confirmedthattrusthasapositiveeffectontheeaseofuse

ofthemobileapps,inlinewithearlierstudies(e.g.Pavlou,

2002,2003;Bounagui&Nel,2009)

The relationship between perceived usefulness and intentiontouse is not confirmed, only we can state that therelationshipisveryweakandwithoutexplanatorypower

inthiscase Contrarytotheprinciplesof theTAMmodel,

Please cite this article in press as: Mu˜noz-Leiva, F., et al Determinants of intention to use the mobile

ithas been impossible todemonstratethe positive effect

ofusefulness ontheintention ofuse of themobile

appli-cation Previous studies reach the same conclusion as in

thecaseofMu˜noz-Leiva,Hernández-Méndez,and

Sánchez-Fernández(2012),wherethedisplayofmorecomplextools

(suchasFacebookandTripAdvisor)exertsagreatereffect

thanothersthat areeasiertouse, suchasasimple blog

Here,anexplanationofthelackofeffectmaybebasedon

thesimplicityofthetoolandlossofusefulnessoftheseapps

whenthereplacementexists,suchasanonlineversionorby

Web.TheseresultsarealsoconsistentwithJiang,Peng,and

Liu(2015);theauthorsidentifyusefulnessofmobilegames

asaconstructthatcontributetoimprovethelifeofa

per-sonviaotheraspectsasenjoymentorentertainment,which

wouldjustify the positive relationship onattitude toward

thesystem

Evenweakeristherelationshipbetween perceivedrisk

andintention of using it In this respect,this result is in

line withrecent researchappliedtodifferent innovations

where the user does not consider the risk of using them

in the future In this sense, different studies (e.g Ruiz

Mafé& Tronch, 2007)rejected theinfluence of risk inall

itsdimensions analyzed on the intentionto purchase

dis-tance courses, or Rouibah, Lowry, and Hwang (2016) in

the field of adoption of mobile payments under a

cross-culturalstudycomparingtheItalianandChinesepopulation

onintentionstoseekandsharehealthinformationonsocial

media.Fromourpointofview,theexperienceinthistype

of tools improves the intention of use, being perceived

bythe user asa technologywitha low risk exposureand

without being determinant in its adoption (Phang et al.,

2006)

However,thankstomobiledevicesandthebreakthrough

of ICT, access to mobile banking applications is a fact,

thuschangingthechannelfor interactionandengagement

betweenbanksandcustomers.Owingtotherelevanceand

importanceofthesubject,theresultsofthestudyleadto

interestingimplicationswhenitcomestothespreadingof

thesemobile applications;understanding the adoption or

acceptanceofsuchisalsoimportantwhendefininga

strat-egytoattractnewusers

Withthisaim,itisdesirablethatbanksmake

communi-cationcampaignsexplainingtheadvantagesachievedwith

thistypeofmobileapplication,inordertomakeuserssee

theusefulnessof themandincreasetheirintentiontouse

viaattitude.TheextensionintroducedintotheTAMmodel

couldalso affect thedesign of communication campaigns

tryingtoobtainincreasedtrustandmitigateriskand

uncer-tainty,characteristicsattributabletotheapplicationitself

andthepeoplewhoareresponsiblefortheirdevelopment,

maintenance,protectionandcontrol

Managerial implications

Banking companies are well aware that smartphones are

becomingthefavoritepersonaldevicesandgadgetsofthe

Spanishpopulationin particularandthesamecanbesaid

abouttheworldwidepopulationforthemostpart.According

toarecentKPMGreport(2015),by2019itisexpectedthat

morethan1800millionofuserswillbeinteractingwiththeir

bankingcompaniesthroughsmartphoneapps.Regardingthis

trend,SpainisleadingtheEUambitrespectingtheuseof smartphones and other mobile devicestoapproach finan-cialoperations.Thisnewrelationshipbetweentheuserand the financial entity makesthe latter feel obliged to ana-lyzeanddefineusers’behaviorwithinthisnewtechnological context

Ourstudyallowsdifferentimplicationsforthecompanies that make upthe ecosystem in the banking management

of the users As we have seen, the attitude has a signif-icant, positive and direct effect on the intention to use derivedfromtheusefulnessoftheanalyzedm-bankingapp, perceivedeaseofuseandsocialimage.Thisfavorable atti-tude toward theuse ofthe mobileapplication isthe only determinantoftheintention,sinceithasnotfound signifi-canceintheeffectofriskandusefulnessonit.Inthisregard, user attitudes will reflect people’s favorable or unfavor-ablefeelingstowardabehavior,whichimpliesthatattitudes will develop over timeaspeople gain experience There-fore, financial institutions should promote in a sustained mannerthevalue ofthistypeofservicesbasedon:a)the mainattributesofmobilebanking(Prodanova,San-Martín,

&Jiménez,2015)andb)onfuturefunctionaland psychoso-cialbenefits(Frambach,Roest,&Krishnan, 2007);suchas thedevelopmentofnewservicesintheapps,the improve-mentofinformationandtheintegrationofnewsocialtrends (socialcommerce,Facebookcommerce,etc.)

In additionit wouldbe interestingthat the apps allow thecustomizationbasedonuserprofileandonits require-ments,andfocusingtheeffortinactionsofCRM(Customer RelationshipManagement)andcrossselling

Ontheotherhand,wehighlightthefactthat,inourstudy bothperceivedriskandperceivedusefulness,donotachieve

a significant effect on intention They are variables that losetheirimportanceduetotheexperienceeffectalready commented Those users with experience in mobile apps (bankingornot)willreducetheiraversiontoriskassociated with their implementation, improving their perception of usefulnessandencouragingtheiruseonacontinuousbasis over time(O’cass & Fenech, 2003) In a similar sense, it

isconfirmed thattheadoptionof mobileservices(Ristola,

2010)isconditionedbyprevioususersexperience,improving theirintentiontouse(Niemelä-Nyrhinen,2007)

Despitethis,some driversandbarriersanalyzed inthis research(suchastrust,riskorthesocialimage)alongwith othervariablesthatthisresearchdidnotapproach(suchas thelevelofinnovationortheperceivedcompatibility)will determine users’ adoptionand use of thistype of mobile applications

Inthenearfuture,m-bankingappswillbeinfluencedby significantagreementsandrelationshipsthatfinancial enti-tiesarenowadaysdeveloping.Onemajorfactortobetaken intoaccountisBizum,aninstantpaymentsystem(ittakes

10sorlesstocompleteatransaction)involvingusers’own mobiledevices;itisexpectedthat,bythelasttermin2016, thissystemwillreplaceagreatpercentageregarding tradi-tionaltransfers(whichinvolve24digitsandwouldtakeup

to48hourstocomplete).Bankcompanieswillbeoffering theircustomersthepossibilitytoconnecttheirmobile tele-phonenumberwiththeirbankaccountsinordertoenable transferstocontactsavailableintheirmobiledevice.This technologywouldofcourseruninaccordanceofasignificant setofsecurityrequirementsandprotocols