Edinburgh Napier University

  The advances in communication and computer technology and the availability of the Internet have made it possible that people can do most of their banking transactions from a remote location even without having the need to visit their local branch. With the growing reputation of Bahrain as a financial centre in the Arabian Gulf region, existing banks face intensive competition from new comers which made the banking industry in Bahrain opt for a more aggressive approach in the development of new online banking services.
This thesis reports key findings from an empirical study of the Bahraini banking customer experiences with the adoption of online banking. It provides an understanding of what and how the specific factors influence the decision making process of the bank customers whether or not to bank on the Internet in the Bahraini context. It utilises a theoretical model to examine the intent to adopt online banking service. Using an amalgamated model adapted from two models in the fields of technology research and technology acceptance, this research analysed the relationships between the intention to adopt online banking services and the attitude toward online banking use, subjective norm toward online banking use, selected user perceptions (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, perceived behavioural control) and selected user characteristics (age and income).
A questionnaire was employed to collect the data for this research and path analysis was used to analyse the relationships between the proposed model variables. Out of the 13 original model hypotheses, 9 were confirmed.
However, the overall model was found to be weak in explaining the relationships regardless of their significance. Furthermore, current non-users were segmented and a binary logistic regression was used to predict the possibility of future adoption among this segment. It was concluded that about 88% of current non-users are predicted to be future online banking users in Bahrain.
In general, the behavioural intention to adopt online banking service in Bahrain was found to be driven primarily by attitudes toward online banking services, and customers' perceived behavioural control. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. In summary, this research helps to identify perceptions and factors that explain the intention to adopt online banking service. These factors may be important to the banks and policy makers who wish to encourage the widespread adoption of online banking services in Bahrain.