پیش بینی تمایل به استفاده از بانکداری موبایلی در هند Predicting the intention to use mobile banking in India

Introduction Information and communication technologies, such as the Internet and wireless technologies, have revolutionised the world. Specifically, the mobile sector in both developed and developing countries is growing enormously. According to a report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI, 2016), there are 936 million wireless subscribers in India. Moreover, the number of mobile Internet users in India is expected to grow to more than 300 million by the end of 2017 (KPMG, Google, 2016). To meet customers’ expectations, banks now offer a wide range of services delivered through mobile technologies. Mobile banking, which was introduced in India in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is defined as “a channel whereby the customer interacts with a bank via a mobile device, such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistant” (Barnes & Corbitt, 2003). It has considerable potential in developing countries, where customers primarily connect to the Internet through mobile phones. The major advantage of mobile banking is that financial transactions can be conducted anytime and anywhere (Kleijnen et al., 2004; Herzberg, 2003; Rivari, 2006; Laukkanen, 2007). Customers can check account balances, transfer funds between accounts, and make electronic bill payments without traveling to a traditional bank. Mobile banking thus reduces the physical distance between the bank and the customer, helping customers achieve financial inclusion. There are 18.7 bank branches per 100,000 adults in urban areas of India, whereas this proportion is only 7.8 in semi-urban and rural areas. The number of ATMs in India is just 205,151, which indicates that mobile banking in India has great potential to deliver banking services to an untapped market (RBI, 2016). In rural India, only 5% of the adult population has access to a commercial bank branch and only 40% have bank accounts (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2016). Furthermore, Internet penetration is much less in rural areas in India compared with mobile penetration. It may thus be easier to offer banking services through mobile phones in rural areas, where bank branches are scarce, than through any other delivery channel.