An Investigation Into the Factors That Affect the Adoption of Internet Banking Among Corporate Bank Customers in Kenya:a Case Study of Kenya Commercial Bank Branches in Kisumu.

Abstract

This study concerned the extent of adoption of internet banking and the factors affecting the adoption rate of internet banking services amongst the corporate customers of banks in Kenya. The need for the study arose in view of the increase in trends towards the adoption of internet banking. The study had two objectives namely to determine the extent of adoption of internet banking by corporate customers of the banks and to determine the factors that affect corporate customers’ adoption of internet banking in Kenya. The action taken by bankers and policy makers in appropriately addressing critical issues will determine the success of Internet banking. The data was collected from ninety corporate customers from three Kenya Commercial Bank branches in Kisumu City. The respondents were selected using stratified and judgmental sampling. The respondents were the Finance Managers, ICT managers and General Managers and in some cases middle level management staff of the organizations respondents who were believed to have the knowledge required for the study. Questionnaires were used to collect data. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented using frequency tables. The findings from the study indicate that adoption of internet banking services is to a small extent as most of the services produced a mean of less than 3.0. As for factors that affect the adoption of internet banking services; awareness, attitude and perceived ease of use greatly influence adoption rate rather than previous experience and perceived usefulness. In view of the findings, several recommendations were made which may be useful for bankers and other related organizations. Banks should make their customers more aware of their new internet banking products and services, to encourage higher adoption. They could do so by having seminars, exhibitions or giving free-trial periods to give customers an opportunity to evaluate their new inventions. Besides that, education and publicity through mass media could also prove to be effective. Banks should take security of their Internet banking sites into serious consideration since fraud and websites hacking still discourage most of the customers.