The moderating effect of gender in the adoption of mobile banking

Purpose This paper seeks to test the factors that can influence adoption of mobile banking among current users of internet banking in Singapore and gender as a moderating variable. Design/ methodology/ approach A sample of more than 600 current users of electronic banking provided opinions about their intention to use mobile banking, perceptions of relative advantage of the mobile device, perception of risk, social norms, ease of use and usefulness of the device for banking purposes. The data were submitted to LISREL for structural equation modeling. Findings Usefulness, social norms and social risk, in this order, are the factors that influence the intention to adopt mobile banking services the most. Ease of use has a stronger influence on female respondents than male, whereas relative advantage has a stronger effect on perception of usefulness on male respondents. Social norms (or the importance of others in the decision), also influence adoption more strongly among female respondents than male. Research limitations/implications The sample is biased towards people who are currently using internet for banking. However, mobile banking innovators may not come mainly from current users of internet banking. Practical implications Since gender plays a moderating role in the perception of ease of use, social norms and relative advantage, companies are advised to target their communication tactics according to gender. Social norm is more important to females than males as well as ease of use, whereas, relative advantage is more important for males. Originality/ value The study purposefully uses gender as a moderator and risk as an independent variable not often considered in previous studies.