Consumer attitudes, social networks and technology usage: evidence from mobile banking users in Kenya
Date
2023
Authors
Kiburu, L.
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
The propensity of consumers to use technology to access services in recent times was heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic. This happened when human society was forced to enhance virtual consumer engagement (e.g. cashless banking) to prevent contamination and the spread of the virus. Extant literature examined how consumer attitudes towards technology was related to technology usage, but there was a lack of adequate knowledge on the contingency roles of social network ties. This study relied on social exchange theory (SET) and tie strengths theory to suggest that the extent to which perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) of technology were related to technology usage was dependent upon different levels of strong and weak social network ties. This argument was tested on primary data from 452 mobile banking users in Kenya and moderated regression analysis to test the conceptual model. Findings from the study showed that while strong and weak social network ties were associated with consumer technology usage, their boundary conditioning roles were demonstrated in the extent to which they strengthened the relationship between perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of technology and technology usage. The findings from the study extend existing consumer technology usage literature in several ways. First, the study advances the existing literature by showing that consumer interactions within social networks explain when consumer attitude towards technology is associated with technology usage. Second, the study broadens scholarly perspectives on consumer technology usage by using primary data from Kenya: an under researched context that brings new insights to understand the roles of social network ties in explaining consumer technology usage. Third, the study findings provide value for industry practitioners, policy makers and regulators in their efforts to accelerate the use of technology to access essential services. Limitations of the study included study of a technology in a single industry and single country context. Future research directions proposed include study of multiple technologies in multiple industries, comparative study of multiple country contexts as well as a longitudinal study to examine the effect of time on both the consumer attitudes, social networks and technology usage.
Keywords: Consumer interactions; mobile banking; social networks; consumer attitude; technology usage; Technology Acceptance Model; social exchange theory; tie strength theory
Description
Full - text thesis
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Citation
Kiburu, L. (2023). Consumer attitudes, social networks and technology usage: Evidence from mobile banking users in Kenya [Strathmore University]. http://hdl.handle.net/11071/13517