Antecedents of Behavioural Intention to Adopt Internet Banking Using Structural Equation Modelling

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is a good article with a straightforward methodology. However, authors must address several issues prior to publication:

• The entire article must be checked for English grammar and style, including the abstract. This section should also include a brief description of the findings, before presenting recommendations. Boring phrases like “Banks should pay more attention to…” should be avoided.
• The Introduction relies excessively on a review of the literature. Instead, it should primarily describe the context in which the research is carried out.
• The paragraph beginning on line 54 should be rewritten to include the results of the studies cited. The sentence form here should be: Author X studied topic Y and found that….
• The section devoted to Findings and Analysis (Section 4) needs to be considerably expanded; some policy implications and recommendations should be discussed. This section should not simply comprise a restatement of the data found in the tables, but rather some broader implications of the findings.
• The Conclusions section should also be expanded.

This is a publishable article if the authors can address the issues outlined above.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for the kind comments and recommendations which have made our paper flow better and stronger. For ease of the reader we have written our answers in italic below each of your suggestions.

This is a good article with a straightforward methodology. However, authors must address several issues prior to publication:

Reply: Thank you

The entire article must be checked for English grammar and style, including the abstract. This section should also include a brief description of the findings, before presenting recommendations. Boring phrases like “Banks should pay more attention to…” should be avoided.

Reply: As can be noted from the track changes, the whole article (including the abstract) was edited by one of the co-authors who is a native English speaker. Moreover, as suggested we included a brief description of the findings, before presenting recommendations.

The Introduction relies excessively on a review of the literature. Instead, it should primarily describe the context in which the research is carried out.

Reply: We have revised the introduction to address your comments and suggestions by adding some statistics and other literature.

The paragraph beginning on line 54 should be rewritten to include the results of the studies cited. The sentence form here should be: Author X studied topic Y and found that….

Reply: We have revised the introduction and the literature review to address your comments and suggestions by adding some statistics and other literature. The paragraph in line 54 has been revamped as suggested.

The section devoted to Findings and Analysis (Section 4) needs to be considerably expanded; some policy implications and recommendations should be discussed. This section should not simply comprise a restatement of the data found in the tables, but rather some broader implications of the findings.

Reply: We have revised the Findings and Analysis (section 4) and added to the discussion recommendations and policy implications which we continued to summarise in the conclusion (see track changes).

The Conclusions section should also be expanded.

Reply: The conclusion was completely revamped:

“The results show a covariate relationship between dimensions to IB and intention to adopt IB. The findings that PE, HM, EHA, PWU and SR positively influence the intention to adopt IB, suggests that policy-makers and bankers should focus their attention to take necessary steps to enhance the website usability and hedonic pleasure while focusing on performance and security and reliability of their services as key attributes of IB. Moreover, it is suggested that more attention should be placed on influencing the experience of customers/prospective customers and on understanding and influencing their habits and attitudes.

Also, given that the results show that 'EE', 'SI', 'FC' and 'TR' are not significant influencing factors of IB usage, it seems that Indians already find IB easy to use, perceive it as an effortless exercise and believe that there are strong support systems and organizational infrastructures backing them. They perceive IB as an. Also, the adoption of IB by Indians is not influenced by society, friends and family and trust is not a motivating condition for such since they already perceive it as a trustworthy exercise.

Banks are vital to the growth of any economy, especially a developing one like India. Given the timing of this study, which took place during a pandemic, during which India passed through various lockdowns, giving them limited access to physical banking, the advantages of virtual banking and since as noted above India is an emerging economy and needs to grow its’ IB customer base, this study is vital for banks and policymakers alike, for their decision-making process on how to increase the number of Indians using e-banking services”.

 This is a publishable article if the authors can address the issues outlined above.

Thank you

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper explores the behavioural intentions for adopting the internet banking in India. The authors used questionnaire method for data collection and received 436 valid responses between June and December 2020.

Some remarks and recommendations for the authors:

• the Abstract is too descriptive. Please revise it to include the main reason, the goals for the research, the research methods, the main findings, results and arguments;
• the Introduction does not describe the objectives of the study; it is necessary to revise it to reflect the aims of the paper, the relevance of the research and methodology;
• for a proper interpretation please specify what is the profile of the respondents (gender, education, age, occupation)? And what are the significance andimplications of your findings in Analysis and Discussion section?
• in the Conclusion section I consider that it is necessary to explain how this paper is different from other studies and concur to existing knowledge. Are there any limitations? Could you suggest further uses and developments?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for the kind comments and recommendations which have made our paper flow better and stronger. For ease of the reader we have written our answers in italic below each of your suggestions.

The paper explores the behavioural intentions for adopting the internet banking in India. The authors used questionnaire method for data collection and received 436 valid responses between June and December 2020.

Reply: Thank you

Some remarks and recommendations for the authors:

Reply: Thank you

The Abstract is too descriptive. Please revise it to include the main reason, the goals for the research, the research methods, the main findings, results and arguments;

Reply: As can be noted from the track changes, the abstract was completely revised to address the recommendations made.

The Introduction does not describe the objectives of the study; it is necessary to revise it to reflect the aims of the paper, the relevance of the research and methodology;

Reply: As can be noted from the track changes, the introduction was completely revised to address the recommendations made. We have added the following paragraph amongst other things (vide track changes)

“Therefore, in this study, we investigate, layout and discuss our findings on the antecedents to behavioural intentions to adopt e-banking in an emerging economy such as India. Banks play an important role in the development of an economy especially an emerging economy such as India. A strong banking sector is the lifeline of any strong economy. Therefore, given this and the opportunities provided by e-banking, such a study is important both for banks and policymakers in their decision-making on implementing a strategy for increasing the uptake by Indian people of e-banking services”.

For a proper interpretation please specify what is the profile of the respondents (gender, education, age, occupation)? And what are the significance and implications of your findings in Analysis and Discussion section?

Reply: As suggested under the Analysis and Discussion section we have added the following paragraph:

“We received 437 valid responses, 55.73% of which were received from male participants and 44.26% from female participants. Most of the respondents (36.4%) were between the ages of 21 and 30 years. About 26% of respondents were below the age of 20 years, 15.8% of respondents were between the ages of 30 and 40 years and 21.7% of respondents belonged to the age group of over 40 years. Nearly 50% of the respondents were coming from urban areas, 34.8% of the respondents were from a rural background and approximately 8% of the respondents were from a semi-urban area”.

This is also represented by Table 2.

In the Conclusion section I consider that it is necessary to explain how this paper is different from other studies and concur to existing knowledge. Are there any limitations? Could you suggest further uses and developments?

Reply: We have noted a limitations under section 3 Methodology 3.1 sample and procedure:

“These responses were collected between June 2020 and December 2020. Therefore, the responses were better positioned to capture the respondents' behavioural intentions during the pandemic. India has gone through many lockdowns, and the anxiety related to the pandemic might have influenced the behaviour and intentions towards IB. Although, this can be seen as a limitation, we expected that the responses reflect and represent participants' experiences on what most bank customers would prefer so as to adopt IB services especially during this period since people had limited physical access to banks. We also expect this study to offer an opportunity to analyze how the shift in circumstances influences the adoption of technology and changes the dynamics of factors involved in IB usage”.

Also, the conclusion addresses the concerns highlighted:

“Banks are vital to the growth of any economy, especially a developing one like India. Given the timing of this study, which took place during a pandemic, during which India passed through various lockdowns, giving them limited access to physical banking, the advantages of virtual banking and since as noted above India is an emerging economy and needs to grow its’ IB customer base, this study is vital for banks and policymakers alike, for their decision-making process on how to increase the number of Indians using e-banking services.

This study differs from other since it applies the UTAUT model on an emerging Asian country (India) at a time when the world is facing a pandemic which is an unprecedented disruption of the norm and when people have to look for solutions to deliver and receive banking services with limited physical contact.

However, although this study is limited to India and the statements built around UTAUT, we believe that our findings can help bank decision and policymakers devise plans and strategies to enhance the use of IB by Indians”.