The Effect of Online-to-Mobile Trust Transfer on the Foundation of Mobile Banking Trust

doi:10.4236/cn.2013.51B025

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Communications and Network, 2013, 5, 112-115

doi:10.4236/cn.2013.51B025 Published Online February 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/cn)

The Effect o f O nl i ne - to - Mobile Trust Transfer

on the Foundation of Mobile Banking Trust

Bangjun Wang, Chu Shan

School of Computer Science & Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

Email: [email protected]

Received 2012

ABSTRACT

The paper mainly studies the influences of trust transfer on the establishment of consumers’ initial trust. Based on the

theory of signal transmission and self-efficiency, the study builds a trust transfer model aiming at the same subject be-

tween different environments. The results shows that when the consumers’ perceived change of environment is little,

prior successful experiences will improve the consumers’ perceptions of self-ability, which probably lowers the effect

of bank’s role on the establishment of initial trust. Therefore, banks should cultivate consumers’ perceptions of their

relative advantages in the original environment and thus improve the consumers’ dependency in the new environment to

avoid the loss of consumers and build a long-term relationship.

Keywords: Trust; Mobile Banking; Online-to-Mobile Trust Transfer

1. Introduction

Mobile banking is an emerging application of mobile

commerce that could become an additional revenue sour ce

to both banks and telecom service providers [1]. It en-

ables customers to access their bank account through

mobile devices to conduct conventional and innovative

financial transactions without the limitations of place and

time [2]. China was reported as the largest internet and

the biggest mobile phone market in the world. Given the

size of the Chinese market, it is necessary to pay atten-

tion to this area.

Despite the alleged benefits of mobile banking, its ac-

ceptance has been short of industry expectations. One

plausible explanation may be consumers’ lack of initial

trust in mobile bankingservices [2,3]. After all, mobile

banking is a form of service convergence enabled by

innovative technologies. When a new innovative service

is introduced, there is no direct prior experience to fall

back on. It is therefore expected that a person’s initial

trust, based on certain perceptive and possibly irrational

forces such as cognitive cu es, will play an important role

in the decision to adopt mobile banking [2,4].

The objective of this research is to reveal the mechan-

isms associated with the initial formation of people’s

trust in mobile banking. And this research will fill a re-

search gap by focusing on online to mobile trust transfer

process, which has received almost no attention [5-7]. To

achieve the research goal, a research model is introduced

to define relationships among the studied variables, and

relevant hypotheses are proposed. The research model

and accompanying hypotheses are empirically validated

based on survey data gathered from online banking users

who had mobile device and had not signed up for mobile

banking. The paper concludes with a discussion of find-

ings and subsequent implications.

2. Theoretical Foundation and Hypothesis

As a type of mobile-commerce, mobile banking is

spreading in Chinese. In fact, m-commerce itself is a

subset of e-commerce, and therefore mobile banking can

be considered an e-commerce application [8]. Mobile

banking is an innovation that could become one of m-

commerce’s value-added applications and could have a

huge economic impact 8. Despite the overall low enthu-

siasm for m-commerce, people are more willing to em-

brace mobile banking.

2.1. Trust Tr ansfer

Trust transfer means transfer of trust from one domain,

such as offline, to another, such as online. For example,

the trust that customers perceive in an offline company,

like Wal-mart, tends to extend easily to favorable percep-

tions about its web service. Trust for certain company

means consumer brand knowledge that relates to the

cognitive representation of the brand [9]. Consumer

B. J. WANG, C. SHAN

113

brand knowledge can be defined in terms of the personal

meaning about a brand stored in consumer memory [10,

11] Therefore, if customers possess a sound memory

about an online bank’s brand, then such memory affects

consumer’s usage behavior about the mobile banking of-

fered by the same brand [12,13].

Based on the survey of bank corporate clients in Sin-

gapore, Nex (2003) found that customers’ trust towards

the land-based bank was the key factor influencing the

adoption of electronic banking service which offered by

the same bank. He also found the cumaltive effects of

customer satisfaction have a positive impact on the pro-

pensity to use electronic banking [14]. Kun chang lee

(2007) iden tified four types of trust transfer based on the

diversification of beha vior environment. They also found

that the trust in an offline bank will influence four per-

ceptions about its online banking counterpart (flow,

structure assurance, perceived web site satisfaction and

perceived extent of future use) [10]. Huei-Huang Kuan et

al. (2007) examined the formation of online trust en-

countered by potential customers of a brick and click

retailer before they visit its online web s ite. Their research

revealed that word-of-mouth, offline trust and expected

sanctioning power were significant in forming online

trust [15]. Yang qing et al. (2007) empirically tested the

trust transference from offline presence to online pres-

ence and addressed the underlying reasons. They testified

that the offline trust is one of the major sources contri-

buting to its initial online trust building [16].

2.2. Hypothesis and Model

Figure 1 shows the research model of this paper. The

objective of this research is to reveal the mechanisms

associated with the initial formation of people’s trust in

mobile banking and intention to use the service. And

what’s new for this paper is that we focus on the impact

of online to mobile trust transfer process, which has re-

ceived almost no attention.

According to the theory of innovation, the characteris-

tics of an innovative technology influence the degree of

its adoption and diffusion [17]. Despite the noted weak-

nesses of handsets, such as small screen size and keypad,

mobile banking offers benefits unmatched by traditional

offline and online banking services. Convenience, flex-

ibility and other perceived advantages may contribute to

the formation of trust even before a customer actually

uses a service [18]. Therefore, we posit that:

H1: Customers’ perceptions of security contribute po-

sitively to the formation of customers’ trust in mobile

banking.

H2: Customers’ perceptions of privacy protection con-

tribute positively to the formation of customers’ trust in

mobile banking.

According to the theory of innovation, the characteris-

Trust in online

banking

Perceived security

Perceived ease of use Perceived usefulness

Trust in mobile

banking

Perceived privacy protection

H8 H9

Figure 1. Research model.

tics of an innovative technology influence the degree of

its adoption and diffusion [19]. Despite the noted weak-

nesses of handsets, such as small screen size and keypad,

mobile banking offers benefits unmatched by traditional

offline and online banking services. Convenience, flex-

ibility and other perceived advantages may contribute to

the formation of trust even before a customer actually

uses a service [17]. Therefore, we posit that:

H3: Perceived ease of use contribute positively to the

formation of customers’ trust in mobile banking.

H4: Perceived usefulness contribute positively to the

formation of customers trust in mobile banking.

Morgan and Hunt (1994) felt trust exists “when one

party has confidence in an exchange partner’s reliability

and integrity” [20]. If a customer is trust in a bank in the

internet channel, h e or she must have enough conf idence

on the bank’s ability, integrity and benevolence. There-

fore, customers’ trust in online banking service will be

helpful to reduce customers’ perceived risk to use mobile

banking service of the same bank. Online banking trust

would, thus, positively influence the formation of mobile

banking initial trust.

H5: Trust in an online bankin g positively influe nce the

formation of mobile banking initial trust.

Bank’s availability of formalized structural assurances

will discourage opportunistic behaviors and protect cus-

tomers from financial lost. If customers trust in the

bank’s online service, this trust should transfer to beliefs

that the bank’s mobile system is safe and secure. This is

natural, especially for the similar technology background

of online banking and mobile banking. Therefore, we

proposed that:

H6: Trust in an online banking positively influence

perceived security of mobile banking.

H7: Trust in an online banking positively influence

perceived privacy protection of mobile banking.

The technology background of mobile banking is sim-

ilar to the online banking. Customer’s prior experience

with computer and internet technology will influence

both attitudes towards mobile banking and actual behav-

B. J. WANG, C. SHAN

114

iors [8]. Swin yard and Ghee (1985) found that ATM card

holders were have more favorable attitudes towards

ATMs, towards change, and towards computers, and to

be more venturesome and have more self-confidence [21].

Similarly, we proposed that the more they trust in the

online banking, the more they believe that new technol-

ogy will make their life better, and the more they believe

mobile banking will consistent with their life style, past

experience. So it is logical to hypothesize that:

H8: Trust in an online banking positively influence

perceived ease of use of mobile banking.

H9: Trust in an online banking positively influences

perceived usefulness of mobile banking.

3. Research Method and Data Collection

The research was carried out on online banking custom-

ers who have available device to use mobile banking but

never use it. A questionnaire was designed based on a

seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly

disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). To test the psychometric

properties of the constructs, a questionnaire pretest was

given to 97 e-commerce association members. The res-

pondents were volunteers and were not told the re-

search’s objective. The convergent validity and unidi-

mensionality of each co nstruct was verified using a prin-

cipal component factor and analysis for factors with ei-

genvalues above 1, using a varimax rotation. Each item

loaded on the intended construct, and each Cronbach’s

alpha exceeded 0.8. The measurements used display in

Table 1. Respondents included 525 cell-phone users who

have the experience of online banking. In all, 313 res-

pondents were selected from them.

4. Empirical Results and Findings

The proposed hypotheses were tested with PLS. The re-

sults of the analysis are depicted in Table 2 and Figure 2.

The results show that the hypotheses are all supported

except H8, H9. These result suggested that trust transfer

have the significant impact on initial trust formation in

the context of new technology based banking service.

The explained variance of relative advantage and com-

patibility is lower than 20%, this is partly because that

only one factor is involved in this model to explain.

Online banking tru st had stron g and positive in fluence on

the mobile banking initial trust (H5) and its antecedents

(H1, H6). This supports the existence of online-to-mo-

bile trust transfer process. Trust in online banking had no

obvious influence on relative advantage and compatibil-

ity, th is maybe because the difference between the online

and mobile banking services.

5. Managerial Implications and Limitations

Based on the empirical results, this study arrives at the

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of samples.

Measure Freq. Percent

Total Items 178 100%

Age

21 - 29

30 - 39

40-

Missing

50.2%

38.5%

12.0%

9.3%

Position

Employee

Chief employee

Manager

Director

Others

29.7%

53.9%

12.5%

0.8%

3.1%

Male

Work

Experience

(year)

0 - 3

3 - 6

6 - 9

9 - 12

12-

Missing

12.5%

17.2%

18.8%

33.6%

10.9%

Total 135 100%

Age

21 - 29

30 - 39

40-

Missing

54.1%

35.3%

5.9%

4.7%

Position

Employee

Chief employee

Manager

Director

Others

56.5%

27.1%

11.8%

1.2%

3.5%

Female

Work

experience

(year)

0 - 3

3 - 6

6 - 9

9 - 12

12-

Missing

7.1%

9.4%

23.5%

44.7%

11.8%

3.5%

Tr ust i n

online

banking

Perceived security

Relative advantage Compatibility

Initial trus t in

mobile banking

Perceived privacy protection

0.39

0.37

0.30

0.23

0.41

0.26

0.31

0.09 0.07 R

= 0.56

= 0.11 R

= 0.09

= 0.24 R

= 0.30

*p < 0.05, **p < 0. 01, ***p < 0.001.

Figure 2. Results.

B. J. WANG, C. SHAN

115

Table 2. The results of data analysis.

Measures Items

Composite

reliability Average variance

extracted

Trust in online banking 3 0.879 0.793

Trust in mobile banking 3 0.857 0.701

Perceived usefulness 3 0.899 0.795

Perceived ease of use 4 0.847 0.700

Perceived security 3 0.785 0.621

Perceived privacy

protection 4 0.817 0.699

following implications. First, the trust in online banking

is important to trigger customers’ positive perception

about mobile banking. Our research model shows that the

trust of online banking has strong and positive influence

on the formation of mobile banking initial tr ust. Then, an

online company with strong online trust can build up a

high level of mobile trust. Second, the online-to-mobile

trust transfer process provides a unified view for under-

standing the effects of online trust on mobile trust. The

empirical results suggest that the bank can leverage their

online trust to produce mobile structural assurance and

perceived compatibility.

The study can be more reasonab le if based on longitu-

dinal data. This constitutes a limitation of our research.

Sample size is another limitation, although the size is

adequate. The education background of the respondents

is not taken into account. The cu lture is also the key fac-

tor to influence customers’ usage behavior, we leave it

for futur e re se arch.

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