Browsing by Subject "Financial services"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Customer resistance to chatbots in financial services: a social exchange theory perspective
    (2025) Patel, Kayla; Chohan, Raeesah
    Chatbots are becoming the new employees as they are increasingly being used by financial service providers to replace humans in customer interactions. Despite the numerous advantages chatbots offer, overcoming customer resistance remains challenging for firms. This study leaned on social exchange theory by examining customers' perceived benefits and perceived costs of chatbots and how these can be mitigated or exploited to overcome customer resistance to chatbots in the financial services industry. This study had two primary objectives: to ascertain the implications of financial service providers employing chatbots instead of human service employees on customer relationships and to suggest how financial service providers can overcome customer resistance to chatbots to improve customer relationships. The findings were anticipated to assist marketers in improving their use of chatbots to overcome customer resistance thereof and enhance customer relationships. Qualitative research was conducted utilising an exploratory research design and non-probability sampling, comprising online semi-structured interviews with 20 internet banking customers. The interpretation of findings followed a phenomenological analysis, focusing on participants' experiences and providing insight through dense descriptions. This study found that the extent to which a chatbot is humanised can influence its perceived creepiness, as well as customer expectations of the service interaction. This study also found that disclosing a chatbot's identity to customers can have positive effects, specifically relating to increasing perceived transparency and setting reasonable expectations for the interaction. Moreover, it was found that customers' privacy concerns stem from a lack of knowledge about how chatbots work. However, customers' perceptions of increased risk may be reduced by educating customers about chatbots. Based on these findings, this study offers actionable insights for financial service providers on reducing customer resistance to chatbots by maximising benefits and minimising perceived risks. Key strategies include integrating chatbots with human support, enhancing customer education on chatbot capabilities, and ensuring transparency around data privacy. By managing customer expectations and offering personalised, accessible chatbot experiences, financial service providers can increase customer trust and satisfaction, while reducing perceived risk. These insights help practitioners and policymakers advance innovation and the use of chatbots in the financial sector. This study enhances the literature by clarifying how to implement chatbots more effectively in financial services, addressing customer concerns and minimising negative impacts on customer relationships. It offers a unique contribution by applying social exchange theory to examine customer resistance to chatbots in financial services, a context that has received little attention in past literature. Unlike earlier studies that focused on different theories such as uncanny valley or technology acceptance models, this study emphasises customers' perceived costs and benefits, demonstrating the applicability of social exchange theory in AI contexts. This study also contributes new insights into strategies for reducing customer resistance, highlighting how chatbot transparency, education, and anthropomorphism influence customer perceptions. This unique perspective on overcoming resistance enhances the understanding of chatbot use in financial services.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Determinants of user continuance intention towards mobile money services : the case of M-pesa in Kenya
    (2015) Osah, Olam-Oniso; Kyobe, Michael
    The turn of the millennium witnessed the uptake and proliferation of mobile technology in developing regions. This occurrence has provided a medium for mobile telecommunication vendors within the region to create and offer services that are now accessible across socio-economic classes. A notable case of a widely adopted mobile technology-enabled service in the developing world is a mobile money service in Kenya called M-pesa. Since its inception, M-pesa has witnessed a mass adoption which has generally been attributed to prior lack of access by majority of individuals' in the country to affordable regulated financial services. M-pesa's presence has now been anticipated to afford a larger population the initial opportunity to harness economic benefits such as: increase money circulation, increase employment opportunities, facilitate social capital accumulation, facilitate savings, and promote financial autonomy, amongst others. Also, M-pesa based transactions in Kenya are reported to exceed those of western union globally. Whilst M-pesa presently vaunts large user adoption numbers, it is the first of its kind in the region to amass such achievement. Further, historically: products and services of similar nature to M-pesa have been unsustainable. A case of M-pesa's demise would have dire implication for the Kenyan economy and 30% of the households in the country that rely on it for remittances. To understand this phenomenon, extant studies have examined the drivers of adoption of this service but have slacked in subsequent investigations to understand user continuance with the service. As such, the information systems literature cautions that initial adoption of technology, although crucial, does not guarantee sustained use. Therefore it is imperative to investigate drivers of continuance. In general, extant research has not focused on investigations of user continuance intention in Africa. In response, this thesis presents an African based study on the determinants of user continuance intention towards M-pesa. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to i) identify and discuss factors from the literature that are most likely to influence user continuance intention towards M-pesa, (ii) develop a research model that is grounded in theory, (iii) test the model within the sample context to identify the antecedents and determinants of user continuance intention towards M-pesa in Kenya. A broad, critical review of the relevant literature provided basis for hypothesized relationships between the identified factors. A formal survey of users of M-pesa in Kenya comprised the phase of data collection and resulted in a usable data set of (n=434). The data collected from the respondents within Kenya was relied upon to test the hypotheses. The survey instrument used to measure the study's constructs was developed via a process of literature review, expert pre-testing, pilot testing, and statistical validation. Partial Least Square and Artificial Neural Network analyses were used to examine the study's measurement and structural model comprising variables of : behavioural beliefs (post-usage usefulness, confirmation, satisfaction), control-beliefs (utilization and flow), object-based beliefs (perceived task-technology fit, system quality, information quality, and service quality), and attitudinal belief (trust). Collectively, the afore-listed ten independent variables and one dependent variable (continuance intention) comprised the study's model. Four of the independent variables (utilization, satisfaction, flow, and trust) were hypothesized to directly determine continuance intention. Of these four, all emerged as determinants of continuance intention. However, trust emerged as the strongest determinant, subsequently, utilization, flow, and satisfaction respectively. The result was unexpected, as satisfaction (a behavioural belief) has been presented in the extant literature as the dominant determinant of continuance intention but does not hold a consistent predictive strength in a developing world. Its predictive power was diluted by trust, utilization, and flow amongst the Kenyan sample. The study's model revealed an R² of 0.334. The analyses demonstrated that user continuance intention is determined by factors across object, control, attitudinal, and behavioural beliefs. The unexpected finding of the rankings of predictive strength of the factors turns a new leaf and introduces areas of further inquiry in future studies. The study concludes with realized contributions to theory and important guidelines for current and future technology-enabled service vendors in developing regions.