Banking, one of the most information intensive sectors, is an ideal domain
for the successful development of e-commerce. The present study focuses on
e-commerce opportunities for improving customer services in the Iran
banking sector. First part of this study reports on a survey of 31 top
marketing and IT managers from three major Iranian governmental banks. The
results indicate that the potential of e-commerce ranges from simple
applications, such as giving information about services, to more
sophisticated ones that involve customers in services design and
customization. Suitable management actions are proposed to Iranian banks in
order to fully benefit from the Internet. At present, one of the key
challenges of the Internet as a service delivery channel is how banks
manage service quality, which holds a significant importance to customer
satisfaction. On the other hand, in this new era of cyberservice, marketing
managers must reappraise their approach to marketing services in general
and international services in particular. In the meantime, in the second
part of this report, a large quantitative survey with customers has been
conducted by testing and analysing the attributes which involve for
customer attitudes toward using Internet banking. Based on a detailed
literature review and frame of reference, a conceptual model of the
adoption process for self-service technologies is developed and tested
across Internet banking technology used in the banking industry. The
Internet banking technology is relatively new to the Iran marketplace. Data
were collected using a survey of 234 banking customers in a one-state area
(Tehran) and analyzed using path analysis modeling. The results of the
model tests on this technology provides evidence that different factors
including: Ease of Use, Usefulness, Need for interaction, Risk and Cost
with different degree of intensity influence attitudes toward using
Internet banking and offers an explanation of the varying degrees of
acceptance found among different type o...
