The banking industry in India is steadily expanding. The liberalization of the economy has created a competitive culture that has taken the service industry and particularly the banking industry by storm. The banking sector has been the backbone of every emerging country. It implements and brings about economic reforms. Any change in this sector through technology adoption has a sweeping impact on a country’s growth. The development in information collection, storage, processing and transmission technologies have influenced all aspects of the banking activity.

Information technology is a medium that has revolutionized banking and everyday bank operations at the click of a button thus enabling sophisticated product development, better market infrastructure, implementation of reliable techniques for control of risks and reaching geographically distant and diversified markets (Marion 2008). Banking Technology offers benefits to both banks and customers. Pikkarainen et al. (2004) mention two fundamental reasons underlying banking technology development and penetration. First, the bank gets significant cost savings in their operation through e-Banking services. It has been proven that online banking channel is the cheapest delivery channel for banking products once established. Secondly, the banks have reduced their branch networks and downsized the number of service staff which paved the way to self-service channels. Customers too enjoy self-service, freedom from time and place constraint and reduced stress of queuing in banking hall. It was indicated that electronic banking services delivery are the cheapest and the most profitable and wealthiest delivery channel for banking products. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 attempts a quick review of the literature on this topic. In section 3, we describe the methodology adopted for this empirical work. The results are presented thereafter in sections 3 and 4 with the latter section providing statistical tes results. The paper ends in section 6 as conclusion.

Most studies found to-date focuses on the individual banking technologies and the customer satisfaction level used in the case of banks. For example Mobarek (2007) in his study in Botswana region pointed out that the delivery channels are lacking in meeting the demands of the customer by not making them aware of e-banking and up-to-date technology. The hypotheses were tested, which showed that there is a relationship between age group, occupation and some aspects of e-banking. Another study by Islam, Sheel and Biswas (2007) investigate the satisfaction levels of HSBC ATM cardholders (both staff and non-staff) with respect to various aspects (for instance, promptness of card delivery, the performance of HSBC ATM, and the service quality of ATM personnel) of using HSBC ATM and their opinions on various other related issues such as positive and inconvenient features of HSBC ATM, recommendation to improve the service quality. The findings provide significant results related to use and worth of holding the ATM.

Further, the findings helped the ATM section to identify their positive and negative features and the customer recommendation. Wan et al. (2005) study the customers’ adoption of banking channels in Hong Kong. They covered four major banking channels namely ATM, Branch Banking, Telephone Banking and Internet Banking. The study segmented the customers on demographic variables and psychological beliefs about the positive attributes processed by the channels. The psychological factors were ease of use, transaction security, transaction accuracy, speediness, convenience, time utility, provision of different personal services, social desirability, usefulness, economic benefits, and user involvement. Another study investigated inhibitors and enablers of internet banking in Oman, comparing this to the situation in Australia. Data were collected from interviews with bank managers in each country, based on a consideration of each bank manager’s perceptions of four factors that might affect their decisions to adopt internet technologies: relative advantage, organizational performance, customer/organizational relationship and ease of use. It is hoped that the results will be useful in seeing why Omani banks have been slow to adopt internet technology and helps to encourage them to make the change. There are several competitive advantages associated with the adoption of technology in the banking sector, including the creation of entry barriers, enhancement of productivity, and increased revenue generation from new services (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 1997). Delivery methods have become an increasingly important technique to retain customers in today’s dynamic banking environment since customers can make withdrawals, deposits and access balances at their own convenience (Tanzi, 1997). The importance of security and privacy for the acceptance of online banking has been noted in many banking studies (Sathye, 1999; Hamlet and Strube, 2000; Tan and Teo, 2000; Polatoglu and Ekin, 2001; Black et al., 2002; Giglio, 2002; and Howcroft et al., 2002). Roboff and Charles (1998) found that people have a weak understanding of online banking security risks although they are aware of the risks. Furthermore, they found that consumers often trust that their bank is more concerned about privacy issues and will protect them. Finally, they argue that although consumers' confidence in their bank is strong, their confidence in technology is weak.

3. Research Methodology

Tables 1 through 4 show the demographic descriptive statistics of the respondents from the selected banks. Gender as a personal variable was found to have a significant role in customer’s banking technology adoption. From the Table 1, it is found that ICICI, HDFC, AXIS and INDUSIND bank’s male respondents are five times more as users as compared to female respondents. Females are still comparatively lacking banking habits.

Qualification is the factor that makes the customer aware of the banking technology and also helps them in easy adoption. Among the four banks, about 27 per cent of AXIS Bank respondents belong to the qualification category of undergraduate: this could proxy for income effect since educated persons earning more money are likely to use banking. Thirty-four per cent of ICICI, 32 per cent of HDFC, 31 percent of AXIS and 29 per cent of INDUSIND bank customers belong to the qualification category of graduate while 52 per cent of HDFC, 47 per cent of ICICI, 46 per cent of INDUSIND and 42 per cent of AXIS bank customers belong to the qualification category of post-graduate. The survey reflects that about 25 per cent of ICICI bank respondents, 24 per cent of HDFC bank respondents, 23 per cent of AXIS bank respondents and 14 per cent INDUSIND bank respondents belong to the monthly income category of less than Indian Rupees=Rs 10,000.00; 38 per cent of ICICI and AXIS bank respondents belong to the monthly income category of Rs10,000-20,000; 44 per cent of INDUSIND, 32 per cent of HDFC, 27 per cent of AXIS and 22 per cent ICICI bank respondents belong to the monthly income category of Rs 20,001-35,000; and 16 per cent of ICICI and HDFC bank, 13 per cent of AXIS and 7 per cent INDUSIND bank respondents belong to the monthly income category of Rs 35,001 and above. Table 2 represents the statistics of the respondents about the form of association with the banks. From the table it was found that 56 per cnt of respondents having current account and 44 per cent of respondents having saving account belongs to ICICI bank, 18 per cent of respondents having current account and 82 per cent of respondents have saving account belongs to HDFC bank, 38 per cent of respondents having current account and 63 per cent of respondents have saving account belongs to AXIS bank, 32 per cent of respondents having current account and 68 per cent of respondents have saving account belongs to INDUSIND bank.

The length of association represents the state of connection of customer and bank. The result shows that most of respondents have 2-4 years of association with their banks. People have long periods of relationship with Public Bank since Private Banks are new. So, the length of association is less and these banks need to generate more publicity among customers about their products and services. The longer the duration of holding an account with the banks, the more trust is developed which adds to customers’ satisfaction. From the numbers in Table 2, it is found that about 45 per cent of ICICI bank respondents visit the banks 1-2 times per month, 39 per cent of HDFC Bank respondents visit 2-3 times per week while 44 per cent of INDUSIND bank respondents visit 1-2 times per month. The survey reflects that for ICICI, 36 per cent of respondents prefer ATM banking, 28 per cent prefer branch banking, 20 per cent prefer internet banking and 16 per cent prefer mobile banking. Similarly for HDFC: 36 per cent prefer ATM banking, 34 percent branch banking, 16 per cent internet banking and 14 per cent mobile banking. In the AXIS bank, 42 per cent of respondents prefer ATM banking, 31 per cent branch banking, 17 per cent internet banking and 10 per cent mobile banking. About 42 per cent of respondents prefer ATM banking, 24 per cent branch banking, 21 per cent internet banking and 13 per cent mobile banking in the case of INDUSIND bank. The result shows that ATM and branch banking remain as the two popular banking services. Table 3 shows the customer adoption of technology on the basis of demographic features.

Banks in India have adapted and continue to adopt different technologies. Customers were asked to indicate the various technologies their banks have adopted. This was queried to know if the customers are aware of the technologies provided by their banks. Four common technologies were selected: ATM, branch banking, internet banking, and mobile banking. From the tables, it is found that both male and female customers of ICICI belonging to the 30-45 years age category are seen to favor ATM banking, branch banking, internet banking and mobile banking. It shows younger customers belonging to the 30-45 years are tech-savvy and find these services comfortable, to be friendly and easy to use. Customers from different educational background were asked to indicate the various technologies they like to adopt. Four common technologies selected to present the variables include ATM, branch banking, internet banking, and mobile banking. The variables are labeled in four banks and the result is presented in Table 4. From the Figures shown in the table, it is found that both male and female post-graduate customers of ICICI bank favor ATM banking, branch banking, internet banking and mobile banking. The study shows that higher qualification is associated with bringing attention towards new tech-banking services and qualification is a factor found to be relevant. It shows that majority of post-graduate and graduate customers favor ATM banking followed by mobile banking, branch banking and Internet banking. Customers with post-graduate and graduate qualifications are mostly adopters of IT banking services

Note: Figures in parenthesis denote % to column total; UG-Under Graduate, G-Graduate and Postgraduate. Source: Primary data from questionnaire and interviews.

PG-

5. Testing of Hypotheses

Convenient location

Ease of use

24*7 Environment of operation

Variety of transactions at ATM network

Accurate records of all transaction

Branch Banking F1

Friendliness of bank personnel

Bank branch’s reputation

Time taken to process the transaction

Working hours

Internet Banking F1

Page set up/menu flow

Speed of page loading

Easy of use/navigation

Convenient hours of operation

Variety of transaction

Real time access to information

Accurate records of all transaction

Support service(customer feedback/complaint management services) Mobile Banking F1

Call Answering Time

Flawless/Correct options

Understanding quickly

Communication skill/positive approach

Educate customers how to use options of 81.66667 and replying different delivery channel queries

H04: There is a significant difference between Internet banking services provided by different private banks to the adoption of IT banking services by customers. Ha4: H04 is not true

As shown in the Table 8, at 5 percent significance level, the calculated value (3.959) is less than the tabulated value (32.671). So, the null hypothesis (H04) is rejected. This reveals that there is no significant difference between internet banking services provided by different private banks to the adoption of IT banking services by customers. H05: There is a significant difference between mobile banking services provided by different private banks to the adoption of IT banking services by customers. Ha5: Ha5 is not true As shown in the Table 8, at 5 percent significance level, the calculated value (1.774) is less than the tabulated value (21.026). So, the null hypothesis is rejected. This reveals that there is no significant difference between mobile banking services provided by different private banks to the adoption of IT banking services by customers.

H06: There is a significant difference between adoption of information technology and customer satisfaction. Ha6: H06 is not true.

Table 9 shows the result of the Chi-square test used at 5 percent significance level. The result reveals that the calculated value (5.4870) is less than the tabulated value (79.083). So, the null hypothesis (H06) is rejected. This reveals that there is no significant difference between adoption of Information Technology and Customer satisfaction. H07: There is a significant difference between benefits of IT banking services and customer satisfaction as compared in different banks. Ha7: H07 is not true Factors responsible for adoption of IT banking services among customers include it provide faster, easier, reliable and continuous access to information, Second, it reduces cost in accessing and using the banking services; easy to learn (increased automation of process); fourth, better management of services (easy to follow up requests/complaints). Table 10 shows that as per the chi-square test used at 5 percent significance level, the result reveals that the calculated value (0.462) is less than the tabulated value (21.026). So, the null hypothesis is rejected indicating that there is no significant difference between adoption of information technology and customer satisfaction as compared in different banks.

H08: There is a significant difference between unwillingness to use e-channel and customer dissatisfaction. Ha8: H08 is not true. The IT banking services has many benefits but there are many factors that inhibit adoption of IT banking services. These are: lack of awareness/knowledge about internet technology and accessibility of service, increase in fraud due to inefficient safety and security features, slow transfer speed, and delay in transmission due to machine breakdown / machine complexity/technical failure.

Table 11 shows that, at 5 per cent significance level, the calculated value (1.487) is less than the tabulated value (16.919). So, the null hypothesis (H08) is rejected. This reveals that there is no significant difference between unwillingness to use e-channel and customer dissatisfaction.

Customers of private sector banks agree that there exist relationship between factors such as age, gender, income, qualification and adoption of banking technology by customers. Young generation belonging to a category of 30-45 years finds the services comfortable, friendly and easy to use. Customers with post-graduate and graduate qualifications are found to be mostly adaptors of IT banking services It is reflected from the survey that ATM banking remains the most popular banking service among customers after branch banking, mobile banking and internet banking respectively as they provide convenience, privacy, security, ease of use, real time accessibility, and accurate record of various transaction. Kruskal Wallis test applied to the data collected ensures that customer’s usage of different banking services is same for all the banks. From these, it is clear that there is no significant difference between ATM banking, branch banking, mobile banking and internet banking services provided by different private banks to the customers. There is a relation between benefits of banking services and increasing banking technology adoption. Customer’s unwillingness to use e-channel for commercial purpose decreases banking technology adoption. Author Information: Submitting author is Bindiya Tater, research scholar, Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur, Rajasthan-India, Email Id: bindiya.tater@gmail.com, Contact no: 919602026899. Manish Tanwar is Assistant Professor, Rampuria Jain College, Bikaner (Raj) India, Email Id:imanishtanwar@gmail.com, Contact No: 91-941-309-2282 and Krishna Murari is Corresponding author and Assistant Professor at MITS University, Laxmangarh, Sikar, Raj, India, Email: krishnamurari_1980@rediffmail.com, contact No.-91-9983733735