Investigating the Acceptance of Electronic Banking in the Rural Areas of Pakistan: An Application of the Unified Model

The fast-growing phenomenon of electronic banking (e-banking) has taken the world by surprise, and despite its proliferation across the globe, its acceptance has not been too encouraging, especially in the rural areas of the developing countries. This study revolves around this very key issue of e-banking acceptance in the rural areas of Pakistan by employing a comprehensive framework of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), called a unified model by Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003). This paper extends the unified model through personality openness and investigates the moderation of trust between behavioral intentions and usage behavior. Using a survey-based questionnaire, data were collected from the customers of rural areas of Pakistan. The authors obtained 434 valid responses from universities’ students having a rural background and resultantly analyzed through structural equation modeling with Smart-PLS. Our results reveal that performance expectancy, social influence, and effort expectancy have significant and positive impact on behavioral intentions of rural customers in Pakistan. Moreover, we find that personality openness significantly shapes behavioral intentions and trust on the internet moderates between customers’ intentions and their usage of e-banking. The study broadens the understanding of e-banking in rural areas which might help future researchers and regulators to know and enhance their policy formulation.