Abstract
The advancement of technology in mobile devices
places South African (SA) banking institutions in unique
positions to leverage these advancements into innovative value
added services. Mobile banking is one such innovation that has
afforded banking clients the ability to, amongst other services,
view bank statements, pay bills, and transfer money. Despite a
growing trend in mobile banking service offerings by SA banks,
privacy and security issues are still considered a concern. The
paper conceptualizes the underlying concerns by bank clients
regarding the adoption of mobile banking services. Privacy
Calculus Theory (PCT) has been used as a theoretical lens to
explain the cognitive process involved when a potential mobile
banking subscriber is presented with mobile banking technology
solutions. The paper extends PCT by abstracting the risk/benefit
trade-off psyche held by SA bank clients. The paper attempts to
explain, using PCT, the bank clients’ cognitive process and
willingness to subscribe to mobile banking services. Quantitative
research method has been used for this purpose. Purposeful
sampling that targeted SA bank-account holders was applied.
Empirical results show that the South African banked
consumers’ psyche is largely influenced by the utility of a
technology (mobile banking service) and interestingly, privacy
and security play a lesser role in this trade-off.