From Reluctance to Resistance – Study of Internet Banking Services Adoption in the United Kingdom

The internet banking services is an innovative financial transaction channel that has assumed a new urgency and relevance in today's world of business. The developed countries have embraced these services with little difficulty while the developing countries are beginning to see the benefits. The objective of this research is to explore the supply and demand of internet banking services in the United Kingdom with special emphasis on three cities: London, Birmingham and Manchester. The study primarily probed into the extent to which the internet banking services has adopted in the three major cities of the UK – London, Birmingham and Manchester. Secondly, it looked at the factors that are driving this adoption and thirdly, the reasons for non-usage by some segments of the selected regions. The consumer resistance theory by Ram and Sheth (1989) was therefore used as a framework of the study. As the focus is to ascertain the reasons for non-usage, and based on this framework, the following divisions were arrived at based on the non-users: 1) those that intends to use the services and, 2) those that have no intention to use the services. The study data shows that there are significant differences based on the reluctant/resistance paradigm. The reluctant group falls into those that want to use but have not wholly made up their minds to do so while the resistance groups are those that have no intention of using the internet banking system at all. The study in a nutshell, provides financial managers and the academic community with a tool to engage these non-users through product designs and promotions