Thesis (M.M. (ICT Policy and Regulation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2013. / The dynamics in technology have ushered in innovative products such as mobile banking. It has been taken up by other economies such as Kenya, Philippines and others, each coming up with different results. The purpose of this qualitative research is to analyse and evaluate the impact of policy and regulation on the propagation of mobile banking generally but particularly in the Zimbabwe context. Findings of the research reveal a lack of articulate policy and regulation on m-banking, which has posed a challenge to the propagation of m-banking. While m-banking spans multiple domains, the research found that the respective stakeholders are currently working in isolation hence there is a need to work on co-jurisdiction. The outcome of the research shows there is currently no synergy in the awareness campaign drive and stakeholders are not willing to champion the drive. Other factors believed to contribute to the proliferation of m-banking have been identified as the restoration of customer confidence in the banking sector, a reduction of the cost of banking, a culture shift from a cash-centric economy to a non-cash culture and the addressing of intermittent electricity supply among others. The research also takes into consideration socio-economic factors that aid or hinder the rollout and effective uptake of the mobile banking service.

This paper investigates the needs of a PFM (Personal Financial Management) tool in a projected banking app, where information is presented as statistics of the users’ personal economy. By studying how youths would like to monitor their finances in a banking app the paper aims to investigate what a PFM tool could include to attract consumers to use it in order to get a better control of their finances. The question of the paper is therefore: How can a banking app containing a PFM contribute to greater awareness of the users’ finances and savings, and how should such an app be designed? User tests were made to investigate what kind of statistics the users want in a PFM tool in a mobile app. The Delphi method was used to get a ranked list of ten suggestions, and a focus group interview was conducted to analyze the results further and to contribute to a qualitative view of the paper. The test results together with previous research show that a PFM tool included in a banking app could attract the target group to monitor their money, and also encourage them to save more. The respondents would like to have general statistics over their economy in a PFM tool, but also the possibility to monthly set personal budgets and monitor how well they are respected.

The study examined the effect of financial inclusion technologies on the financial performance of Zimbabwean banks. The study employs ATM, mobile banking (MB), internet banking (IB) and point of sale (POS) transactions on the financial performance of banks as measured by return on assets. The study adopted the explanatory design and the target population of the study consisted of all the 13 commercial banks in Zimbabwe, with the study period being six years, from 2013 to 2018. The panel data was estimated using fixed and random effects. The findings of the research indicated that all the commercial banks in Zimbabwe at the time of doing this study were using POS, ATM, Mobile banking and Internet banking as they adopted digital forms of banking. In terms of financial performance, banks have been able to increase their return on assets between the years 2013 and 2018. In terms of regression analysis, the findings indicate that for every 1% increase in Mobile banking, ATM and Internet banking there will be an accompanying 0.6%, 0.9%, and 0.5% increase in financial performance respectively while for every 1% increase in POS, there will be a 0.7% decrease in financial performance. Therefore, the research recommended banks to go a step ahead in being innovative through designing new products which will only be accessible to clients who access banking through digital banking methods. Also, the research recommends the government of Zimbabwe to put in place sound macro-economic policies for the whole economy to recover so that the commercial banks in Zimbabwe can fully utilize the benefits associated with digital banking.

Abstract: Despite an exhaustive research, very few academic papers regarding loyalty in the context of mobile banking application exist in the marketing, technologies and banking literature. However, banking corporation have launched mobile banking applications in the Quebec's market and are now interested in knowing if this new distribution channel can generate value for their new upcoming important market: The Generation Y (Gen-Y). This research aims to analyse the impact of mobile banking services on Gen Y's loyalty. An experimentation with three scenarios presenting a different banking service (online or mobile) was performed. The results show there are no significant differences between the type of services (between scenarios). Furthermore, it seems that, at the time of this investigation, loyalty was greater in the online context than on any of the remaining mobile context. This observation was consistent in all perceived value dimensions. The results of our structural equation modeling demonstrate a significant relationship between variables Under study. Therefore, depending on the choice of modelization : (1) perceived emotional value has a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction ; (2) perceived functional value - Quality - Display has a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction; (3) perceived functional value - Quality - Security has a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction; (4) perceived functional value - Quality - Control over financial matters has a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction ; (5) perceived emotional value - Familiarity has a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction and (6) customer satisfaction has a significant positive impact on customer loyalty. Given these results, it seems that marketing managers should aim to increase the perceived functional value - Quality and perceived emotional value of mobile banking services for Generation Y users. Aspects such as Display, Security, Control over Financial matters and Familiarity seems to bring value to Gen-Y. They should also segment the Gen-Yers based on their annual income and also on their level of parental dependence in order to better target this segment that could really generate behavioural loyalty.||Résumé : Malgré une recherche intensive, très peu de recherches académiques concernant la loyauté dans le contexte des applications bancaires mobiles existent dans la littérature marketing, bancaire ou des technologies. De plus, les corporations bancaires, ayant lancé des applications bancaires mobiles dans le marché Québécois, sont maintenant intéressées à savoir si ce nouveau mode de distribution génère de la valeur pour leur prochaine clientèle cible d'importance : la génération Y (Gen-Y). Cette recherche a pour but d'analyser l'impact des services bancaires mobiles sur la loyauté de la génération Y. Une expérimentation avec trois scénarios présentant différents services bancaires (Internet ou mobile) fut entreprise. Les résultats démontrent qu'il n'y a pas de différences significatives selon le type de distribution des services bancaires. Qui plus est, il semble qu'au moment de l'étude, la loyauté était plus significative dans le contexte des services bancaires en ligne que dans les contextes mobiles présentés dans les scénarios et ce, pour l'ensemble des dimensions de la valeur perçue analysées. Les résultats de notre modélisation à l'aide d'équations structurelles indiquent une relation significative entre les variables à l'étude. Ainsi, selon le modèle analysé : (1) la valeur émotionnelle perçue a un impact positif significatif sur la satisfaction du consommateur ; (2) la dimension « apparence visuelle » de la valeur fonctionnelle perçue relative à la qualité a un impact positif significatif sur la satisfaction du consommateur ; (3) la dimension « sécurité » de la valeur fonctionnelle perçue relative à la qualité a un impact positif significatif sur la satisfaction du consommateur ; (4) la dimension « contrôle des finances personnelles » de la valeur fonctionnelle perçue relative à la qualité a un impact positif significatif sur la satisfaction du consommateur ; (5) la dimension « familiarité » de la valeur émotionnelle perçue a un impact positif significatif sur la satisfaction du consommateur et (6) la satisfaction du consommateur a un impact positif significatif sur la loyauté du consommateur. Compte tenu de ces résultats, les gestionnaires marketing devraient concentrer leurs efforts sur les dimensions de la valeur fonctionnelle relatives à la qualité perçues par la génération Y lors de leur utilisation des services bancaires mobiles. Il en est de même pour les dimensions de la valeur émotionnelle perçues. Les dimensions telles que l'apparence visuelle, la sécurité, le contrôle des finances personnelles et la familiarité semblent générer de la valeur pour les Gen-Y. Les résultats suggèrent aussi de segmenter la génération Y en se basant sur leur revenu annuel ainsi que sur leur niveau de dépendance parentale afin de mieux cibler les individus de la génération Y pouvant réellement générer une loyauté comportementale.

The financial services sector is investing considerable sums of money into mobile banking services, but the uptake by customers has been low. The cost to benefit ratio of mobile banking is highly unsatisfactory when the costs of developing and managing the channel are considered. Many of the advantages of Internet banking are shared by mobile banking e.g. control and time saving. Mobile banking also offers higher convenience with the ability to carry out banking whenever and wherever you are. It is hoped that mobile banking can be as successful as Internet banking. A major factor in the low adoption of mobile banking is usability, and there is a need for research on the issues surrounding mobile banking as so far little has been conducted. This thesis seeks to investigate the usability issues surrounding Short Message Service (SMS) banking. It identifies three general functions of SMS in electronic banking: transactions, communication/CRM and security. Three empirical usability evaluations are presented that explored customers’ perceptions and attitudes of using these functions of SMS banking. The research presented here provides empirical evidence for the thesis that usability is a significant factor in the low customer adoption of SMS banking. It also shows that related to usability issues are customer concerns over the security of SMS as a banking channel. Older users will find SMS banking less usable than younger users and are more ambivalent regarding SMS in general. It recommends the most usable message input format to use in SMS banking and contributes insights on how best to realise the practical application of SMS banking and services. The findings from these studies will help improve usability in mobile banking services.

Advancement in information technology has influenced various aspects of human lives. The penetration of information technology is likely to increase in future. Therefore, it is imperative that one should be aware of the factors, which encourage or discourage customers towards use of information technology and related products and services. With reference to e-commerce, organizations should analyze preferences of consumers in mobile-commerce environment and based on their findings, should adjust their product or service accordingly. The current research was based on the future research areas highlighted by Pantano and Priporas (2016) and covered the limitations of their study using a larger sample (150 customers) using the context of Pakistan. Shahid et al. (2015) Highlighted that mobile-phone industry of Pakistan is one of the vibrant industries of the world. The mobile-density of Pakistan is one of the highest of Asia. The findings of this research revealed different dimensions of independent variables. For perceived ease of use, these dimensions were understandable and easier for one to become skillful in using MBA. Likewise, for perceived usefulness, these dimensions were opportunity of processing more banking transactions and always available. Further to this, for innovativeness of user, these dimensions were being an unconventional person, prefer to experiment new things in life and prefer to obtain information about new products. Likewise, for design of application, these dimensions were using MBA is secure, using MBA has a pleasant experience on my mood, easier to navigate MBA, can customize MBA according to my needs and MBA gives me an opportunity to compare charges with competitors. Finally, for finance cost these dimensions were using MBA saves transportation cost, to and from stores and using MBA saves time of visiting Bank. In addition, this study helped in identification of relative importance of different independent variables on the dependent variables. It was revealed that perceived usefulness is the most influential factor which influences future usage intentions of the people whereas design of application is least influential factor. Likewise, finance cost and innovativeness of users are also important factors. It was suggested that MBA providers should focus on female segments as well, create awareness of MBA among older people, provide MBA in native language, and focus on promoting MBA using different dimensions such as perceived usefulness and cost efficiency. Moreover, this research contributed to previous research in various forms including identification of important dimensions of select variables as well as relative importance of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, innovativeness, design of application and cost. Researcher identified various research limitations. Future researchers should overcome these limitations.

Thesis (M.M. (Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / With the growth of developing nations there has also been a growth in the need to recognize entrepreneurship and market-driven solutions as tools that can be used to bring the people in these developing nations out of poverty. If technology is widely adopted and accepted in a society, the long-term impact on that society can be more effective than any other social force. A great example of this phenomenon is the explosive growth of mobile devices technology that has infiltrated every part of the world and in all levels of the economic pyramid as they can play a large and critical role in social transformations in developed and developing economies (Lee et al 2010). Since the introduction of the mobile phone in Zimbabwe in 1996, there are 9,527,520 users of mobile phones. .A mobile banking platform, Eco-Cash, was launched by Econet Wireless, a cellular phone network provider at the end of 2011. This platform was launched in order to take advantage of a large identified gap in the Zimbabwean economy (Makunike 2013). At the end of 2012 there were 270 000 active users and 1.5 million registered users of the Eco-Cash MPP (Kabweza 2012). This study is of the perceptions and adoption of Mobile Payment Platforms (MPP) by informal entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe and employs the use of an adapted version of the Technology Acceptance Model, developed by F. Davis in his doctoral thesis in 1985, as the research framework. The model has been modified by different researchers over the years. Data collection for this study was administered telephonically to the informal entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe and this study only used primary data sources. This data was extracted from the respondents answering the telephonic surveys. This research found that although informal entrepreneurs, who are either personal or business users or non-users of the MPP are positively disposed, in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived cost, perceived support, perceived social influence, overall trust and perceived overall risk, this disposition may not necessarily lead to the increased usage of the MPP by informal entrepreneurs iv in Zimbabwe. However, perceived ease of use proved to be the exception, as the research study showed that the more informal entrepreneurs perceived the MPP to be simple and easy to use, this perception may lead to the increase in the perceptions and adoption of MPP. As this is one of few studies that to look into the adoption of MPP in Zimbabwe, this study serves as the foundation for future research in Zimbabwe that pertains to the adoption of MPP by entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe‟s formal and informal economy.

Mobile banking services have changed the design and delivery of financial services and the whole banking sector. Financial service companies employ mobile banking applications as new alternative channels to increase customers' convenience and to reduce costs and maintain profitability. The primary focus of this study was to explore the Saudi bank customers' perceptions about the adoption of mobile banking applications and to test the relationships between the factors that influence mobile banking adoption as independent variables and the action to adopt them as the dependent variable. Saudi customers' perceptions were tested based on the extended versions of IDT, TAM and other diffusion of innovation theories and frameworks to generate a model of constructs that can be used to study the use and the adoption of mobile technology by users. Koenig-Lewis, Palmer, & Moll's (2010) model was used to test its constructs of (1) perceived usefulness, (2) perceived ease of use, (3) perceived compatibility, (4) perceived credibility, (5) perceived trust, (6) perceived risk, and (7) perceived cost, and these were the independent variables in current study. This study revealed a high level of adoption that 82.7% of Saudis had adopted mobile banking applications. Also, the findings of this study identified a statistically significant relationship between all of demographic differences: gender, education level, monthly income, and profession and mobile banking services among adopters and non-adopters. Seven attributes relating to the adoption of mobile banking applications were evaluated in this study to assess which variables affected Saudi banks customers in their adoption of mobile banking services. The findings indicated that the attributes that significantly affected the adoption of mobile banking applications among Saudis were perceived trust, perceived cost, and perceived risk. These three predictors, as a result, explained more than 60% of variance in intention to adopt mobile banking technology in Saudi Arabia. While the perceived trust variable was the strongest influencing factor in the adoption of mobile banking, perceived cost and perceived risk had a negative correlation, equally, with mobile banking adoption. Furthermore, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived compatibility had no significant correlation with mobile banking adoption.

Kenya and South Africa both face unique challenges in attempting to bridge the gap between those who have access to formal financial institutions and those who do not. The development of mobile banking and its broad accessibility and affordability, in both countries, has led to it being heralded as a great tool for increasing access to banking institutions. Kenya and South Africa have followed different regulatory paths. Kenya has taken an open regulatory approach, whilst South Africa has taken a closed regulatory approach. This thesis identifies the key regulatory differences between South Africa and Kenya by conducting secondary data analysis focusing on the periods when both countries liberalized their banking sectors and telecommunications sectors. This thesis also illustrates how these two paths have influenced the development of financial inclusion in both countries and explores whether any of these paths may be more advantageous for advancing mobile banking services.

In the era of e-commerce and m-commerce, money has become bits of data stored on computers and moves around the world as bytes of information on data communication networks. Mobile and wireless is rapidly changing the way personal financial services are designed and delivered. Mobile banking is one of the new access methods for banking services via new delivery channels consisting of the Internet and mobile technologies. Innovative technologies have changed the nature of selling and buying financial services in the new electronic banking paradigm. Customers are increasingly given the option to provide services for themselves via electronic delivery channels. As technology has become increasingly a more vital element of service delivery, managerial interest in understanding the adoption processes, preferences, and needs of different customers have led to calls for more academic research. Due to the newness of the mobile banking services, customer behavior in the mobile banking context has remained a rather uncharted territory. Literature suggests that previous adoption models which view technology use as a behavior completely under volitional control are limited in the sense that they do not specifically address the possibility that people may try to undertake the learning activities and experience the outcomes necessary to use a technology. This study will evaluate a global view of users? acceptance of mobile banking between Asian and Western market to better understand the users? behavioral pattern in different cultural settings. Based on such theoretical underpinnings as The Theory of Trying, UTAUT, Trust, Self-Efficacy and Cross-cultural Dimensions, this research tends to grasp a comprehensive view of mobile banking adoption, based on both perspectives of volitional and non-volitional such as trying. Results of this research may help practitioners of mobile banking services, such as information systems designers and marketing and management executives, to more efficiently design, implement, and promote mobile banking services. Also, identifications of the factors and causal relationships that influence and describe the end user?s adoption toward mobile banking service help focus m-commerce research on questions that significantly impact the development of mobile banking and m-commerce as a whole.