Factors that affect Banks’ Acceptance of Electronic Cheque Clearing System: Evidence from Ghana

Abstract

Usage of Electronic Cheque Clearing System (ECCS) has been growing tremendously in many developed and some developing countries. Although cash is the major form of payment system used in most developing countries, with the current trend in value of cheques processed through ECCS, it is a matter of time for cheques to become the dominant payment system. With the upward trend in the adoption and usage of ECCS in many countries, it is important to study the nature of the technology and understand factors that influence banks to accept the system. Past research in e-banking adoption and acceptance has directed attention towards e-banking channels other than ECCS and level of analysis used is usually focused on the individual rather than the organisation. The few studies on nature of ECCS have also shown jurisdictional differences in the application of the technology. This study addresses these research gaps by studying the nature of ECCS in Ghana and exploring banks’ acceptance factors among Ghanaian Banks. The purpose of this research is therefore to understand the process of clearing cheques electronically in Ghana and to analyse and extend knowledge regarding influential factors that affect banks to accept ECCS, in the light of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which is expanded with System Quality (SQ), Information Quality (IQ) and Trust. The researcher undertook the study from the perspective of critical realism, adopting a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodology to achieve the set objectives. The research examines 25 commercial banks and 5 savings and loans companies which have different ways of adopting the technology. To achieve the first objective, data was collected through interviews, observations and direct participation. To satisfy the second objective, a survey instrument was used to gather data and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used as the statistical model to analyse the data gathered. Findings suggest that cheques go through five set of processes before they are cleared electronically. These processes are Pre-Conversion, Conversion, Transaction, Security and University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh xv

Storage. The pre-conversion process depends on the banks objective, whilst some banks centralise the process to reduce cost, other banks decentralise the process to enhance service delivery to customers. The remaining processes are the same across all banks in Ghana. The findings also supported all the hypothesis presented and showed that Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) are the major factors influencing banks’ acceptance of the technology. Trust, IQ and SQ also affect banks’ acceptance of ECCS positively but indirectly through PEOU and PU. The level of significance of PEOU was marginally lower compared to the level of significance for PU. The study therefore concurred with previous studies that in contexts where effective task execution substantially depends on the system such as the case with ECCS, beliefs about the system usefulness are more dominant in shaping acceptance than belief about ease of use. The study concludes that business sectors should pay attention to the major role of organisational acceptance in determining the success of information system applications and makes a case for future research to focus on the perceived value of ECCS by banks customers’ perspective. The study makes significant contribution to acceptance of technology research by conducting the research on a meso level of analysis and studying a novel technology that is widely adopted in several countries. It provides an expanded TAM model which offers insight into acceptance of ECCS at the organisational level. The author makes a case for future research to validate the model at a different level of analysis and perspective.