A Decision Model of Kenyan SMEs' Consumer Choice Behavior in Relation to Registration for a Mobile Banking Service: A Contextual Perspective

Abstract

As the fast pace of mobile banking innovations continue to permeate the socio-economic context of many African countries, there is a need for more in-depth research in this particular area. This paper focuses on mobile banking services and seeks to unearth the decision criteria associated with its choice among Kenyan small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While treating the area of focus as an impact evaluation phenomenon, the study employs ethnographic decision tree modeling to understand how target users make decisions concerning mobile banking services. The paper in particular seeks to answer the question: What decision criteria and constraints do Kenyan SMEs evaluate when deciding to register or not register for mobile banking services? Given the chosen research methodology, the study which is carried out in a developing country context is underpinned by the theory of real-life choice in order to make sense of the economic and socio-cultural context of Kenyan SMEs' appropriation decisions in relation to mobile banking technologies. The study contributes to the on-going discourse on information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) impact research by looking at the adopters' and non-adopters' decision criteria and yields vital knowledge for mobile banking service providers.

Keywords:

• mobile banking
• ethnographic decision tree modeling
• ICT4D initiatives
• theory of real-life choice
• hierarchical decision models
• decision criteria
• SMEs

Notes on contributors

Boniface James Mwangi earned his Bachelors degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Masters degree from the School of Computing and Informatics, University of Nairobi. His research interests include but are not limited to: using mobile technologies to mitigate the problem of financial exclusion for the poor; distributed systems, software engineering, database systems, programming languages, and health informatics.

Irwin Brown is a Professor in the Department of Information Systems (IS) at the University of Cape Town. Irwin's research interests relate to issues around IS in developing countries contexts. He has published in outlets such as the European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the AIS, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Journal of Global Information Management, the International Journal of Information Management and Electronic Journal of IS Evaluation.

Notes

1 M-PESA tariffs: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/personal/m-pesa/m-pesa-services-tariffs/tariffs.