Determinants of E-Commerce Usage in the Kenyan Banking Sector

Abstract

Purpose: The study sought to investigate the factors that influence e-commerce usage in the Kenyan banking sector. Despite evidence revealing that e-commerce usage is moderated by local environment, drivers that influence its usage remains under-researched particularly in Kenya. This study was guided by the following specific objectives; determine the influence of (firm size, top management support competitive pressure, technological competence and organization learning ability) on e-commerce usage in the Kenya banking industry. Grounded on the Technological, Organizational and Environmental model (TOE), five hypotheses were tested in the study to determine the drivers of e-commerce usage. Methods: A descriptive cross- sectional survey was carried out and the population of the study were all the 43 commercial banks operating in Kenya as at December 2016. A sample of 32 banks was selected using stratified random sampling, while purposive sampling was used to select 96 respondents who participated in this study. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire that was administered to the heads of ICT, Operation and Finance departments of the selected banks. Data analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and coefficient of determination and regression analyses was undertaken to test the hypothesis. Results: The study findings revealed that significant factors included; Top management support, organization learning ability, competitive pressure and technological competence whilefirm size was not supported.The study extends the existing innovation literature by revealing that firm organizational and environmental factors influence actual usage of e-commerce applications in Kenyan banking industry.Theresults also confirm the effectiveness of TOE framework for conducting studies on actual technology usage at the firm level.