Determining factors affecting intention to adopt banking
recommender system: case of Iran

Abstract: By the rapid growth of information technology, banks in many parts of the
world are trying to change their traditional methods and try to adapt in to
new technologies. One of the most fundamental changes of banking industry is
the movement from traditional banking to more electronic banking. But,
beside the new facilities, this brings the problem of information overload.
So preparing a proper information filtering and recommender system that
could help customers to find appropriate services and facilities based on
their needs, has become a crucial issue for banks.

The purpose of this master thesis is to explain and analyze the issues that
influence Iranian bank customer’s intentions, toward banking recommender
system adoption. Based on a detailed literature review, a research model on
the basis of an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with original
variables perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, intention
to use, and external variables personality, personal innovativeness and
perceived playfulness was employed.

A quantitative research approach was conducted to get a better understanding
of the issues. The empirical data was collected from sixteen Tejarat bank (A
famous governmental bank in Iran) branches in seven different cities
(classified in to four zones) of Iran by the means of questionnaires. Data
analyses were done in accordance with the research questions and research
model by SPSS 15 and Lisrel 8.53 softwares, and the hypotheses were analyzed
by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. The results show that only
personal innovativeness has no significant effect on personal usefulness of
the system. The implications of the findings for theory and practice are
discussed further. Finally the overall findings from respondent’s data show
that they have great level of intention toward using a banking recommender
system that could guide them through better choices among several available
financial services.