ANT and Mobile Network Service Adoption in Banking Industry

Abstract

This study focused on Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Mobile network service adoption in banking industry. Mobile technology, as a competitive and innovative marketing tool in providing services, has become an essential technology for success in the banking industry. This technology provides banks with the opportunity to provide products and services proportionate to the exact needs of customers and can help them gain a competitive advantage in the turbulent environment of the banking industry. Therefore, identifying the factors influencing the acceptance of mobile banking has been an important subject for and the focus of many researches. These researches have explored this phenomenon mainly based on the traditional theories related to the adoption of new technology. It is important to note that the relevant traditional theories, by valuing some actors in the process of accepting mobile banking, have taken a simplistic approach and ignored the network of multiple actors active in the process. By emphasizing the network of actors with complex and interactive relationships that are effective in accepting mobile banking, this article has discussed this phenomenon from the perspective of ANT theory. Thus, by reviewing the main concepts of ANT, we emphasized its importance in studying the process of accepting new service technologies, including mobile banking, and finally, by adopting a Socio-ecological attitude of ANT, we provided a conceptual model to examine the acceptance of mobile technology.