Self‐service technology adoption: comparing three technologies

Advances in technologies have allowed service providers to incorporate many different technologies into the delivery of their services. These technologies have been implemented in the service encounter for the customer to use with varying degrees of success. This research aims to focus on the examination of factors that influence consumer attitudes toward, and adoption of, self‐service technologies (SSTs).

A conceptual model of the adoption process for SSTs is developed and tested across three different technologies used in the banking industry. One of these technologies (ATMs) has been available for many years and is widely adopted, another technology (bank by phone) has been available for many years but has not been widely adopted, and the third technology (online banking) is relatively new to the marketplace. Data were collected using a random telephone survey of banking customers in a three‐state area of the northeast USA and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

A comparison of the results of the model tests on the three technologies provides evidence that different factors influence attitudes toward each of these technologies and offers an explanation of the varying degrees of acceptance found among consumers. This research has demonstrated that multiple factors need to be considered when introducing technologies into the service encounter and that the salient factors may vary among technologies and their stages in the adoption process.

The three different technologies used were all based in the banking industry, which limits the generalizability to other industries. Also cross‐sectional data are used rather than a longitudinal study, the feasibility of which is limited by time and cost contraints.

The practical application of these findings may guide marketers to emphasize issues related to certain critical constructs when utilizing SSTs in their service delivery.