Banking Research Methodology

A quantitative research methodology was used so as to achieve the objectives of this study. This is because, this method can be used to produce numerical measurement and evaluation of the adoption of mobile banking. Being part of the quantitative research methodology, survey questionnaires were used to allow for aggregation of the outcomes. The analysis was designed in such a way, so as to know if the independent variables have a statistically significant impact on the aspects affecting the adoption of m-banking. Thus, the independent variables were established from this study and they are: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived cost, trust, and perceived risk on dependent variables being the adoption of mobile banking.

3.3 Ethical

Three major ethics of the review research; consent of participants, confidentiality and secrecy have been addressed (Research Connections, 2011). Respondents gave their consent prior to participating in the current survey, and identifiers such as names, addresses, phone numbers or any other personal contact details have not been recorded for maintaining confidentiality and anonymity.

3.4 Population and Sample Size

A population is perceived as a summation of group of people, stores, college students, companies or those sharing some set of characteristics (Zikmund, 2003, p. 369). As far as this study is concerned, those having an account in local banks providing mobile banking services and at the same time owning a mobile phone were the targeted population. Only 3 banks were offering m- banking services in Mauritius: The Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd (MCB), SBM Bank (Mauritius) Ltd (SBM) and MauBank Ltd (MauBank). Since there is no readily data available, for the purpose of this study, an estimation of targeted population size of greater than 100,000 was made. In order to achieve a confidence interval of 95%, a sample size of 302 as therefore required. A margin error of 5% and a sample proportion of 27% were estimated and used. Applying these figures in the below formula the required sample size was

Anonymity of respondents was respected and respondent were not forced in any way to participate in the survey. Moreover, the study was carried out with the aim of having an insight on m-banking in Mauritius and not to criticise the m-banking service provided by local banks.

3.6 Pilot Testing

According to Zikmund (2003, p. 359), a pilot study is necessary as it enable the person conducting the study to get feedback from the respondents. In this way, the researcher will be able to know if there are any problems in understanding the questions or if there are any biased or ambiguous questions. Hence, a pilot study was conducted, in which 10 respondents participated. Consequently, all feedback were noted and modifications were made to the questionnaire, after which it was validated. When this phase was over, the main survey was dispersed to the intended population.

3.7 The Response Rate

Twelve (12) of the 321 obtained responses had to be ignored due to incompletion of the questionnaire. Hence a total of 309 respondents was used for analysis which was beyond the minimum required sample size of 302 to achieve a 95% confidence level for a population greater than