Understanding Customer’s Initial Trust in Internet Banking Services: A Field Study in Jordan

The aim of this study is to develop a unified model of initial trust for the adoption of internet banking services (IBS) in developing countries. In particular, three groups of factors have been investigated: trust literature, diffusion of innovation theory, and national culture, in order to reveal their effect on forming a customer’s initial trust in IBS. We collected data using a survey and then analysed it using structural equation modelling. According to the obtained results, initial trust in internet banking services was significantly affected by: (i) factors obtained from the trust literature, which are disposition to trust, organisational structural assurance, and reputation. (ii) Relative advantages, which was adopted from the diffusion of innovation theory. (iii) Uncertainty avoidance, which is a dimension of national culture. Also, analysis of results showed a high impact of initial trust in IBS on the intention to use it. However, unlike developed countries, we found that some factors not to have noticeable influence on initial trust in IBS, such as: technical structural assurance and individualism versus collectivism