Developing typologies of consumer motives for use of technologically based banking services

Previous research on innovation has focused more on describing adopters vs. nonadopters rather than on understanding how and why innovation usage varies among customers. We report on a multistage project that uses a means-end procedure to identify the motivations that underlie customers' perceived value and usage of banking technologies such as ATMs, telephone banking, and debit cards. The sampling frame for the mail survey was all current personal checking account customers for a mid-sized metropolitan bank in the southeastern United States. A total of 331 usable questionnaires was received from a sample of 511, for a response rate of 64%. Our basic premise was that customers would exhibit different types of motivation related to their usage of innovations and that these motivational differences would influence their usage of banking innovations. Our results identified four motivational clusters that differed significantly in their attitudinal and behavioral responses to technological innovations. For example, the instant gratification group was a heavier user of ATMs and automatic deposit, whereas hassle avoiders were more likely to use automatic withdrawal. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.