DETERMINANTS OF DIGITAL BANKING ADOPTION AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY REFORM IN LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT

Abstract

This study investigates the determinants shaping citizens’ adoption, satisfaction, and continued patronage of online banking services in India, presenting insights highly relevant to local self-government, public administration, and digital service governance. Adopting a causal research design supported by a narrative analytical approach, the study examines how individual psychological constructs—mindset, comfort level, and risk consciousness—stimulate online banking contentment and subsequently influence perceived service quality, digital utility, and long-term patronage. A structured research instrument comprising demographic and construct-based items was administered to virtual banking users, producing a validated dataset of 921 respondents. The sampling design employed purposive criteria, and advanced analytical techniques including factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability testing, and structural modelling were executed using SPSS, AMOS, Excel, and Statwiki. Findings reveal that citizens’ comfort and mindset significantly elevate contentment, while risk consciousness moderates perceptions of quality and utility. Contentment emerged as a central mediating construct, reinforcing service quality and utility perceptions that ultimately predict sustained usage of digital banking. The validated measurement model demonstrated robust reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The study contributes to public administration literature by demonstrating how citizen behaviour in digital financial platforms parallels digital governance adoption patterns in local government services. The findings offer implications for policymakers, local governance bodies, and financial institutions aiming to enhance digital public service delivery, trust, inclusiveness, and long-term citizen engagement.