Communications and Network, 2013, 5, 112-115
doi:10.4236/cn.2013.51B025 Published Online February 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/cn)
The Effect o f O nl i ne - to - Mobile Trust Transfer
on the Foundation of Mobile Banking Trust
Bangjun Wang, Chu Shan
School of Computer Science & Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Received 2012
ABSTRACT
The paper mainly studies the influences of trust transfer on the establishment of consumers’ initial trust. Based on the
theory of signal transmission and self-efficiency, the study builds a trust transfer model aiming at the same subject be-
tween different environments. The results shows that when the consumers’ perceived change of environment is little,
prior successful experiences will improve the consumers’ perceptions of self-ability, which probably lowers the effect
of bank’s role on the establishment of initial trust. Therefore, banks should cultivate consumers’ perceptions of their
relative advantages in the original environment and thus improve the consumers’ dependency in the new environment to
avoid the loss of consumers and build a long-term relationship.
Keywords: Trust; Mobile Banking; Online-to-Mobile Trust Transfer
1. Introduction
Mobile banking is an emerging application of mobile
commerce that could become an additional revenue sour ce
to both banks and telecom service providers [1]. It en-
ables customers to access their bank account through
mobile devices to conduct conventional and innovative
financial transactions without the limitations of place and
time [2]. China was reported as the largest internet and
the biggest mobile phone market in the world. Given the
size of the Chinese market, it is necessary to pay atten-
tion to this area.
Despite the alleged benefits of mobile banking, its ac-
ceptance has been short of industry expectations. One
plausible explanation may be consumers’ lack of initial
trust in mobile bankingservices [2,3]. After all, mobile
banking is a form of service convergence enabled by
innovative technologies. When a new innovative service
is introduced, there is no direct prior experience to fall
back on. It is therefore expected that a person’s initial
trust, based on certain perceptive and possibly irrational
forces such as cognitive cu es, will play an important role
in the decision to adopt mobile banking [2,4].
The objective of this research is to reveal the mechan-
isms associated with the initial formation of people’s
trust in mobile banking. And this research will fill a re-
search gap by focusing on online to mobile trust transfer
process, which has received almost no attention [5-7]. To
achieve the research goal, a research model is introduced
to define relationships among the studied variables, and
relevant hypotheses are proposed. The research model
and accompanying hypotheses are empirically validated
based on survey data gathered from online banking users
who had mobile device and had not signed up for mobile
banking. The paper concludes with a discussion of find-
ings and subsequent implications.
2. Theoretical Foundation and Hypothesis
As a type of mobile-commerce, mobile banking is
spreading in Chinese. In fact, m-commerce itself is a
subset of e-commerce, and therefore mobile banking can
be considered an e-commerce application [8]. Mobile
banking is an innovation that could become one of m-
commerce’s value-added applications and could have a
huge economic impact 8. Despite the overall low enthu-
siasm for m-commerce, people are more willing to em-
brace mobile banking.
2.1. Trust Tr ansfer
Trust transfer means transfer of trust from one domain,
such as offline, to another, such as online. For example,
the trust that customers perceive in an offline company,
like Wal-mart, tends to extend easily to favorable percep-
tions about its web service. Trust for certain company
means consumer brand knowledge that relates to the
cognitive representation of the brand [9]. Consumer

B. J. WANG, C. SHAN
113
brand knowledge can be defined in terms of the personal
meaning about a brand stored in consumer memory [10,
11] Therefore, if customers possess a sound memory
about an online bank’s brand, then such memory affects
consumer’s usage behavior about the mobile banking of-
fered by the same brand [12,13].
Based on the survey of bank corporate clients in Sin-
gapore, Nex (2003) found that customers’ trust towards
the land-based bank was the key factor influencing the
adoption of electronic banking service which offered by
the same bank. He also found the cumaltive effects of
customer satisfaction have a positive impact on the pro-
pensity to use electronic banking [14]. Kun chang lee
(2007) iden tified four types of trust transfer based on the
diversification of beha vior environment. They also found
that the trust in an offline bank will influence four per-
ceptions about its online banking counterpart (flow,
structure assurance, perceived web site satisfaction and
perceived extent of future use) [10]. Huei-Huang Kuan et
al. (2007) examined the formation of online trust en-
countered by potential customers of a brick and click
retailer before they visit its online web s ite. Their research
revealed that word-of-mouth, offline trust and expected
sanctioning power were significant in forming online
trust [15]. Yang qing et al. (2007) empirically tested the
trust transference from offline presence to online pres-
ence and addressed the underlying reasons. They testified
that the offline trust is one of the major sources contri-
buting to its initial online trust building [16].
2.2. Hypothesis and Model
Figure 1 shows the research model of this paper. The
objective of this research is to reveal the mechanisms
associated with the initial formation of people’s trust in
mobile banking and intention to use the service. And
what’s new for this paper is that we focus on the impact
of online to mobile trust transfer process, which has re-
ceived almost no attention.
According to the theory of innovation, the characteris-
tics of an innovative technology influence the degree of
its adoption and diffusion [17]. Despite the noted weak-
nesses of handsets, such as small screen size and keypad,
mobile banking offers benefits unmatched by traditional
offline and online banking services. Convenience, flex-
ibility and other perceived advantages may contribute to
the formation of trust even before a customer actually
uses a service [18]. Therefore, we posit that:
H1: Customers’ perceptions of security contribute po-
sitively to the formation of customers’ trust in mobile
banking.
H2: Customers’ perceptions of privacy protection con-
tribute positively to the formation of customers’ trust in
mobile banking.
According to the theory of innovation, the characteris-
Trust in online
banking
Perceived security
Perceived ease of use Perceived usefulness
Trust in mobile
banking
Perceived privacy protection
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
H6
H7
H8 H9
Figure 1. Research model.
tics of an innovative technology influence the degree of
its adoption and diffusion [19]. Despite the noted weak-
nesses of handsets, such as small screen size and keypad,
mobile banking offers benefits unmatched by traditional
offline and online banking services. Convenience, flex-
ibility and other perceived advantages may contribute to
the formation of trust even before a customer actually
uses a service [17]. Therefore, we posit that:
H3: Perceived ease of use contribute positively to the
formation of customers’ trust in mobile banking.
H4: Perceived usefulness contribute positively to the
formation of customers trust in mobile banking.
Morgan and Hunt (1994) felt trust exists “when one
party has confidence in an exchange partner’s reliability
and integrity” [20]. If a customer is trust in a bank in the
internet channel, h e or she must have enough conf idence
on the bank’s ability, integrity and benevolence. There-
fore, customers’ trust in online banking service will be
helpful to reduce customers’ perceived risk to use mobile
banking service of the same bank. Online banking trust
would, thus, positively influence the formation of mobile
banking initial trust.
H5: Trust in an online bankin g positively influe nce the
formation of mobile banking initial trust.
Bank’s availability of formalized structural assurances
will discourage opportunistic behaviors and protect cus-
tomers from financial lost. If customers trust in the
bank’s online service, this trust should transfer to beliefs
that the bank’s mobile system is safe and secure. This is
natural, especially for the similar technology background
of online banking and mobile banking. Therefore, we
proposed that:
H6: Trust in an online banking positively influence
perceived security of mobile banking.
H7: Trust in an online banking positively influence
perceived privacy protection of mobile banking.
The technology background of mobile banking is sim-
ilar to the online banking. Customer’s prior experience
with computer and internet technology will influence
both attitudes towards mobile banking and actual behav-

B. J. WANG, C. SHAN
114
iors [8]. Swin yard and Ghee (1985) found that ATM card
holders were have more favorable attitudes towards
ATMs, towards change, and towards computers, and to
be more venturesome and have more self-confidence [21].
Similarly, we proposed that the more they trust in the
online banking, the more they believe that new technol-
ogy will make their life better, and the more they believe
mobile banking will consistent with their life style, past
experience. So it is logical to hypothesize that:
H8: Trust in an online banking positively influence
perceived ease of use of mobile banking.
H9: Trust in an online banking positively influences
perceived usefulness of mobile banking.
3. Research Method and Data Collection
The research was carried out on online banking custom-
ers who have available device to use mobile banking but
never use it. A questionnaire was designed based on a
seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). To test the psychometric
properties of the constructs, a questionnaire pretest was
given to 97 e-commerce association members. The res-
pondents were volunteers and were not told the re-
search’s objective. The convergent validity and unidi-
mensionality of each co nstruct was verified using a prin-
cipal component factor and analysis for factors with ei-
genvalues above 1, using a varimax rotation. Each item
loaded on the intended construct, and each Cronbach’s
alpha exceeded 0.8. The measurements used display in
Table 1. Respondents included 525 cell-phone users who
have the experience of online banking. In all, 313 res-
pondents were selected from them.
4. Empirical Results and Findings
The proposed hypotheses were tested with PLS. The re-
sults of the analysis are depicted in Table 2 and Figure 2.
The results show that the hypotheses are all supported
except H8, H9. These result suggested that trust transfer
have the significant impact on initial trust formation in
the context of new technology based banking service.
The explained variance of relative advantage and com-
patibility is lower than 20%, this is partly because that
only one factor is involved in this model to explain.
Online banking tru st had stron g and positive in fluence on
the mobile banking initial trust (H5) and its antecedents
(H1, H6). This supports the existence of online-to-mo-
bile trust transfer process. Trust in online banking had no
obvious influence on relative advantage and compatibil-
ity, th is maybe because the difference between the online
and mobile banking services.
5. Managerial Implications and Limitations
Based on the empirical results, this study arrives at the
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of samples.
Measure Freq. Percent
Total Items 178 100%
Age
21 - 29
30 - 39
40-
Missing
81
64
21
12
50.2%
38.5%
12.0%
9.3%
Position
Employee
Chief employee
Manager
Director
Others
58
89
26
1
4
29.7%
53.9%
12.5%
0.8%
3.1%
Male
Work
Experience
(year)
0 - 3
3 - 6
6 - 9
9 - 12
12-
Missing
16
42
44
43
24
9
12.5%
17.2%
18.8%
33.6%
10.9%
7%
Total 135 100%
Age
21 - 29
30 - 39
40-
Missing
66
50
15
4
54.1%
35.3%
5.9%
4.7%
Position
Employee
Chief employee
Manager
Director
Others
48
23
10
1
3
56.5%
27.1%
11.8%
1.2%
3.5%
Female
Work
experience
(year)
0 - 3
3 - 6
6 - 9
9 - 12
12-
Missing
6
8
20
38
10
3
7.1%
9.4%
23.5%
44.7%
11.8%
3.5%
Tr ust i n
online
banking
Perceived security
Relative advantage Compatibility
Initial trus t in
mobile banking
Perceived privacy protection
0.39
**
0.37
**
0.30
**
0.23
**
0.41
**
0.26
**
0.31
0.09 0.07 R
2
= 0.56
R
2
= 0.11 R
2
= 0.09
R
2
= 0.24 R
2
= 0.30
*p < 0.05, **p < 0. 01, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 2. Results.

B. J. WANG, C. SHAN
115
Table 2. The results of data analysis.
Measures Items
Composite
reliability Average variance extracted
Trust in online banking 3 0.879 0.793
Trust in mobile banking 3 0.857 0.701
Perceived usefulness 3 0.899 0.795
Perceived ease of use 4 0.847 0.700
Perceived security 3 0.785 0.621
Perceived privacy
protection 4 0.817 0.699
following implications. First, the trust in online banking
is important to trigger customers’ positive perception
about mobile banking. Our research model shows that the
trust of online banking has strong and positive influence
on the formation of mobile banking initial tr ust. Then, an
online company with strong online trust can build up a
high level of mobile trust. Second, the online-to-mobile
trust transfer process provides a unified view for under-
standing the effects of online trust on mobile trust. The
empirical results suggest that the bank can leverage their
online trust to produce mobile structural assurance and
perceived compatibility.
The study can be more reasonab le if based on longitu-
dinal data. This constitutes a limitation of our research.
Sample size is another limitation, although the size is
adequate. The education background of the respondents
is not taken into account. The cu lture is also the key fac-
tor to influence customers’ usage behavior, we leave it
for futur e re se arch.
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