Partial profile · Book Profile — full narrative profile planned
Antecedents of big data adoption in financial institutions
Using the Technology Acceptance Model, this study shows that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use drive big data adoption in South African financial institutions—but only when employees already hold a high behavioural intention to adopt.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Big data promises transformative competitive advantage for financial institutions, yet adoption remains sluggish, especially in developing economies where research is scarce. This study surveys 195 management-level employees in South Africa's financial sector to test whether the classic TAM constructs of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) predict actual big data adoption (BDA). It finds they do—explaining roughly a third of the variation in adoption—but reveals a crucial contingency: behavioural intention (BI) acts as a gatekeeper. Among employees with high BI, PU and PEU are strong significant predictors; among those with low BI, the relationships vanish. The book therefore enriches the sparse developing-country and industry-specific literature on big data while offering managers a concrete lever: beyond touting usefulness and ease of use, they must actively cultivate the right behavioural intention through engagement, incentives, and training.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A manager or policymaker in a financial institution who wants to successfully drive the adoption of big data to gain competitive advantage.
- The problem
- Big data adoption remains slow and the specific drivers behind it are largely indeterminate, especially in developing-economy financial sectors. The manager feels uncertain about where to focus effort and anxious that costly technology investments may fail to deliver value.
- The plan
- Recognise perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as the primary levers of technology adoption.
- Assess and cultivate employees' behavioural intention to adopt big data, since it gates the other levers.
- Tout the usefulness and ease of use of big data to employees to pave the way for adoption.
- Use participatory, engagement-focused approaches and incentives to shape the right behavioural intention.
- Provide training and highlight the concrete benefits of big data to nurture adoption.
- The payoff
- Employees perceive big data as useful and easy to use and are genuinely intent on adopting it. · Higher and more effective big data adoption that yields competitive advantage and better decision-making. · Managers have an evidence-based framework for prioritising adoption interventions.
See our guide
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