| Information technology-enabled delivery systems, like ATMs and other electronic-medium banking systems, were once considered as a mere strategic tool. Nevertheless, such systems have now become integral for the survival of banks. Thus, all banks must know how to adopt and implement these systems. However, not much is understood about how banks, especially those operating in developing countries, adopted and implemented information technology. To fill this gap, the adoption and implementation of the electronic delivery systems in several local and foreign banks in Malaysia were examined using the established innovation process model. The study focused on three objectives: identifying the reasons why the banks adopted the electronic delivery systems, describing the activities performed by the banks when they adopted and implemented these systems, and identifying the variables influencing the adoption and implementation process of these systems.;A preliminary study was undertaken to learn the background of the institutions and to enable the selection of cases. In the subsequent case study, three dimensions, which are, the ownership of the bank, the system adopted, and the government regulation were examined.;The results of the study indicated that Malaysian banks could be grouped into two in regard to their reasons for adopting the electronic delivery systems. For the local banks, decisions to adopt these systems were triggered mainly by the competitive conditions. In contrast, for the foreign banks, most of the time, these systems were adopted after being 'pushed' to them by their parent companies.;This study also revealed that the existing innovation process model can explain the adoption and implementation activities of Malaysian local banks. However, for the foreign banks which were subsidiaries of multinational banks, the model was applicable only if they adopted local subsidiary-initiated systems. Otherwise, they used a different innovation process. By modifying the existing innovation process model, a new model was developed specifically for the foreign banks when they implemented parent company-initiated systems.;Several variables such as banks, systems adopted, business environment, have been identified as having major influence on the adoption and implementation process of the electronic delivery systems in Malaysian banks. |
