| The purpose of this study was to examine (1) the consumer adoption process of Automatic Teller Machines, (2) the differences among early adopters, late adopters, and nonadopters in personal characteristics, personality, and Automatic Teller Machines and bank service-related experience, information, perceptions and attitudes, and (3) the basic underlying dimensions of innovativeness which are characteristic of early adopters, of late adopters, and of nonadopters.;The study presents a general model of the innovation adoption process in the form of comprehensive exploratory research in order to ascertain empirically basic constructs underlying the innovativeness in the adoption of Automatic Teller Machines. The fundamental conceptualization of the model is based on the theories of general consumer behavior, innovation adoption process, and perceived risk in consumer decision making.;Data for the study was obtained through a mail survey from 453 customers of Valley Fidelity Bank in Knoxville, Tennessee. Of these 453 respondents, 102 individuals were classified as early adopters, 68 as late adopters, and 283 as nonadopters on the basis of their relative time of adoption of Automatic Teller Machine usage.;One bivariate and three different multivariate statistical procedures were employed to sequentially analyze the data. Two-way cross tabulation analyses were used to acquire preliminary insight into the general nature of innovativeness in Automatic Teller Machine usage, Hotelling's T('2) to further probe and/or reinterpret at a higher level of abstraction the information resultant from the cross tabulation analyses, factor analyses to explore the domain of innovativeness in Automatic Teller Machine usage and to derive Z sum factor scores, and multiple discriminant analyses to identify major underlying discriminant dimensions and to ascertain their order of importance in their ability to discriminate among three adopter groups.;Automatic Teller Machines offer consumers new ways of banking that require radical departure from the deeply entrenched banking habits and old attitudes toward conventional bank services. Automatic Teller Machines are an innovation, specifically a service oriented innovation. However, empirical research investigating the process of adoption and diffusion of Automatic Teller Machines on a full scale from the theoretical perspective of the adoption and diffusion process is virtually nonexistent.;The results of the analyses indicate that significant differences exist among the three adopter groups in personal characteristics, personality, and bank services and Automatic Teller Machine related experience, information, perceptions, and attitudes. However, in terms of their potentialities to discriminate among the three adopter groups, the following variables were found to significantly contribute to group differentiation: perceived Automatic Teller Machine characteristics, Automatic Teller Machine checking account usage and frequency of the general usage factor, risk factor, complaints and problems in Automatic Teller Machine usage (mechanical nature), information sources relied on most for Automatic Teller Machine adoption decision making (employees), proclivity to comply with perceived prevailing social influences, cultured cosmopolitan factor, knowledge on liability, and date of first awareness of Automatic Teller Machines (J77D78 and J79080). The discriminant dimensions along which maximum group differentiation occurs were determined to be "general perceptions of Automatic Teller Machine attributes and frequency in its usage" and "late awareness of Automatic Teller Machines.". |
