Exploratory study on the adoption of social media into service innovation : a case study of a Nigerian retail bank

Abstract

Social media has seen an exponential increase in use with over 2 billion active accounts. Thus, retail banks use the platform to market their products and services, create stronger brands, and develop innovative services. This study looks at how banks, specifically Guaranty Trust Bank in Nigeria, have been successful in implementing social media technology for banking. Although studies on social media have grown, research on social media banking has been minimal. Guaranty Trust Bank has over time, maintain its position as the leading bank in innovative technological solutions, geared towards increasing and obtaining profitability in the Nigerian banking sector. The significance of social media technologies in changing the way retail banks operate provides an untapped business opportunities for financial institution. Understanding the elements influencing banks' decisions to adopt social media for banking is essential. Due to these social media technologies partly being new, these factors have received very little research. Through the application of the TOE framework, this research work endeavours to recognise what factors associated with social media usage are critical in facilitating retail banks' social media service innovation and value addition. This master’s the-sis is an exploratory study that employed qualitative methods and semi-structured interview data was collected from two sets of respondents-bank managers and bank customers to meet the research objectives. The data was analyzed and interpreted using qualitative thematic analysis. From the semi-structured interviews a TOE model was developed. The research community, banking industry together with policy makers would find the results of this thesis important and helpful when formulating strategies concerning adoption of social media. The model suggested in this thesis has the ability to enhance stakeholders' perception of why some banks decided to adopt social media technologies for banking, while other industry players facing related market environments have not.