Behavioural intention to adopt blockchain technology among bankers in islamic financial system: perspectives in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Nur Firas NAZIM, Nabiha Mohd RAZIS, Mohammad Firdaus Mohammad HATTA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: ICI Publishing House 2021-03-01
• Series: Revista Română de Informatică și Automatică
• Subjects: behavioural intention; blockchain technology; islamic financial system; utaut; toe framework.
• Online Access: https://rria.ici.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/art._Nazim_Razis_Hatta.pdf

Blockchain technology has been a buzzword globally especially among financial industrial players. It can be observed that most developed countries had begun to legalise the implementation of blockchain technology including European Union as well as the member states of G20 in order to secure their leading position in supporting the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Be that as it may, scholars admitted that Malaysia had been a bit desolated primarily in terms of its legalisation on the blockchain’s adoption in the country despite various initiatives that had been taken initially. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the behavioural intention to adopt blockchain technology specifically among bankers in Malaysia Islamic financial system. A combination of theories, mainly the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 1 (UTAUT 1) as well as Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) Framework had been chosen to be used in the study. This research implemented the quantitative method in which more than 200 questionnaires were distributed to 12 domestic banks in Malaysia through both self-administered method and online survey. Multiple regression analysis was applied to further verify the hypothesis made. Based on this study, it had been proven that effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition are the only factors that affect the behavioural intention to adopt blockchain technology with effort expectancy being the most significant factor among all. However, the results had also proven that the non-factors of the variables strengthened the fact that Malaysia is still at the primitive stage in respect to blockchain adoption. Thus, it signifies the importance for the industry to begin adopting instead of attempting by considering the best initiatives recommended in accordance to Malaysia’s mould in which the banks could opt to start working on the institution voluntary regulation whereas for the government, perhaps they could commence a consortium which consists of Islamic financial institutions in the country to develop their experience before implementing on their own. It is hopeful that the initiatives could help to secure the position of Malaysia as the world Islamic financial hub in the coming years.