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IT Infrastructure Role in the Success of

a Banking System: The Case of Limited
Broadband Access
a b
Berhanu Borena & Solomon Negash
a
IT PhD Program, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia
b
Kennesaw State University, Clendenin Building, 3013, Kennesaw,
GA, USA
Published online: 23 Jan 2015.
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Success of a Banking System: The Case of Limited Broadband Access, Information Technology for
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 Information Technology for Development, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2014.979392

IT Infrastructure Role in the Success of a Banking System: The Case of

Limited Broadband Access
∗
Berhanu Borenaa and Solomon Negashb
a
IT PhD Program, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; bKennesaw State
University, Clendenin Building, 3013, Kennesaw, GA, USA

This study provides empirical support for including IT infrastructure (ITI) as part of the
information systems (IS) success model. The IS success model has been validated in high-
income countries, but research in low-income countries is still lacking. This research
bridges this gab by identifying ITI as a contributing construct when evaluating the IS
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success model in the context of low-income countries. This paper investigates the research
question: when considering low-income countries, what is the role of ITI in information
systems success? The research is motivated by limited ITI and limited Internet access in
low-income countries that hinder the success of information systems. We conducted a
survey with 102 bank employees in a low-income country – Ethiopia. The SEM-PLS
analysis showed strong impact of ITI on user, user satisfaction, and net benefit. This study
recommends inclusion of the ITI construct when evaluating the success of information
systems and the policies that govern it.
Keywords: IT infrastructure (ITI); IS success model; low-income countries; broadband;
Internet access; IT connectivity

1. Introduction
An information systems (IS) success model has been validated in high-income countries, but
research in low-income countries is still lacking. This research bridges this gap by identifying
IT infrastructure (ITI) as a contributing construct when evaluating the IS success model in the
context of low-income countries. This paper investigates the research question: when consider-
ing low-income countries, what is the role of ITI in information systems success? The research is
motivated by the limited ITI and limited Internet access in low-income countries that hinder the
success of information systems.
ITI is a pre-requisite for quality, information sharing, storage, and processing (Lewis &
Byrd, 2003); supports strategic organizational initiatives (Zhu & Kraemer, 2002); and facilitates
development and implementation of information systems (Martin, Scheraga, Moran, & Nagrath,
1997). ITI also enables business performance (Chung, Byrd, Lewis, & Ford, 2005); predicts IT
project success (Xu, Zhang, & Barkhi, 2010); serves to bind IT components with human
resources including knowledge, skill sets, and experiences (Weill, 1993); and facilitates large-
scale connectivity and organizational interoperation (Kumar, 2004). It is due to these positive
effects that ITI is believed to increase organizational success (Lehr, Osorio, Gillett, & Sirbu,
2005; Melville, Kraemer, & Gurbaxani, 2004). While this is a proven fact in the context of
high-income countries, the issue remains unexplored in the context of low-income countries
where Internet access is limited.

∗
Corresponding author. Emails: berhanuborena@gmail.com; berhanuborena@yahoo.com
Francis Andohbaidoo is the accepting Associate Editor for this paper.

# 2015 Commonwealth Secretariat

 2 B. Borenaa and S. Negash

Low-income countries and many rural communities are admittedly with limited Internet
access (Chinn & Fairlie, 2006). Thus, there is a growing concern that groups with such a
limited broadband access would miss critical online services such as education, health, and gov-
ernment services (Xavier, 2003). Worku (2010) particularly urged the need to build capacity for
development of e-banking systems after conducting assessment of Ethiopian banks’ status, even
though he did not conduct a cause – effect study of ITI. In emerging economies, ITI is found to
promote economic development (Ngwenyama & Morawczynski, 2009; Vinze, Shao, & Lee,
2012). However, there is a dearth of research on the impact of ITI in low-income countries.
We searched databases and digital libraries including ABI/Informs, ACM, AIS, Business Com-
plete, and IEEE; journals including MISQ, ISR, JMIS, CACM, JAIS, ITD, and AJIS; and the
Google Scholar web search engine. We also reviewed many of the IS success model papers
that were done in HIC (Almutairi & Subramanian, 2005; Brown & Jayakody, 2008; Cates,
Chong, & Rauniar, 2009; DeLone, 2003; DeLone & McLane, 1992, 2002; Iivari, 2005;
Khayun, Ractham, & Firpo, 2012; Lin, 2007; Petter, DeLone, & McLean, 2008; Rai, Lang, &
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Welker, 2002; Schaupp, Belanger, & Fan, 2009; Trkman & Trkman, 2009; Urbach, Smolnik,
& Riemmp, 2011; Vaidya, 2007); these studies do not evaluate ITI as a construct or focus on
organizational IS success in the context of low-income countries.
ITI constitutes two distinct components: technical and human ITI (Byrd & Turner, 2000). In
this study, our focus is the technical ITI, which comprises IT connectivity, application function-
ing, IT compatibility, and data transparency (Byrd & Turner, 2000; Duncan, 1995). We particu-
larly focus on IT connectivity and IT compatibility, as these aspects are major indicators in the
context of low-income countries. Therefore, we define ITI as a set of shared IT resources (such
as hardware, software, and network) that enable the connectivity, access, processing, and sharing
of business applications. Broadband speed, an aspect of IT connectivity, has “emerged as the
single most commonly used metric for characterizing the quality of broadband offerings”
(Bauer, Clark, & Lehr, 2010, p. 1). Limited broadband access in this study means less than
one Mbps access speed, which is less than 10% of the 10 Mbps average ADSL speed (Bauer
et al., 2010).
We used the World Bank definition of per capita income less than $1035 to define low-
income countries (World Bank, 2013). Ethiopia, the focus country in this study, is one of the
low-income countries with limited broadband access. There is a growing concern that some
groups without access to high-speed broadband networks will be unable to benefit from
online education, health, and government services (Xavier, 2003). This concern is not limited
to low-income countries; rural communities in high-income countries also suffer from limited
broadband access. For example, to improve limited broadband access in rural America, the
US government between 2000 and 2008 spent more than $1.8 billion “with the explicit goal
of making high-speed data transmission capacity available to rural residents and businesses”
and an additional 2.5 billion was added for the same purposes in 2009 (Kandilov, Kandilov,
Liu, & Renkow, 2011).
In the remaining sections, we discuss theoretical background, methodology, data analysis
and results, discussions, and conclusions.

2. Theoretical background
The need to clarify the role of ITI in national growth has been questioned by researchers
(Avgeru, 2003). Recently, however, Vinze et al. (2012) have shown that ITI has impact in tran-
sitional economies. In addition, a positive economic impact from expanded broadband deploy-
ment and adoption has been shown (Holt & Jamison, 2009). This study builds on these findings
to articulate the theoretical significance of ITI.
 Information Technology for Development 3

To address our research question, we evaluated the success of Temenos core banking (TCB)
system in Ethiopia. TCB is a trademark of Temenos, a global banking system headquartered in
Geneva, Switzerland. It is used by more than 450 million clients worldwide (Gebreselassie,
2012; Temenos, 2011). TCB provides core banking functionalities including customer data
administration, customer profile organization, settlements & posting, intra-bank alerting and
notification, lending, deposit, payment service, and operational data storage (Temenos, 2011).
Banking systems such as TCB, the banking system used in this study, help banks to attract
and grow loyal customers, minimize transaction cost, expand banking services, and increase the
bank’s competitive position. As per the study that assessed the status, opportunities, and chal-
lenges of e-banking systems in Ethiopia up to the year 2009, ITI deficiency limited the use of
e-banking systems such as ATM in Ethiopia (Worku, 2010). Consequently, we posit that in a
low-income country where limited Internet access is the norm, the success of a banking infor-
mation system is negatively affected.
For our theoretical model, we added ITI as an independent construct to the IS model con-
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structs including user satisfaction, use, and net benefit (DeLone & McLane, 1992). Net benefit
is the dependent variable used to measure the impact of ITI on businesses; use and user satisfac-
tion served as mediating variables. ITI has been used as a uni-dimensional construct in prior
studies (Cui, Zhang, Zhang, & Huang, 2008); the same is adapted for the current study (Figure 1).
Use refers to recipient’s consumption of the IS output (Liu, 2001). To measure TCB’s use,
indicators such as frequency of use (Iivari, 2005), number of transactions served (DeLone,
2003), and number of system functionalities (Ginzberg, 1981) are used in this research. Prior
research indicates ITI deficiency as the culprit for the lacklusters performance of many tele-
centers in low-income countries (Etta & Parvyn-Wamahiu, 2003). Additionally, poor ITI
quality limits online training (Negash, 2010) and increased use of the banking systems features
is directly proportional to the availability of ITI. Therefore, we hypothesize:
H1: ITI positively affects use of the TCB system.
User satisfaction refers to the approval or likeability of an IS system and its deliverables (Petter
& McLean, 2009). In the context of the TCB system, user satisfaction refers to the satisfaction of
the system users and administrators when using the system to do their job of providing services
to clients, that is, updating balances, transferring money, and registering new customers. Indi-
cators of user satisfaction are employees’ job satisfaction and meeting employee expectations
(Luarn, Lin, & Lo, 2005). User satisfaction would be compromised when the information
system access is hindered due to limited Internet access and enhanced when Internet access is
reliable. Therefore, we hypothesize:
H2: ITI positively affects user satisfaction of the TCB system.

Figure 1. IS success model with ITI.

 4 B. Borenaa and S. Negash

Net benefit in the context of the TCB banking system is retaining customers, providing fast
service to clients, eliminating human-error, and delivering better cost savings (Abd Ellatif &
Saleh, 2008). In this research, increasing number of customers, reducing service delivery dur-
ation, reducing human-error, and reducing cost are used as indicators of net benefit. To
realize net benefit, system use has to reach critical mass (Markus, 1987). Prior research has con-
firmed the positive relationship between use and net benefit (DeLone, 2003; Iivari, 2005; Wang
& Liao, 2008). We therefore hypothesize:
H3: Use of the TCB system positively affects net benefit of the TCB system.
The positive impact of user satisfaction on net benefit has been validated in high-income
countries (DeLone, 2003; DeLone & McLane, 1992; Iivari, 2005; Wang & Liao, 2008). We
argue that more employees become satisfied with the TCB system as the benefits from the
TCB system increase. The result of this satisfaction with the TCB system leads employees to
serve more customers, reduce errors, and generate more income, clearly impacting net
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benefit. We therefore hypothesize:

H4: User satisfaction positively affects the net benefit of the TCB system.
ITI harnesses business benefits (IFIP, 2007) and has become a pre-requisite to conduct business
(Kumar, 2004). Byrd and Turner (2000) identified eight items for IT connectivity; we adapted
five of these items and excluded three items that did not apply in the case of TCB. We
further adapted one item for access control (Lewis & Byrd, 2003); one item for security aware-
ness (Lewis & Byrd, 2003); two items to capture importance of quality and information sharing,
storage, and processing (Byrd & Turner, 2000; Lewis & Byrd, 2003); one item for reliability
(Selim, 2007); and one item for cost of connectivity (Etta & Parvyn-Wamahiu, 2003; Littlejohns,
Wyatt, & Garvican, 2003). In total, 11 ITI indicators were selected. These items along with the
citation sources are depicted in Table 1.

Table 1. Items used to measure ITI.

Code Measure References
ITI1 While using TCB system, data communication between the Lewis and Byrd (2003) (data
central and branch offices is always available sharing, storage, processing)
ITI2 The ITI that supports the TCB system is reliable Selim (2007) (reliability)
ITI3 While using TCB system, ITI supports sharing data between Lewis and Byrd (2003) (data
users and departments sharing, storage, processing)
ITI4 While using TCB system, ITI supports data security Byrd and Turner (2000) (IT
connectivity)
ITI5 While using TCB system, ITI supports access control Lewis and Byrd (2003) (access
control)
ITI6 While using TCB system, ITI supports security awareness Lewis and Byrd (2003) (security
programs awareness)
ITI7 There are no communications bottlenecks (network Byrd and Turner (2000) (IT
discontinuation) to use TCB connectivity)
ITI8 For TCB system use, CBE has the foremost available IT Byrd and Turner (2000)
systems and connections (e.g. ADSL, VDSL, ATM, SDV) (IT connectivity)
ITI9 For TCB system use, all remote, branch, and mobile offices Byrd and Turner (2000)
are connected or can be connected easily to the central (IT connectivity)
office
ITI10 Cost of ITI of TCB system is fair Etta and Parvyn-Wamahiu (2003)
(cost of connectivity)
ITI11 New locations or acquisitions are quickly assimilated into Byrd and Turner (2000)
our ITI (IT connectivity)
 Information Technology for Development 5

3. Research method
In this study, we employed a field study strategy using a survey method. To test the model, we
used a paper-based questionnaire to collect empirical data from bank employees. We targeted
bank employees instead of bank clients because TCB is not a client-facing application;
instead, the bank employees process the client request using TCB. Furthermore, the ITI
measures were developed and validated by employees (Byrd & Turner, 2000; Lewis & Byrd,
2003) and most of the items for measuring the IS success model constructs were designed to
gauge employee perception in organizations instead of customer perception.
The data for this study were from 102 employees who work in two major Ethiopian banks.
The two banks are: Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and the Bank of Abyssinia (BoA). CBE
is government owned, whereas BoA is privately owned. CBE was established in 1941, the oldest
bank in Ethiopia (Worku, 2010), and is the largest bank in eastern and central Africa with over
370 branches and six billion US dollars in assets in 2011. It has over two million customers
including expansions to South Sudan (CBE, 2011, 2012; IBM, 2011). CBE handles 65% of
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the Ethiopia’s banking assets and 63.5% of deposits (Bezabeh & Desta, 2014; Kiyota,
Peitsch, & Stern, 2008; Rao & Lakew, 2012). As of 2012, CBE has implemented the TCB
system in 34 branches (Belete, 2012). BoA was established in 1996. It has over one-half
billion dollars in assets (10.2 Billion Ethiopian Birr) and nearly the same amount in deposits
(8.2 Billion Ethiopian Birr). It has 78 branches and serves about 371,420 customers (BoA,
2014; Yewondwossen, 2013). BoA began implementing TCB in 2010. By the end of 2012,
more than 90% of the BoA branches had implemented TCB. Both CBE and BoA have been stea-
dily growing (Kiyota et al., 2008; NBE, 2010) and both use TCB as their core banking system to
run their operations. Other banks in Ethiopia also use TCB (Gebreselassie, 2012). IT is perceived
as a facilitator of economic development in Ethiopia and hence the use of IT in the banking
industry is encouraged by the Ethiopian government (FDRE, 2009; Kiyota et al., 2008; NBE,
2009).
We used purposive sampling when selecting the two banks. There are thirteen banks in
Ethiopia: three government-owned and ten privately owned. Among those that use TCB as
their core banking system, CBE and BoE, the selected banks for this study, are distinguished
as the most dominant and with the most efficiently run information systems; hence, we selected
these two banks for this study. Using only two organizations as the basis for analysis follows
prior research. Rai et al. (2002) for example used a single organization as a context to
confirm the IS success model using a similar structural equation model. Other studies that
used one or two organizations when studying the IS success model include online shopping
behavior context (Chen & Cheng, 2009); success of a learning management system context
(Klobas & McGill, 2010); and digital multimedia technology context (Mun, Yun, Kim, Hong,
& Lee, 2010).
Four branches from CBE and three branches from BoA participated in the survey. We dis-
tributed 130 paper-based surveys and received 102 completed surveys, a return rate of 79%. We
delivered the paper survey questionnaires to the branch managers at the head offices of the seven
branches. We dropped the questionnaire on a random day and the branch managers at each
branch distributed the questionnaires to all branch managers, division managers, system admin-
istrators, IS experts, and customer service officers who were present on that day.
Heuristic sample size suggested in SEM-PLS studies is 10 times the largest number of struc-
tural paths directed at a particular construct in the inner path model (Chin, 1998b; Chin &
Newsted, 1999; Henseler, Ringle, & Sinkovics, 2009; Urbach & Ahlemann, 2010). In this
research, ITI with six final items is the construct with the largest number of items. The 102 com-
pleted responses we received exceed the minimum number of 60 (10×6 ¼ 60) suggested by the
 6 B. Borenaa and S. Negash

heuristic sampling to adequately analyze the structural model. The survey instrument was vali-
dated in prior research. The constructs’ definition details, items used, and their sources are pro-
vided in Appendix A.

4. Data analysis and results

We used SmartPLS v.2, which is capable of performing PLS-SEM-based analyses (Hair, Ringle,
& Sarstedt, 2011). We employed the bootstrapping function of SmartPLS to analyze the signifi-
cance of the paths. We set bootstrap parameters to a centroid-weighting scheme, 102 cases, indi-
vidual changes, and 5000 samples. We used case-wise replacement to treat missing values.
The sample size and demographics are presented in Table 2. The sample had more males
(83.2%) than females (15.8%); this reflects the overall gender distribution among the Ethiopian
bank employees. The majority of the respondents are college graduates. Most of the respondents
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were 24 years old, with the average age of 30 for the sample population. Participants’ average
work experience was seven years and the average banking-sector experience of participants was
five years.
Some of the ITI path coefficients were below the expected 0.70. As a result, we dropped the
items that did not meet the path coefficient threshold. The six ITI items with above 0.70 path
coefficient were adapted. To assure discriminant validity, item loading is an important criterion
(Chin, 1998a). The results indicate that each of the four constructs was loaded on distinct factors;
see Table 3 for factor loading details.
To check for convergent validity, we analyzed the average variance extracted (AVE). The
AVE results show that all items are above the recommended 0.50 threshold value. Reliability
of the measurement model is confirmed as Cronbach’s alpha values resulted above the rec-
ommended threshold value of 0.70 (Boudreau, Ariyachandra, Gefen, & Straub, 2004; Chin,
1998a). The other measure of reliability is composite reliability which resulted above the rec-
ommended 0.80 threshold value, confirming strong internal reliability (Fornell & Larcker,
1981; Steinkühler, 2010). See Table 4 for details on AVE, composite reliability, and Cronbach’s
alpha details.
Discriminant validity of constructs was conducted by checking if the square root of each con-
struct AVE is higher than the correlation value with all other constructs in the model (Fornell &
Larcker, 1981). The results, as shown in Table 5, confirm that the square root of the construct
AVE is larger than the correlation of all other constructs confirming discriminant validity.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics.

Attribute Type Count %
Gender Male 84 83.2
Female 16 15.8
Unreported 1 0.99
Education Diploma 21 20.8
Undergraduate 71 70.3
Graduate 7 6.93
Unreported 2 1.98
Attribute Min/Max Mode Average
Age 21/58 24 29.8
Experience in the Bank 0.8/30 2 6.73
Experience with TCB 0.5/5 3 2
Banking experience prior to TCB 0/24 2 4.9
 Information Technology for Development 7

Table 3. Factor loading.

ITI Use SAT NB
ITI2 0.80 0.21 0.49 0.36
ITI3 0.75 0.45 0.46 0.47
ITI4 0.85 0.26 0.34 0.42
ITI5 0.87 0.24 0.40 0.43
ITI6 0.79 0.32 0.42 0.46
ITI8 0.73 0.14 0.32 0.33
US1 0.32 0.81 0.30 0.44
US2 0.46 0.84 0.44 0.50
US3 0.37 0.74 0.32 0.49
USA1 0.58 0.43 0.84 0.53
USA2 0.43 0.36 0.84 0.46
USA3 0.35 0.30 0.81 0.50
NB3 0.32 0.47 0.38 0.81
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NB4 0.42 0.46 0.55 0.83

NB5 0.45 0.54 0.51 0.80
NB6 0.42 0.45 0.48 0.76

Table 4. AVE, composite reliability, and Cronbach alpha.

AVE Composite reliability Cronbach’s alpha
ITI 0.64 0.91 0.89
Use 0.68 0.86 0.77
Satisfaction 0.75 0.90 0.84
Net benefit 0.68 0.90 0.84

The AVEs are depicted in the diagonals while the square-rooted correlation values are in the
respective columns.
The structural model confirms all four hypotheses. As shown in Figure 2, all path coefficients
show above the 0.20 threshold recommended for path coefficients (Chin, 1998a). ITI path coef-
ficients for use and satisfaction were 0.47 and 0.54, respectively, supporting hypotheses 1 and
2. Similarly, supporting hypotheses 3 and 4 for net benefit, the path coefficients for use and sat-
isfaction were 0.57 and 0.30, respectively.

5. Discussion
To conceptualize ITI in our study, we first looked from the literature how ITI is conceptualized.
Then, we evaluated empirical evidences we chose the best approach. The literature indicates that

Table 5. Correlations and square root of AVE.

ITI Use Satisfaction Net benefit
ITI 0.80
Use 0.47 0.83
Satisfaction 0.54 0.63 0.87
Net Benefit 0.49 0.76 0.66 0.83
Note: Diagonal values are square root of AVE. Data in rows, except the diagonal numbers, are correlation values.
 8 B. Borenaa and S. Negash

Figure 2. Structural model results.

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ITI is indeed conceptualized as both a multi-dimensional and a first-order construct. The work of
Lewis and Byrd (2003) conceptualized ITI flexibility as a construct having the dimensions of (1)
IT personnel flexibility, (2) integration, and (3) modularity. Later, they expanded the conceptu-
alization of ITI to seven dimensions: (1) Chief Information Officer, (2) Planning, (3) Security,
(4) Technology Integration, (5) Advisory committee, (6) Enterprise model, and (7) Data admin-
istration (Lewis & Byrd, 2003). In 2006, Chanopas, Krairit and Khang developed an ITI flexi-
bility construct measure after thoroughly surveying prior ITI measures (including Lewis and
Byrd, 2003 and others). Their list holds 9 dimensions and 41 items. Some of the dimensions
are connectivity, compatibility, continuality, rapidity, etc. In 2007, Selim used an instrument
that involved a general technology construct which has ITI as a sub-dimension with items devel-
oped to capture the effectiveness of the ITI and services available. The sub-dimension, that is
ITI, validation was satisfactory. Recently, Fink and Neumann (2009) validated an instrument
that holds human elements and technical elements. Their measures are quite similar to that of
Lewis and Byrd (2003) though much reduced. On the other hand, Zhu (2004) conceptualized
ITI as a first-order construct having seven indicator items. More recently, a study in China
uses a first-order construct to measure ITI. Given the various practices in the literature and
our research context of limited bandwidth, we focused on the integration aspect of ITI. Inte-
gration dimension of ITI merges the connectivity and compatibility dimensions (Byrd &
Turner, 2000, Lewis & Byrd, 2003; Chanopas, Krairit, & Khang, 2006) and involves measures
indicating network, data sharing, and security aspects.
Once we adapted the measures, we evaluated the measurement model, particularly whether
ITI is best measured as a first-order construct or a multi-dimensional construct. The empirical
finding explained in Section 4 shows that the ITI construct is better measured as a first-order
construct.
The result of the empirical test confirmed that ITI plays a strong role in IS success when the
broadband access is limited. The results confirm that ITI affects use and user satisfaction, which
in turn affects net benefit. The effect of ITI on use is very strong, resulting in a t-value of 4.08
with a p-value of 0.001; this confirms the claim of hypothesis H1. The impact of ITI on user sat-
isfaction shows a very strong significance with a t-value of 6.54 with a p-value of 0.001. Con-
sistent with prior studies, the result confirmed strong use and user satisfaction impact on net
benefit resulting with a t-value of 6.55 and 3.41, respectively, at a p-value of 0.001 (Petter &
McLean, 2009; Rai et al., 2002). The variance explained (R2) for use and user satisfaction
were 22% and 29%, respectively. The predictive power for net benefit (variance explained,
R2) of the model at 64% shows a high degree of variance explained.
 Information Technology for Development 9

6. Implication for practice and theory

This study presents empirical support that ITI impacts use, satisfaction, and net benefit. This
informs managers and policy-makers about the direct impact of ITI so that they can take appro-
priate actions. When implementing information systems, managers must not overlook the role
of ITI, especially in communities where limited broadband services are the status quo. Further-
more, inadequate ITI is one of the distinguishing characteristics of ICT in low-income countries
(Chinn & Fairlie, 2006); for example, a 10-year study (2002 – 2013) about percentages of house-
holds with Internet access shows low-income countries lag behind significantly when compared to
their counterparts in high-income countries, 78% of households in high-income countries have
Internet access compared to only 28% for households in low-income countries (ITU, 2013).
Other ITI comparisons between low-income and high-income countries include household PC
penetration rate – 28% vs. 76% – and mobile-cellular penetration rate – 89% vs. 128% (ITU,
2013); low-income countries lag in these metrics. As these indicators show and practical experi-
ences of a bank in Ethiopia depict (Worku, 2010), inadequate ITI in low-income countries fails
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proper use of e-banking systems such as ATM. Managers must heed the implications of ITI as
depicted in this study. IS managers in low-income countries should consider putting investment
in infrastructure and continuously improving it to achieve better success. In Mozambique, for
example, improving ITI has shown growth in the use of ICT for education (Muianga et al., 2013).
This study also has practical implications for system designers and developers. To increase
effective adoption and use of systems in limited broadband context, it is necessary to design
systems that take consideration of local ITI contexts.
For researchers, the findings show the importance of ITI vis-à-vis the DeLone and McLane (2002)
model. Future studies should evaluate the role of ITI in the full IS success model (DeLone, 2003).

7. Limitations
The results of this study cannot be generalized beyond the two banks; further study is needed to
evaluate the generalizability of these findings. We also suggest future research to look at other
industry sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and tourism. This study targeted only employees
of the banks. In scenarios that involve intensive use of information systems by customers such as
online and mobile banking, targeting customers will help generalize these findings. We rec-
ommend future IS success research in the context of low-income countries to evaluate ITI
along with the full IS success model constructs.

8. Conclusion
This study has provided strong empirical support to include ITI as part of the IS success model.
Our results show a strong ITI impact on use, user satisfaction, and net benefit. In the past, the IS
success model has been verified without the ITI construct; this paper argues that in the context
where Internet access is limited ITI impacts, the success of information systems. The current
study evaluated the impact of ITI on the IS success model in a low-income country context
where broadband access is limited and found strong empirical support showing the impact of
ITI on the IS success model. Therefore, we recommend future organizational IS success
studies conducted in the context of low-income countries to incorporate the ITI construct.

Acknowledgements
The authors strongly thank Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Bank of Abyssinia for their
cooperation and support in the data collection process.
 10 B. Borenaa and S. Negash

Notes on contributors
Berhanu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Information Systems Track of the IT PhD Program at Addis Ababa
University, Ethiopia. His Ph.D. thesis is on Social Networks and Information Privacy in Low-Income
Countries working under the supervision of Prof. France Belanger of Virginia Tech, USA. He works
also on research topics such as business intelligence and information security. He is member of AIS Ethio-
pia chapter and currently serving as Director of the Ethiopian Chapter of the Association for Information
Systems.
Dr. Solomon is Associate Professor of Information Systems at Kennesaw State University. He is a member
of professional associations including AIS, ACM, SAIS, and ISDSA. His publications appeared on a
number of journals. Mobile applications, e-Learning and ICT for economic development are some of his
research areas. He has also served as editor-in-chief of African Journal of Information System. Solomon
is awarded distinguished graduate service award in 2010 from Graduate College of Kennesaw State
University.

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 14 B. Borenaa and S. Negash

Appendix A

Construct Code Item Loading

Net benefit NB3 I feel TCB system has enabled to satisfy CBE’s customers 0.81
NB4 I feel TCB system has enabled increase CBE’s overall productivity 0.83
NB5 I feel TCB system has enabled increase CBE’ competitive 0.80
advantage
NB6 I feel TCB system has enabled increase CBE’s customer loyalty 0.76
Use Use1 I use the TCB system routinely 0.81
Use2 I use different functions of TCB system 0.84
Use3 I use TCB to handle many transactions per day 0.74
User satisfaction SAT1 I feel TCB meets my requirement 0.84
SAT2 I am satisfied after using TCB systems 0.84
SAT3 I am satisfied by the outputs of TCB system 0.81
IT infrastructure ITI2 The ITI that supports the TCB system is reliable 0.80
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ITI3 While using TCB system, ITI supports sharing data between users 0.75
and departments
ITI4 While using TCB system, ITI supports data security 0.85
ITI5 While using TCB system, ITI supports access control 0.87
ITI6 While using TCB system, ITI supports security awareness 0.79
programs
ITI8 For TCB system use, our organization has the foremost available 0.73
IT systems and connections (e.g. ADSL. VDSL, ATM, SDV)