| This study investigates the relationship between intention to refer banking services and attitude toward referring banking services, subjective norms concerning referring banking services, perceived behavioral control (PBC) with respect to referring banking services, and intrinsic motivation (IM) for referring banking services within a theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework. The participants were adult banking consumers who were panelists with SurveyMonkey Audience. An electronic survey instrument was sent to the participants and their responses were analyzed through hierarchical multiple linear regression. The first step in the hierarchy investigated the relationship between intention and the accepted TPB variables of attitude, subjective norms, and PBC. Subjective norms (p < .001) and PBC (p <.001) significantly explained the variance in intention (R2 = .386, p < .001). The second step included IM within the model. Subjective norms (p = .019), PBC (p = .011), and IM (p < .001) were significant in explaining the variance in intention (R2 = .531, p < .001). The findings suggest that IM may improve the TPB framework within a banking-service referral context. The non-significance of attitude when IM is included in the model suggests that IM may be a superior predictor of intention within a referral context. These findings have implications for marketers when developing messaging to encourage referrals. |
