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Top1. Introduction
Creating and fostering customer loyalty is one of the most important goals of businesses (Pham et al., 2020). Many studies have examined the factors that influence customer loyalty in traditional and online commerce settings, for example, brick-mortar banking and online banking (Van et al., 2020b). However, as mobile commerce becomes more and more commonplace and mobile banking is one of its most vivid forms of manifestation (Pham et al., 2019c), concern focuses on the question: How can a bank effectively maintain its clients and enhance its competitive edge in the mobile banking environment?
Evaluating previous studies in the traditional commerce setting provides the theoretical foundations for investigating factors influencing customer loyalty in the mobile banking environment. Specifically, Parasuraman and Grewal (2000) proposed a chain model showing the relationships among service quality, value, and loyalty in their conceptual research. In this chain model, service quality has a positive effect on perceived value, and in turn, perceived value has a positive effect on customer loyalty.
Many studies have been conducted in traditional banking and online banking environments, indicating that this model is reliable and valid (Jian et al., 2015). This means that if the quality of online or traditional banking services is good, customers will appreciate the value created, which in turn will lead to increased customer loyalty. In addition to empirical evidence supporting the relationships among service quality, perceived value, and loyalty, another theoretical foundation has been established, which is a model indicating the relationships among service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty in the traditional and online banking environments (Long & Vy, 2016). Specifically, good quality of service leads to satisfaction, and in turn, satisfaction leads to loyalty.
Surprisingly, no research has been conducted combining two chain models, (1) service quality ® satisfaction ® loyalty, and (2) service quality ® perceived value ® loyalty, into an integrated model to consider its predictive power for the final construct—loyalty. Furthermore, switching costs are seen as a factor affecting loyalty (Lee et al., 2001). However, no studies have examined switching costs’ moderating role in the relationships between perceived value and loyalty, between satisfaction and loyalty, and between service quality and loyalty. Therefore, it is necessary to put the two chain models and switching costs into an integrated model to examine its predictive power for customer loyalty in the new banking environment—the mobile banking setting.
We believe that, as in traditional and online banking settings, dimensions of service quality play different roles in shaping overall service quality in mobile banking, and mobile banking service quality not only directly affects loyalty but also indirectly affects loyalty through perceived value and satisfaction. This study aims to fill the research gaps. Combining two chain models and switching costs (including bank and platform) into the integrated model, we look at the relationships among mobile banking service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, switching costs, and loyalty in the mobile banking context. The specific objectives are as follows:
- (1)
Examine the relationship between mobile banking service quality and customer loyalty.
- (2)
Examine the relationship between mobile banking service quality and customer satisfaction.
- (3)
Investigate the relationship between perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty.
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Consider whether bank switching costs and platform switching costs have moderating effects on the relationships between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, between mobile banking service quality and customer loyalty, and between perceived value and customer loyalty.