The exponential growth of the Internet is changing the way corporations conduct business with customers. The banking industry is no exception. In order to sustain competitiveness, banks have been introducing more Internet banking services. However, this change undermines the ability of business to retain their customers since certain characteristics of the Internet can cause a reduction in customers' search costs, reduce barrier to entry, and diminish distinctiveness of a firm (Kalakota and Whinston, 1996). Managing effective customer retention strategies is increasingly important in the banking industry since the length in years of customer relationships is one of the most important factors that contributes to the bank's profitability. Reicheld (1996) found that a five percent increase in customer loyalty produces an eighty-five percent increase in profitability in the banking industry. In the past, the key to understanding the power of a corporation to retain customers was thought to lie in the measurement of customer satisfaction. Clarke (2001) argued that long-term customer retention in competitive requires firms to go beyond mere basic satisfaction and to look for ways of establishing ties of loyalty that will help ward off competitive attack. While customer satisfaction may be one important driver of customer retention, switching costs are also likely to influence customer retention, both independently and in tandem. For example, the presence of switching costs can mean that some seemingly retained customers are actually dissatisfied but do not defect because of high switching costs. Thus the level of switching costs has a moderating effect on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. While the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention has been supported in literature for existing non-Internet contexts (Lee et al., 2001; Ranaweera and Prabhu, 2003), little research has been published within the Internet context and particularly Internet banking. Based on a review of the literature, a theoretical model linking customer satisfaction and switching costs to customer retention was developed. The model has two main features. First, it examines the main direct effects of customer satisfaction and switching costs on customer retention. Second, the model examines the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. The empirical research was based on data collected by an Internet survey of adopters of Internet banking service in Hong Kong. Results from statistical analyses show that both customer satisfaction and switching costs have strong positive direct effects on customer retention. These analyses also confirm the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. However, when Internet banking adopters are categorized into two segments according to their usage of Internet banking service (basic and advanced users), results show that switching costs play a significant moderating role on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention only for the basic Internet banking users. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004

Thesis (PhDBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2003.

The exponential growth of the Internet is changing the way corporations conduct business with customers. The banking industry is no exception. In order to sustain competitiveness, banks have been introducing more Internet banking services. However, this change undermines the ability of business to retain their customers since certain characteristics of the Internet can cause a reduction in customers' search costs, reduce barrier to entry, and diminish distinctiveness of a firm (Kalakota and Whinston, 1996). Managing effective customer retention strategies is increasingly important in the banking industry since the length in years of customer relationships is one of the most important factors that contributes to the bank's profitability. Reicheld (1996) found that a five percent increase in customer loyalty produces an eighty-five percent increase in profitability in the banking industry. In the past, the key to understanding the power of a corporation to retain customers was thought to lie in the measurement of customer satisfaction. Clarke (2001) argued that long-term customer retention in competitive requires firms to go beyond mere basic satisfaction and to look for ways of establishing ties of loyalty that will help ward off competitive attack. While customer satisfaction may be one important driver of customer retention, switching costs are also likely to influence customer retention, both independently and in tandem. For example, the presence of switching costs can mean that some seemingly retained customers are actually dissatisfied but do not defect because of high switching costs. Thus the level of switching costs has a moderating effect on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. While the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention has been supported in literature for existing non-Internet contexts (Lee et al., 2001; Ranaweera and Prabhu, 2003), little research has been published within the Internet context and particularly Internet banking. Based on a review of the literature, a theoretical model linking customer satisfaction and switching costs to customer retention was developed. The model has two main features. First, it examines the main direct effects of customer satisfaction and switching costs on customer retention. Second, the model examines the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. The empirical research was based on data collected by an Internet survey of adopters of Internet banking service in Hong Kong. Results from statistical analyses show that both customer satisfaction and switching costs have strong positive direct effects on customer retention. These analyses also confirm the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. However, when Internet banking adopters are categorized into two segments according to their usage of Internet banking service (basic and advanced users), results show that switching costs play a significant moderating role on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention only for the basic Internet banking users. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004

The exponential growth of the Internet is changing the way corporations conduct business with customers. The banking industry is no exception. In order to sustain competitiveness, banks have been introducing more Internet banking services. However, this change undermines the ability of business to retain their customers since certain characteristics of the Internet can cause a reduction in customers' search costs, reduce barrier to entry, and diminish distinctiveness of a firm (Kalakota and Whinston, 1996). Managing effective customer retention strategies is increasingly important in the banking industry since the length in years of customer relationships is one of the most important factors that contributes to the bank's profitability. Reicheld (1996) found that a five percent increase in customer loyalty produces an eighty-five percent increase in profitability in the banking industry. In the past, the key to understanding the power of a corporation to retain customers was thought to lie in the measurement of customer satisfaction. Clarke (2001) argued that long-term customer retention in competitive requires firms to go beyond mere basic satisfaction and to look for ways of establishing ties of loyalty that will help ward off competitive attack. While customer satisfaction may be one important driver of customer retention, switching costs are also likely to influence customer retention, both independently and in tandem. For example, the presence of switching costs can mean that some seemingly retained customers are actually dissatisfied but do not defect because of high switching costs. Thus the level of switching costs has a moderating effect on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. While the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention has been supported in literature for existing non-Internet contexts (Lee et al., 2001; Ranaweera and Prabhu, 2003), little research has been published within the Internet context and particularly Internet banking. Based on a review of the literature, a theoretical model linking customer satisfaction and switching costs to customer retention was developed. The model has two main features. First, it examines the main direct effects of customer satisfaction and switching costs on customer retention. Second, the model examines the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. The empirical research was based on data collected by an Internet survey of adopters of Internet banking service in Hong Kong. Results from statistical analyses show that both customer satisfaction and switching costs have strong positive direct effects on customer retention. These analyses also confirm the moderating role of switching costs on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. However, when Internet banking adopters are categorized into two segments according to their usage of Internet banking service (basic and advanced users), results show that switching costs play a significant moderating role on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention only for the basic Internet banking users. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed October 3, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 352-378)

The emergence of the Internet in business as a marketing tool and as a communication medium is one of the existing challenges for the banking industry. Because of this evolution, the banking industry has adopted Internet banking both for financial transactions and for the provision of information about products and services. Based on the ideas mentioned, this study aimed to examine the factors which may affect the intention to use Internet banking in the Kingdom of Bahrain with the following research objectives to be achieved: first, to identify the factors which affect the intention to use and adopt Internet banking in the Kingdom of Bahrain; second, to develop a model based on the identified factors that affect the intention to use Internet banking in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and third, to test the reliability and validity of the proposed model and find its implications on the intention to use and adopt Internet banking. In this study, five variables were initially chosen, namely, perceived privacy protection, perceived security protection, perceived trust, perceived information quality and perceived risks/benefits that may affect the intention to use Internet banking. Besides the five variables, two more variables were included: cultural dimension and biometric technology to measure a significant relationship with any of the five variables that might affect the intention of bank customers to use Internet banking in Bahrain. As a quantitative method of research, the study focused on assessing the co-variation among naturally occurring variables with the goal of identifying predictive relationships by using correlations or more sophisticated statistical techniques. In analysing the data, the descriptive statistics were used. In addition, construct reliability and discriminant validity tests were conducted and structural equation modelling were used to test the research model and verify the hypotheses. The cultural context has rarely been commented on in previous research, but as a result of taking this factor into account in addition to the more technical issues, a number of practical implications became evident for banking in Bahrain that may have applicability elsewhere in the Arab world. These include both a focus on relationship management as well as the need for additional levels of security through biometric fingerprinting to be implemented by banks wishing to increase the adoption of Internet banking amongst existing customers. These strategies also have potential to attract new market segments.

Growth in information and communication technology (ICT) is drastically changing the way businesses, especially in the service industries, are conducted. The financial services industry and banking in particular, is not excluded from this technology explosion. Internet banking, even though not new in advanced countries, is a new transaction channel being used by banks in some parts of Africa, especially Ghana, to offer various products and services to their customers. However, this medium has not been fully exploited by these banks as there are many hurdles the banks must triumph over. In deploying this technology and these systems, there are several factors which banks must take into consideration before fully deploying such a system to their customers, hence the motivation for this study. The absence of suitable and sufficient knowledge on this topic also exposes a “rhetoric versus reality” argument of whether the intention to adopt Internet banking is critical to the strategies and ultimate success of banks in Ghana. For banks to stay ahead of competition as well as to attract and maintain their clientele, it is of paramount importance to gather and link the perspectives of both clients and bank managers in order for banks to ensure that they perform according to the needs and expectations of their clients. In order to achieve the intended results, an empirical study was conducted by taking into consideration the viewpoints of both bank clients and bank managers in determining the factors that customers take into consideration before adopting the Internet banking medium. The primary aim of this study was to quantify significant relationships between the selected variables. Therefore the positivism research paradigm was used, while the phenomenological paradigm was employed for the measuring instruments. Because multiple sources of data were used, from the perspectives of banking clients and managers in Ghana, methodological triangulation was adopted for this study. The results of the empirical investigation showed that both groups (clients and managers) considered the variables of market share, technology acceptance, diffusion of innovation, organisational variables, organisational efficiency, and business strategy to have direct influence on the adoption of Internet banking. However, they differed in opinion concerning the degree of influence of these variables. The bank managers’ responses leaned more towards strong agreement with the importance of these variables than did those of the bank clients. Thus, for bank clients to readily adopt the Internet banking medium for their banking transactions, bank managers must take a closer look at these determinant factors described in the study. The study showed that the population group, educational and income levels exerted an influence on the perceptions clients have regarding Internet banking adoption factors. It was found that the higher the education and income levels of the clients, the easier it was for them to adopt Internet banking. Also, the male group dominated the use of the Internet banking. This is supported by the fact that there is a growing middle class in Ghana that falls within this category of banking clients.

The emergence of the Internet in business as a marketing tool and as a communication medium is one of the existing challenges for the banking industry. Because of this evolution, the banking industry has adopted Internet banking both for financial transactions and for the provision of information about products and services. Based on the ideas mentioned, this study aimed to examine the factors which may affect the intention to use Internet banking in the Kingdom of Bahrain with the following research objectives to be achieved: first, to identify the factors which affect the intention to use and adopt Internet banking in the Kingdom of Bahrain; second, to develop a model based on the identified factors that affect the intention to use Internet banking in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and third, to test the reliability and validity of the proposed model and find its implications on the intention to use and adopt Internet banking. In this study, five variables were initially chosen, namely, perceived privacy protection, perceived security protection, perceived trust, perceived information quality and perceived risks/benefits that may affect the intention to use Internet banking. Besides the five variables, two more variables were included: cultural dimension and biometric technology to measure a significant relationship with any of the five variables that might affect the intention of bank customers to use Internet banking in Bahrain. As a quantitative method of research, the study focused on assessing the co-variation among naturally occurring variables with the goal of identifying predictive relationships by using correlations or more sophisticated statistical techniques. In analysing the data, the descriptive statistics were used. In addition, construct reliability and discriminant validity tests were conducted and structural equation modelling were used to test the research model and verify the hypotheses. The cultural context has rarely been commented on in previous research, but as a result of taking this factor into account in addition to the more technical issues, a number of practical implications became evident for banking in Bahrain that may have applicability elsewhere in the Arab world. These include both a focus on relationship management as well as the need for additional levels of security through biometric fingerprinting to be implemented by banks wishing to increase the adoption of Internet banking amongst existing customers. These strategies also have potential to attract new market segments.

Security has been widely recognized as one of the main obstacles to the adoption of Internet banking and it is considered an important aspect in the debate over challenges facing internet banking. The performance evaluation of e-banking websites requires a model that enables us to analyze the various imperative factors and criteria related to the quality and performance of e-banking websites. Ebanking site evaluation is a complex and dynamic problem involving many factors, and because of the subjective considerations and the ambiguities involved in the assessment, Fuzzy Logic (FL) model can be an effective tool in assessing and evaluating of e-banking security performance and quality. In this paper, we propose an intelligent performance assessment model for evaluating e-banking security websites. The proposed model is based on FL operators and produces four measures of security risk attack dimensions: direct internal attack, communication tampering attack, code programming attack and denial of service attack with a hierarchical ring layer structure. Our experimental results show that direct internal attack risk has a large impact on e-banking security performance. The results also confirm that the risk of direct internal attack for e-banking dynamic websites is doubled that of all other attacks.

Yes / This study aimed to examine the key factors predicting Jordanian consumers’ intentions and usage of three types of self-service banking technologies. This study also sought to test if the impacts of these main predictors could be moderated by channel type. This study proposed a conceptual model by integrating factors from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), along with perceived risk. The required data were collected from a convenience sample of Jordanian banking customers using a survey questionnaire. The statistical results strongly support the significant influence of performance expectancy, social influence, and perceived risk on customer intentions for the three types of SSTs examined. The results of the X2 differences test also indicate that there are significant differences in the influence of the main predictors due to the moderating effect of channel type. One of the key contributions of this study is that three types of SSTs were tested in a single study, which had not been done before, leading to the identification of the factors common to all three types, as well as the salient factors unique to each type.