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Given the fierce competition in financial services, service failure management and trust restoration tactics are becoming strategic priorities. Studies investigating trust restoration have increased over the years due to the significance of trust in services and the frequency of trust violations. Drawing on the sense-making and defensive approaches of attribution theory, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of various trust recovery tactics (e.g. apology, explanation, and investigation) in financial services considering the prevalence of service failure severity.

Based on a scenario-based survey, this study gathered data from 402 consumers of different banks in Pakistan. The study analyzed the data using ordinary least square regressions and structural equation modeling.

The study indicated that explanation is more effective in repairing character-competence and commitment-based trust, while investigation remained highly effective for inducing congruence-based trust. Interestingly, an apology was more effective for communication-based trust repairing, while context-based trust recovery was unaffected against all recovery tactics. Despite the prevalence of severe service failure, recovery actions proved fully effective for character-competence and commitment-based trust while partially effective for congruence-based trust recovery. This study also found that severe service failure undermines the effectiveness of recovery actions in repairing communication and context-based trust.

The study extends the literature on trust recovery by integrating sense-making and defensive attribution theory. The sense-making approach contributes to the existing knowledge on trust recovery by elucidating how consumers and service providers develop a shared understanding to facilitate the recovery mechanism of multidimensional trust in financial services.

It is widely evident that trust and commitment are important pillars for strengthening the relationship between financial service firms and their customers. However, it has not been explored how the service quality, perceived cost and role of agents are important for financial service firms. To overcome this gap, this study aims to investigate the role of service quality, perceived cost and the role of agents as the commitment–trust factors in the financial insurance service (Takaful) in Malaysia, enhancing customer satisfaction.

The study follows a quantitative design in which primary data was collected using a survey instrument. The measurement instrument was adapted from the previous research, and data were collected from 264 customers of the Takaful financial service organizations in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using variance-based structural equational modeling in Smart-PLS software.

This research has revealed several useful insights that demonstrate a significant impact on service quality, perceived cost and the agents’ role in forging close relationships with their customers. Corporate image has a moderating role in relationships and has significantly impacted takaful insurance companies. The results imply that regardless of the corporate image of the financial service organizations, customers are concerned about the prices and the quality of the agents’ services.

In this study, only the predictors such as service quality, perceived costs and agents’ roles as trust–commitment factors were examined to determine customer satisfaction. Other investigations are highly recommended, such as value co-creation in takaful, takaful customer experience and takaful trust. This study offers insights to takaful insurance companies on how to keep up a positive corporate image, which will boost their trust–commitment factors and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

By presenting commitment–trust factors and company image in an identifiable framework, the current study has expanded the discussion on takaful financial insurance services. The methodology is developed and rigorously tested to gauge customer satisfaction in takaful financial service organizations’ context.

The operational resilience of financial service providers is strained to an unprecedented extent following the Russian aggression in the Ukraine and the subsequent implementation of targeted economic sanctions. This paper aims to consider how operational resilience supports financial service providers in implementing sanctions.

The demand made of financial service providers by economic sanction is considered through the lens of operational resilience. Practical problems for the providers are aligned with economic sanctions policies.

A well-established system of operational resilience enables financial service providers to meet compliance requirements of economic sanctions with greater ease.

The literature does not credit operational resilience as a systemic capacity of corporations and rather presents it as a specialised feature. In addition, the role of the regulatory bodies is often dismissed despite directly inciting the practical problems faced.

As an alternative to hiring financial specialists or investment consultants, robo-advisors offer financially automated investment services. This study aims to investigate how robo-advisors' service attributes, risk attitude and financial self-efficacy influence customers' choice preferences of adopting robo-advisors.

Two hundred fifty-one online surveys were used to collect data, and choice-based conjoint analysis was conducted.

Results show that increasing annual fees negatively impact customers' choice preferences. Promotion, general investment education and additional human assistance have a positive impact. Furthermore, risk-seeking and risk-averse customers require more human assistance than risk-neutral customer and customers with high levels of financial self-efficacy prefer more general investment education and additional human assistance than those with lower levels. In addition, customers in the older age group prefer promotion, general investment education and additional human assistance, while wealthy customers prefer lower annual fees, higher general investment education and more additional human assistance compared to middle-class and low-income groups.

This study contributes to robo-advisor providers to provide appropriate service attributes for each customer group.

This paper aims to present a comprehensive overview of the emergence and significance of digital payments, focusing on their impact on competitiveness and the need for policy interventions. In addition, it explores the design of policies that promote the adoption of digital payments, highlighting the benefits they offer to providers and users.

The paper examines the technological advances that have driven the growth of digital payment systems. It identifies key requirements for successful adoption and discusses the associated risks, along with potential strategies to mitigate these risks.

The findings emphasize the importance of responsible implementation and safeguarding the well-being of end users to fully realize the benefits of digital payment adoption. Understanding the inherent risks and establishing effective risk mitigation mechanisms are crucial. This necessitates the development of appropriate infrastructure to support the provision of digital payment services.

More research is needed to gain deeper insights into how emerging global trends in financial technology should be analyzed and understood by policymakers, service providers and users.

The findings of this study can guide policymakers, private sector managers and consumers in comprehending the effects of emerging digitalization trends and determining their adoption responses accordingly.

This paper stands out as one of the few research contributions that provide comprehensive and actionable policy recommendations to facilitate a smooth transition to a digital payments ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders.

This paper explores the current state of Robo-advisory services in India. This paper further highlights the problems experienced by the service providers in disseminating the innovative business model among the Indians.

The study adopts a qualitative approach to investigate the industry experts by conducting semi-structured interviews. The data collected were transcripted and further analyzed using the content analysis technique. Finally, the authors utilized categorization and coding techniques to frame broad study themes.

The study findings reveal that the three pillars of Robo-advisory are ease and convenience, the time factor and transparency in operations. Robo-advisory services are still at a nascent stage in India. Furthermore, keeping the sentiments of Indians in mind, FinTech companies could combine automated Robo-advisory with a human touch of a wealth manager for optimal advisory services.

Since the present study is qualitative, the authors cannot generalize the study results. Future research can focus on empirically proving the constructs of the study using quantitative methods.

Robo-advisors have a well-established market in developed nations but are still nascent in developing countries like India. The current focus of service providers and regulatory authorities must be to increase awareness among investors by educating the investors and building trust.

The present study is the first to qualitatively synthesize the challenges faced by the FinTech service providers in the Indian market.

The emergence of digital transformation in the banking industry gives rise to the challenges of adopting technology and boosting users' confidence in the process. This study mainly explores the roles of operant resources and consumption values in the user's consumption process concerning the fintech-embedded product-service system (FPSS) that provides technologically advanced financial services in South Korea.

This study examines the research model based on users' perceived quality, assessment and recommendation of FPSS. In addition, grounded in the resource-based view (RBV) and consumption value theory (CVT), an extended model is developed to understand the impact of user consumption value on FPSS design. The research model includes both product-service system (PSS) characteristics, i.e. quality and assessment, and user-specific characteristics, i.e. conditional, utilitarian and social values (collectively referred to as user consumption value).

This study finds that information, service and security quality positively affect users' confidence through positive assessment and recommendation intention. All the elements of user consumption value play a positive role in the FPSS user confidence model. In addition, the impact of operant resources on the overall service assessment is further investigated based on the interest of user's service engagement. Notable findings include users that highly engage in FPSS services return higher service assessment when social value, information quality and service quality increase.

Overall, this study provides academic and managerial guidelines for the strategic design of fintech-embedded banking services by considering the roles of PSS and user-specific characteristics in fostering sustainable competitive advantage.

Currently, consumers of financial products and services have become more vulnerable to predatory financial institutions, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, financial consumers like the persons with disabilities (PWDs) should be equipped with knowledge and skills to help them to evaluate complex financial products on offer in financial markets, especially in developing countries to avoid being victims of fraudulent lending. The purpose of this study is to establish whether customized financial literacy mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

SmartPLS 4.0 was used to construct the measurement and structural equation models to test whether customized financial literacy significantly mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

The results revealed a partial mediating effect of customized financial literacy in the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic. Conducting customized financial literacy increases financial consumer protection by 12 percentage points to promote financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

This study focused only on customized financial literacy and financial consumer protection to promote universal financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs post Covid-19 pandemic. Future studies may use data collected from other vulnerable groups amongst the unbanked population in developing countries, Uganda inclusive. In addition, this study also collected only quantitative data from the selected population. Further studies can be conducted using key informant interviews and focused group discussion to get the perceptions of the PWDs on being protected from exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions.

The findings from this study can help policymakers in developing countries like Uganda to revise the existing consumer protection law to include strong clauses on protection of people with special needs like the PWDs. The law must ensure that they are not exploited by financial institutions because of their conditions. The law ought to make sure that the PWDs are educated about their rights in the financial market place and all information on financial products offered by financial institutions should be simplified and interpreted to them before they make consumption decisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is amongst the first few studies to provide a meticulous and unique discourse on the ever increasing role of financial literacy combined with consumer protection to reduce consumption risks within the financial markets, especially in developing countries in the aftermath of global pandemic shocks. This study uses the social learning theory, theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour to elucidate how customized financial literacy can enhance consumer protection to increase financial inclusion of groups with special needs like the PWDs who have become more susceptible to exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions in under-developed financial markets, especially in post Covid-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to assess the legal and regulatory framework for mobile banking (M-banking) in Tanzania. The technological development in information and communication technologies has converted a mobile phone from a simple communication device to a very complex instrument that allows people to perform various digital transactions and extra operations such as web browsing and email reading. Such tremendous developments have brought in place the regime of M-banking. The birth of M-banking has brought legal and institutional challenges that were not anticipated before. It has complicated the traditional role of the telecommunication regulator and financial regulator in the business and caused legal gaps that need to be bridged.

To disclose the legal gaps and bridge them, the study used doctrinal legal method and comparative study to learn the experience of international legal instruments and policies and laws of other jurisdictions. This paper has evaluated the contribution of international legal instruments and legal frameworks of foreign jurisdictions such as Kenya and the Philippines.

It has been revealed that the prevailing laws regulating M-banking in Tanzania do not adequately address and bridge the existing legal gaps. There is a need to enact a specific law regulating M-banking and confer such powers to a specific institution to deal with regulatory issues.

This paper stresses the importance of enacting new laws that will offer room for financial inclusion in the digital economy and protect consumers against financial risk. It also intends to act as a catalyst and change agent in policy and legislative development in the M-banking industry. It would also bring special attention to addressing consumer rights, security and risky issues surrounding the M-banking industry. Although several other authors in Tanzania have written in this area, they have not clearly focused on disclosing the existing legal gaps resulting from the convergence of the financial and communication sectors. This paper is therefore trying to offer an extensive discussion on the legislative development in the M-banking industry in Tanzania.

This study aims to explore the requirements that manufacturing companies must meet when implementing advanced services involving financial solutions.

This study develops a framework to assess the applicability of advanced services from a financial perspective, which is applied in a multi-case study setting.

This study identifies relevant internal and external conditions to the business implementing financialised advanced services – such as the finance function’s level of sophistication, the capacity to assess market potential or the ability to use financial structuring to attract new financial players – that help predict the likelihood of adopting advanced services involving financial solutions. The research suggests planning operations as a “financial product” from the viewpoint of the financer and investor.

The financing culture and market disparities may condition the relative weight of the dimensions analysed in the framework.

Launching services involving financial solutions is a complex process, and hence, the proposed framework can help managers identify the major adjustments needed to embrace those advanced service modalities.

This study investigates the role of financial solutions in advanced services, from both the conceptual and business perspectives.