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The role of service quality in fostering the growth of online financial services has received much attention in the academic and practitioner communities. In this context the purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying dimensions of perceived service quality in the online financial services context and develop a scale for measuring online financial service quality (i.e. OFSQ).

The present study anchors in Grönroos’s (1984) service quality model and DeLone and McLean’s (2003) information systems (IS) success model in developing a multidimensional multi-item scale for measuring OFSQ. Accepted scale development method was employed to identify the OFSQ dimensions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was employed to analyze the data.

OFSQ consists of five dimensions which are convenience quality, functionality, interaction quality, information quality, and image quality. The OFSQ scale exhibits adequate degree of validity and reliability.

OFSQ instrument developed in this study enable service managers to accurately measure service quality and benchmark it to competitors that could help the service provider to improve their service performance level. These findings will provide the managers with a bird’s eye view of the levers for improving and managing the perceived quality of the online financial services in customer’s minds.

The contribution of this study lies in the identification of perceived service quality dimensions in the online financial services context by integrating two theoretical models, i.e. Grönroos’s (1984) service quality model and DeLone and McLean’s (2003) IS success model.

The application of self‐service technology in transaction‐based e‐service (e.g. online financial services) creates a challenge for firms: what combination of features should they offer to satisfy needs from different customer segments? This paper seeks to address the above question by highlighting similarities and differences of consumer preferences among self‐service, hybrid service and professional service segments for online financial services.

This study employs a web‐based discrete choice experiment, in which 1,319 consumers were offered different account alternatives, which include features for self‐service and professional assistance, price per transaction, and promotion offers.

The results demonstrate that overall, consumer preferences for features of online financial services differ across segments. Moreover, with the variation in the strength of self‐reliance, interesting trends regarding the relative importance of features are observed. With the given customer segments, this study also identifies several demographic features with significant effects on the choice of service alternatives through a multinomial logistic model.

The authors believe that these results have both managerial and research implications for design and operations strategy formulation for online financial services.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the online retail banking industry and determine if there is evidence that online banking will be a dominant player in the financial services retail marketplace.

An analysis of 22 banks is conducted and it is determined that the barriers to entry that are identified may not be enough to prohibit a substantial number of entrants into the marketplace.

Using Porter's five‐force model to conduct the industry analysis; online banking is still in its infancy, although with great potential. According to FDIC, while approximately 40 percent of the 10,623 banks and thrifts in the US market have a website, only 376 offer transactional internet banking at the time of the study. About 30 internet‐only banks or a pure‐play format operate in the USA. All of the web‐only banks in the USA combined have about 250,000 depositors, out of the nearly six million customers who have stated that they do significant banking activities over the internet.

Owing to the different types of potential suppliers, the suppliers in the online‐banking industry do not appear to have as big a bargaining power in this industry as they would in another industry. Buyers, however, hold the keys to success in the online‐banking industry. Buyers do not need the product that is offered due to the many substitute products available in the market.

In the end, the rivalries among banks lead them to differentiating their internet banking products which is what will afford one bank to have a competitive advantage over the rest of the market.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of self‐service banking technology and investigates customers' perceptions of internet banking self‐service within the Irish financial services sector. This qualitative study of the Irish retail banking sector explored consumers' e‐banking interactions and experiences in addition to assessing the dimensions critical to e‐banking service quality.

A purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit 20 consumers representing the desired range of demographic characteristics (e.g. sex, age, profession), previous internet experience levels and product‐related knowledge.

Despite commonalities between traditional service quality and e‐banking service quality dimensions, due to the remote form of the online encounter, many traditional service quality attributes were found to be redundant and instead e‐dimensions such as web usability, trust, access and information quality service recovery and flexibility emerged as important to e‐banking service provision. Based on an extant review of the literature ten e‐service dimensions were proposed and evaluated empirically in the context of e‐banking service quality. Overall, process quality emerged as key within the online context, with nine out of the ten proposed e‐banking dimensions relating to the service process.

The paper contributes to previous research by adding to existing knowledge regarding what constitutes e‐banking service and the determinants critical to e‐banking service quality. The paper makes key recommendations towards enhancing current online financial services quality and delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of internet banking use, paying special attention to the role of product involvement, perceived risk and trust.

The impact of trust, perceived risks, product involvement and TAM beliefs (ease of use and usefulness) on internet banking adoption is tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consists of 511 Spanish internet banking services users and the data are collected through an internet survey. Risk is measured as a formative construct.

Data analysis shows that TAM beliefs and perceived risks (security, privacy, performance and social) have a direct influence on e‐banking adoption. Trust appears as a key variable that reduces perceived risk. Involvement plays an important role in increasing perceived ease of use.

This research provides banks with knowledge of what aspects to highlight in their communications strategies to increase their internet banking services adoption rates. The research findings show managers that web contents and design are key tools to increase internet banking services adoption. Practical recommendations to increase web usefulness and trust, and guidelines to reduce perceived risk dimensions are also provided.

Despite the importance of trust issues and risk perceptions for internet banking adoption, only limited work has been done to identify trust and risk dimensions in an online banking context. We have evaluated the impact of each risk dimension instead of treating risk as a whole. Furthermore, risk has been measured as a formative construct because there is no reason to expect that risk dimensions in online financial services are correlated.

Competition in the provision of financial services has intensified as external change (including technological innovation) has created more opportunities for service delivery and extended the range of potential competitors and forms of competition. At the same time, technological innovation and applications of Information Technology in particular led to new and faster ways of sharing information. Financial service organizations, therefore face a paradox between the co‐operation needed to benchmark and competitive rivalry. Through case studies, the research explores the penetration of best practice benchmarking in financial services and the role of technological innovations in that process, with an emphasis on online applications. Results suggest that changes in performance benchmarks for service delivery resulting from new technology are associated with greater competitive rivalry among financial service organizations. Results also suggest that technological change can provide new and innovative ways to exchange information but even if that is the case, incentives for internal and external co‐operation can remain unchanged.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether Internet‐based services, used by those individuals or organisations seeking to launder monies derived from illegal sources, will pose a greater risk to financial institutions than more traditional financial services. The use of the financial services sector by criminals seeking to ‘launder’ money has become a business risk that financial institutions cannot ignore, with governments and regulators increasing the legislation and regulation designed to prevent money laundering. Financial institutions have both a moral and a legal obligation to assist in preventing criminals from obtaining benefits from their activities. Simultaneously, the development of Internet‐based financial services continues at a rapid pace, with new technologies such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)‐enabled telephones and interactive televisions empowering customers, allowing them the flexibility to carry out transactions without the direct involvement of the institution.

This paper aims to revisit the role of perceived risk in online banking, using an alternative view on trust as a moderator on the relationship between perceived risk and behavioral intention (BI). With this aim, the conceptual model was proposed to examine the impact of perceived risk on BI directly and indirectly via unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 along with its interactionist relationship with trust.

Structural equation modeling technique is used to analyze data collected from 677 bank customers via personal contact using a self-administered questionnaire.

The results indicate that perceived risk as a multi-dimensional construct has a direct and indirect impact on BI via performance expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation and price value. Moreover, it was found that trust moderates the relationship between perceived risk and BI.

This study suggests that banks should create a trust-building mechanism in the online banking environment and develop certain risk management strategies such as providing detailed and thorough information, money-back guarantee and reassurance services to enhance confidence among the customers to use such services. The banks should also devote valuable efforts in designing website interface with improved security features to facilitate usability and reliability of online banking services.

The present study makes an important contribution to the existing literature on e-commerce, especially in the field of online banking, by proposing an interactionist model between perceived risk and trust. The proposed model has never been examined in the relevant literature and could be used to provide a solid theoretical foundation in the context of online banking adoption.

This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.

This paper aims to focus on online fraud occurrence in retailing banking sectors both in the UK and China. Online financial transactions bring convenience to individuals dramatically and improve banking service quality efficiently. However, the latest service channel, Internet, has been exploited by fraudsters excessively, standing at a huge monetary loss worldwide.

In aspects of demographic factors, financial activities and IT usage, results would benefit financial organisations and local authorities in strengthening customers’ education and improving policymaking. The fraud occurrence model is empirically tested using quantitative data, and comparison is discussed using qualitative data collected in both countries.

The findings provide solid understanding of customers’ behaviours towards online financial transactions and fraud occurrence internationally. As the main implication, customer education is proposed to benefit financial organisations in both countries. According to the data collection process and the data analysis results, individual customers are aware of banking policies and practices to some extent. Particularly in China, customers’ satisfaction level is relatively lower and service quality is not reasonable in most circumstances.

The research experiences gained from this study suggest a number of areas for future research, particularly the under-researched area of fraud. Rather than approaching the research questions through individuals, there would be much value in working with merchants and financial organisations that are dealing with financial transactions and fraud on a daily basis.

By combining three approaches (demographic factors, financial activities and IT usage), this study is trying to develop a comprehensive and statistical understanding of online fraud occurrences.