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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/08876040010327248. When citing the article, please cite: Walfried M. Lassar, Chris Manolis, Robert D. Winsor, (2000), “Service quality perspectives and satisfaction in private banking”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 14 Iss: 3, pp. 244 - 271.

One of the most unexamined assumptions marketing firms have made in recent years is that satisfaction alone will guarantee customer loyalty. Our research questions this assumption. We explored the correspondence between customer satisfaction and loyalty, and found as many as half of the “satisfied” customers to be predisposed to switching service suppliers. This satisfaction‐loyalty gap reflects the fact that different components of service quality drive satisfaction versus loyalty. Satisfaction is driven more by “technical quality” (the quality of the work performed) than by “functional quality” (how the service work was delivered); however, once satisfaction is achieved, loyalty is driven more by functional than by technical quality. This is the pattern of influence for a “low contact” (where customers’ direct contact with service providers is absent or marginal) service. For a “high contact” service, the pattern of influence is exactly the reverse. Of significant importance to service managers, the paper explains the dynamics of loyalty versus satisfaction and derives their managerial implications.

Examines the effects of service quality on customer satisfaction from two distinct methodological perspectives. Specifically, a study utilizing a sample of international private banking customers is conducted wherein service quality is operationalized via two distinct and well‐known measures – SERVQUAL and Technical/Functional Quality. These two service quality measures are subsequently compared and contrasted as to their ability to predict customer satisfaction. To further assess the validity of these findings, two moderators of the service‐quality/customer‐satisfaction relationship are introduced and evaluated. Finally, this research examines the potential utility of employing separate measures for customer satisfaction from the perspectives of both technical and functional aspects of the service delivery process. Overall, our findings are of importance to service managers as they strive to identify efficient and effective approaches for improving quality. The paper explores the theoretical and practical insights of the findings, including potential strengths and limitations of current service quality models with regard to their ability to define and explain the quality/satisfaction relationship.

Although internet growth has allowed producers to shift control of service transactions to the customer, little research has examined the effects of this shift. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how the performance of different task types differentially affects consumer responses.

The paper is a field study using online data collection to examine the US Hispanic market, the fastest‐growing consumer group in the US as well as one of the fastest growing online user groups.

The paper finds that Hispanic consumers were less affected by the type of task than non‐Hispanic consumers, in terms of perceived quality, satisfaction, and intended patronage. Using constructs from the communications literature, task effects on three communication perceptions were shown to explain the differences.

The results provide support for the notion that more complex (transaction) tasks can lead to lower evaluations than less complex (information) tasks, while also providing some limiting conditions to this result.

The results in this paper suggest that services firms should consider, not only the environment in which the service encounter will be performed, but the type of service task, the type of consumer, and the potential interaction between them. As service organizations move from face‐to‐face to online service provision, they must consider how, online service provision is evaluated by consumers’, and how this affects patronage intentions.

The paper shows the usefulness of communications medium perceptions in explaining the interactive effects of service task and consumer type. It is pertinent to service providers, academic researchers, and consumer groups.

This paper explores the relationships between consumer innovativeness, self‐efficacy on the internet, internet attitudes and online banking adoption, while controlling for personal characteristics.

The study integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) and adoption of innovation framework to develop predictions of online banking acceptance. It distinguishes between innate consumer innovativeness, a generalized personality trait, and internet‐domain‐specific or actualized innovativeness in order to explore consumer characteristics' impact on adoption. Data are analyzed using logistic regression.

While results confirm the positive relationship between internet related innovativeness and online banking they also surprisingly show that general innovativeness is negatively related to online banking.

Results may or may not differ according to whether consumers are using online, telephone banking, electronic funds transfer (EFT) or direct bill payment. Our results may generalize to telephone banking and EFT as these products, like online banking, require an active consumer role in using the product. With direct bill payment, consumers need only set up the process initially and then monitor it on a semi‐regular basis.

Findings suggest that the type of consumer innovation matters in understanding the adoption of e‐banking processes. This supports the notion that online shoppers are distinct from traditional non‐online shoppers or highlight the unique nature of purchasing financial versus non‐financial products. Banks offering e‐banking need to recognize the importance of internet‐specific consumer innovation characteristics.

This paper closes a research gap as the model tested provides insights toward understanding the consumer‐based phenomenon of e‐banking, and serves to evaluate the TAM in this context. In contrast to previous research the study utilized an actual measure of e‐banking adoption versus a measure of intention to use the technology.

The purpose of the study is to develop and empirically test a model which examines the relationship between e-servicescape dimensions, website quality dimensions, website stickiness, website loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM). The role of WOM in influencing consumer behaviour is documented in literature. However, despite its growing importance, research on the antecedents of WOM in the e-retail context is sparse.

Data were collected by circulating the questionnaire using an online survey from the graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in a large university in the northeastern USA. Out of 660 questionnaires distributed, 509 were usable. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Results show that website stickiness and website loyalty are two different constructs which form the immediate antecedents of WOM. Results also show the indirect effects of e-servicescape and website quality dimensions on WOM.

The findings of the study provides a better understanding of the factors likely to influence the WOM behaviour of e-retail store customers. Findings also provide valuable insights into the factors which managers need to focus on to make their e-retail website increasingly stickier.

The contribution of the paper lies in eliciting the differences between stickiness to and loyalty to retail websites and extending the research on e-servicescapes.

After investing in service quality improvement programs, firms may realize that they still face a daunting challenge: How should they persuade consumers that service has actually improved? One way of attempting to persuade consumers is to offer a service guarantee. But are guarantees credible? Are they really effective? Can they overcome consumers’ prior negative experience? Surprisingly, the topic has received very little attention. This paper provides a conceptual and an empirical examination of the persuasive power of service guarantees. Specifically, the effects of service process evidence, compensation and prior beliefs about the service provider, are examined. The experimental data indicate that the inclusion of service process evidence significantly increases consumers’ willingness to try the provider. The findings also suggest that compensation is more persuasive when service process evidence is specified in the guarantee. The synergy of presenting service process evidence and high compensation, is able to overcome consumers’ prior (negative) exposure. Overall, the study supports the conclusion that consumers are primarily interested in service reliability and only secondarily in compensation for service failures. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

The growth of the Internet has created an explosion of sites that seek to provide information and conduct business transactions. The service industry and especially online banking stand to gain from that development. This study, anchored in the marketing, social psychology, media, and information systems literature, investigates how users perceive the Internet’s abilities to conduct banking activities. Results show variation in media perceptions for the same online banking site across various task environments. The results indicate that user perceptions of the Internet medium depend on task complexity and that technology can serve as a mitigating factor to improve media and quality perception.

Aims to discuss the basic strategy taken by a specific manufacturer. States supply chain structures influence, directly, the supply chain inventory as a measure of performance. Examines the difference in the supply chain in relation to the manufacturer’s strategy to the product.