Effect of digital banking-related customer experience on banks’ financial performance during Covid-19: a perspective from Vietnam
Journal of Asia Business Studies
ISSN: 1558-7894
Article publication date: 17 August 2021
Issue publication date: 21 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate customer experience (CE) and its relationship with intermediate variables to analyze the impact of digital banking (DB) on banks’ financial performance (FP) before Covid-19 and during the lockdown in Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach
These research data are from a survey of Vietnamese customers. The survey was deployed to a sample of 238 and 218 customers of 20 Vietnamese commercial banks via email in 2018Q4 and 2020Q2, respectively. FP is measured using banks’ quarterly financial statements before Covid-19 and during the lockdown.
Findings
CE with DB had a significant and positive impact on FP via customer satisfaction before Covid-19, while the other two intermediate variables (word-of-mouth [WoM] and trust) had no considerable impact. During the lockdown, only WoM had a positive impact on FP. These findings indicate that before Covid-19, when customers could easily interact with their bank through many touchpoints, customer satisfaction with DB services created higher FP for the bank. However, during the lockdown, DB became the customer’s main touchpoint and WoM mediated the CE–FP relationship.
Originality/value
During the national lockdown from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020, customers in Vietnam may have had different experiences with DB when no alternate modes of payment were available. The study uses Covid-19 as a moderator variable to offer different viewpoints and findings related to CE with DB and its impact on FP.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate helpful comments and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers. We also thank Liem Viet Ngo and conference participants at the 2nd Asia Conference on Business and Economic Studies (2019) and the SOB International Conference (2020) for valuable comments. We sincerely appreciate Jason Bednarz for his support in language editing. This research is funded by University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Any remaining errors or omissions are solely the responsibility of the authors.
Citation
Nguyen, N.T.H., Kim-Duc, N. and Freiburghaus, T.L. (2022), "Effect of digital banking-related customer experience on banks’ financial performance during Covid-19: a perspective from Vietnam", Journal of Asia Business Studies, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 200-222. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-09-2020-0366
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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