The Impact of Cognitive versus Affective Aspects on Consumer Usage of Financial Service Delivery Channels

represents the five dimensions of SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988), adapted to the
banking context with a focus on technology-based service deliveries. The dimensions of
service quality modeled are the ones considered in Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry’s
research (1988), that is, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. These
dimensions, although conceived for interpersonal encounters, can, with context adaptations,
be used to describe the quality of technology-based (remote) encounters.

H7: A consumer’s perception of service quality will influence the likelihood of that
consumer using more frequently the delivery channels of the firm.

Perceived communication efforts

Marketing communications is a crucial aspect of a company’s overall marketing strategy, and
particularly of service firms where the product is intangible. Effective communication is
essential to form strong customer brands, highlighting the importance of this element in the
company’s strategy. It concerns aspects that illustrate service quality, in terms of being close
to customers and providing them with up-to-date and valuable information, but constituting a
different dimension than that of overall service quality. Smith (1989), analyzing the
relationships between banks and their small business clients, found that one major element of
what was considered to be poor service was insufficient information. The importance of this
variable as a separate construct was highlighted in the interviews conducted with bank
customers.

H8: A consumer’s perception of communication efforts of the firm will influence the
likelihood of that consumer using more frequently a delivery channel of the firm.

This set of hypotheses will be analyzed on a channel basis, that is, by delivery channel.

Usage of the Delivery Channel

Consumer behavior is considered in terms of usage frequency: how frequently the user
accesses his/her bank accounts and contacts the bank through a specific delivery channel.
This usage definition conceptualizes the likelihood of using a particular delivery channel.
This dimension of usage has been used in the literature (Gatignon and Robertson, 1985;
Zaichkowsky, 1985; Ram and Jung, 1991) in studies of usage and adoption of innovations/
products.

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