ABSTRACT
This study explores the mediating role of e-satisfaction during the pandemic on the relationship between e-service quality and e-loyalty of banking customers in Pakistan. The data were collected from 442 customers of online banking services in Pakistan during the Covid-19 pandemic, following a survey-based study. Baron and Kenny (J Personal Soc Psychol, 51(6):1173, 1986) and Preacher and Hayes (Behav Res Methods, 40(3):879-891, 2008) mediation technique which utilizes the bootstrapping method has been used to explore mediation. The findings show that e-service quality has a significant positive effect on the e-loyalty of the customers of online banking services. Relationships between e-service quality and e-loyalty of online banking customers in Pakistan are significantly and fully mediated by their online satisfaction in unusual situations. This study would help the bankers to implement more effective marketing strategies to retain their customers and attract potential customers, particularly during non-normal situations like the Covid-19 pandemic. It will help them identify the areas of e-services that need improvement to enhance the satisfaction and loyalty of the customers. The bootstrap method for mediation along with Baron and Kenny (J Personal Soc Psychol, 51(6):1173, 1986) leads to using a more sophisticated methodological technique to explore the mediation. The Oliver Expectancy-Disconfirmation Paradigm (EDP) in electronic banking setup during non-normal situations like the Covid-19 pandemic also served as a unique contribution to this study. Application of Baron and Kenny (J Personal Soc Psychol, 51(6):1173, 1986) mediation along with Preacher and Hayes (Behav Res Methods, 40(3):879-891, 2008) leads to more robust findings for the study in non-normal situations like the Covid-19 pandemic. The study findings add scientific value as they are applicable to the banking sector in particular in non-normal situations like the Covid-19 pandemic and the overall service sector in general. Further, as two different methods of mediation have been employed and this makes the study more rigorous and scientific.
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this article is to present the relationship between two factors: perceived environmental hostility (or friendliness) and strategic agility with market performance of Polish SMEs from medium-tech and high-tech industries during COVID-19 pandemic. This research directly refers to analogical study analyzing the role of the two variables in the period just before COVID-19 (Sikora & Baranowska-Prokop, Advances in longitudinal data methods in applied economic research, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, 2021). Research results revealed that respondents interviewed during the period of entire second lockdown in December 2020–January 2021 evaluated external environment as more friendly (none of the respondents evaluated environment as “unfriendly”) compared to their pre-COVID counterparts interviewed during May–July 2019. Moreover, in contrast to the previous research, neither strategic agility nor environmental hostility–friendliness showed significant relationships with firms’ results. These unexpected findings may be explained in regards to several factors: In general, industry was hit less severely by lockdowns than services (most of respondents declared only “moderately” negative impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on the environment their firm operated and the relationship between the declared number of COVID-19 related consequences and market performance was weak).Efficacy of government’s programs within the framework of “Anti-crisis Shield” (introduced in Poland end-March 2020) providing subsidies for enterprises (to maintain financial liquidity and employment).Favorable macro-environment in which the local currency (considered as undervalued) helped both exporters making them more price-competitive and manufacturing firms operating on the local market by “insulating” them from cheaper imports. In our opinion, friendly macro-environment, availability of public assistance programs, and firms’ capability to get money from them (which need further research) were decisive factors influencing Polish firms’ performance, whereas strategic agility, as operationalized in this study and in the previous one, did not matter as significant predictor of firms’ success. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.