The Moderating Effects of Involvement on the Relationships Between Satisfaction, Trust and Commitment in e-Banking

Most prior research into customer loyalty emphasizes the effects of the dimensions of online satisfaction and trust. However, research into how customer involvement moderates this relationship model – in the online environment – has been less than conclusive. On the basis of a satisfaction–trust–commitment model, and given that involvement is a significant precondition to customer loyalty, this paper explores the interaction effects of customer involvement on the evaluation of e-banking services.Empirical results were collected from an online survey in electronic financial forums, Usenet and mailing lists. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to estimate the parameters of the interaction effects model.The results support most of the hypotheses and, in particular, confirm the moderating role of customer involvement. The influence of online satisfaction on commitment was significantly stronger for highly involved users; conversely, the effect of satisfaction on trust was weaker. However, customer trust had a stronger effect on commitment for customers with high purchase involvement, and a weaker effect for highly ego-involved customers. The interaction role of customer involvement thus offers a more complete view of the satisfaction–trust–commitment model, providing an initial test of the efficacy of using involvement to understand online decisions. Implications for online marketing management and future research in this area are discussed.