Augmenting bank service quality dimensions: moderation of perceived trust and perceived risk

Purpose - Permeation of private sector banks has triggered intense competitiveness in the Indian banking sector; therefore, customer satisfaction has become the epicenter of all activities. The study seeks to explicate the antecedents and reverberation of customer satisfaction in the Indian retail banking sector. Design/methodology/approach - Top six Indian private sector banks were selected based on market capitalization. Cross-sectional data from 460 retail bank customers were collected by employing a structured questionnaire and evaluated wielding structural equation modeling. Findings - The study discerns seven antecedents of customer satisfaction, namely tangibility, reliability, empathy, responsiveness, assurance, perceived service innovation and bank reputation. The results unveil that assurance, bank reputation and perceived service innovation significantly escalate customer satisfaction, which further markedly accentuates customer loyalty. However, tangibility was the only dimension bearing an insignificant relationship. In addition, both perceived trust and perceived risk significantly moderate the association between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the model. Research limitations/implications - Incorporation of merely private sector banks and considering cosmopolitans restraints generalization of findings to some extent. The study bespeaks essential determinants of customer satisfaction that might succor bank professionals to retain customers and ameliorate profitability. Originality/value - There is a paucity of literature on “perceived service innovation” and “bank reputation” in the Indian banking scenario. Therefore, the study augments the literature by integrating aforesaid important constituents along with other antecedents and reverberation. Moreover, the study uses theoretical lens to anchor its hypotheses through a comprehensive conceptual model in the backdrop of Indian retail banking.