Service quality assessment of internet banking : empirical evidences from Namibia

SERVQUAL as a model has for long attracted researchers to apply in different contexts. The objective of this research is to focus on e-service quality in the absence of face-to-face encounter for commercial banks in an emerging economy such as Namibia. The focus is to understand both customer perception about Internet banking and the usability of the banking website. Based on prior literature on service quality assessment and website usability a priory model was developed. The model is then tested through a questionnaire survey of customers of commercial banks in Namibia. Using factor analysis, a refined model for assessing service quality of Internet banking was developed. The refined model includes three service quality dimensions: service performance, communication and website design. Service performance was most preferred on satisfaction level whereas in communication customers were dissatisfied as well as indifferent towards a 24 hours customer's service. This is in contrary to the existing literature. The third dimension, i.e. website design was high on customer satisfaction level. Finally, on usability evaluation of banking website it was found that acceptance level of the Internet banking website for the commercial banks in Namibia is marginally high