Technical Service Quality Model (TSQ)

The TSQ model is proposed by Gro¨nroos (1982) in which the technical and functional service quality are taken into consideration in assessing customer satisfaction. The technical quality is the outcome of the service quality processes. The TSQ dimensions were discussed in sub section 2.5.2. The dimensions are technical ability, employee’s knowledge, and employee’s technical ability.

In addition, there are two additional dimensions that affect the TSQ i.e. technology and communication. Technology and communication as discussed in subsection 2.62 and 2.63 are found to be important for customer satisfaction (Moutinho 1992; Stafford, 1996; Guo et al., 2008). The revised TSQ model including technology and communication dimensions is shown in the following figure:

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Figure 4-2: The Revised TSQ Model Including Technology and Communication Dimensions

Hypotheses developed for TSQ

H 8: The technical ability (TA) dimension positively affects TSQ (See p. 50). H 9: Employees’ knowledge (EK) dimension positively affects TSQ.

H 10: Employee technical ability (ETA) dimension positively affects TSQ. H 17: Technology (Tech) dimension positively affects TSQ.

H 18: Communication (Com) dimension positively affects TSQ. H 11: TSQ positively affects TSQ satisfaction.

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4.3.3 Religious and Ethical Service Quality (RESQ)

Religious and ethical service quality (RESQ) is a construct that is based on consumers’ cognitive perceptions towards satisfaction. This study proposed that RESQ comprises of two constructs, namely compliance with Shari’ah and the ethical dimension (Othman and Owen 2002; Sadek et al. 2010). This study conceptually distinguishes between Compliance with

Shari’ah and ethical dimension in order to explore if it could differentiate the CCC, ICC and Both credit card users.

4.3.3.1 Shari’ah Compliance (Compliance with Shari’ah)

The Carter model developed by Othman and Owen is an example of an attempt to answer whether a religious belief has any influence on consumer behaviour in the context of the banking industry. The model includes a dimension to measure the ability of the banks to fulfil their Islamic law (Shari’ah) obligations and operate according to Shari’ah requirements. The dimension was named as Compliance with Shari’ah and is an additional dimension to the RATER dimensions from Servqual.

The Carter model, however, did not investigate the differences in religiosity commitment to the customers’ perceptions of compliance with the Shari’ah dimension. In addition, technical quality is also ignored. Therefore, in this research design, religiosity commitment is to be integrated based on the customers’ religiosity commitment to their religious faith, akhlaq and

Shari’ah laws (see chapter three a brief discussion for religiosity). In addition to religiosity commitment, another group of customers seemed to rank ethics as one of the most important dimensions for customer satisfaction.

4.3.3.2 Ethical Dimension

The ethical dimension is a new dimension in the measuring of customer satisfaction in the banking industry. This is evident from previous literatures and the emergence of ethical or social banking; where customers have demanded that their sources and uses of funds should only be from and channelled towards businesses, organisations and governmental agencies, which operate ethically. Sadek et al. (2010) found that conventional banking users ranked ethics as having a higher importance towards customer satisfaction. Therefore, the study grouped compliance with Shari’ah and ethic as constructs affecting the second order factor

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RESQ. Based on the above, the RESQ model is conceptualised as shown in the following figure:

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Hypotheses developed for RESQ

H 13: Compliance with Shari’ah (SC) positively affects RESQ. H 14: RESQ positively Compliance with Shari’ah Satisfaction.

H 15: Compliance with Shari’ah Satisfaction affects overall satisfaction. H 19: Ethical (Eth) dimension positively affects RESQ.

H 20: RESQ affects Ethical Quality Satisfaction

H 21: Ethical Quality Satisfaction affects overall customer satisfaction

4.4 THE MODERATING INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOSITY AND DIFFERENT CREDIT CARD GROUPS

Empirical studies reviewed in chapter three revealed that religiosity tend to influence consumer behaviours in many contexts such as shopping behaviour, business ethics, new product adoption, subjective wellbeing, advertising and other areas. Conceptually religiosity is the commitment of individuals towards their religious values, belief and principles, which will affect their attitudes and behaviours.

A considerable amount of literature has been published on religiosity measurement for various religions. However, religiosity from the Islamic perspectives in the context of banking is limited, warranting the study to develop such scale. This study has developed an Islamic religiosity scale to fulfil the gap in the literature. The dimensions found to form a Muslim religiosity are belief and commitment to practice (See chapter five, pg. 144). These two dimensions are conceptualised to affect Muslims behaviours in the banking industry. In addition, age factor and religious education were hypothesised to influence religiosity. The influence of individual religiosity on customer satisfaction is not identical for all individuals. Therefore, to ensure that the model can correctly differentiate between different levels of religiosity, religiosity is hypothesised to moderate customer satisfaction. In other words, the variations of the level of adherence to Shari’ah rules and regulations will affect customer satisfaction. This study has categorised the Muslim into four religiosity levels i.e. highly religious, moderately religious, casually religious and liberals. The integrated model consisting of FSQ, TSQ and RESQ will be examined for these different groups and the study’s exploratory results will add to existing literature. Therefore the following hypotheses are developed.

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H 22: Age has significant influence on religiosity. (See p. 100)

H 23: Formal/Religious education has significant influence on religiosity. H 24: Religiosity moderates overall customer satisfaction.

Even though, the differences between the credit card user groups such as the CCC, ICC and Both in terms of overall satisfaction have been pointed out by several studies, there is no conclusive theoretical explanation about the differences (Amin 2013). The present study hypothesised that different groups of credit card users will have different impacts towards overall satisfaction. Particularly, this study examines the moderating factor of different groups to the integrated model. The credit card groups are CCC, ICC and Both. The following hypothesis is developed.

H 25: Different credit card credit groups moderate overall customer satisfaction.