Customer perceived service quality and loyalty in Islamic banks: A collectivist cultural perspective

There is a plethora of research which has dealt with service quality issues in various service organizations. But a few researchers have presented state of service quality from a cultural perspective, especially within an Asian cultural context. The purpose of this paper is to measure service quality of Pakistani Islamic banks through validating a culturally sensitive scale: PAKSERV. Furthermore, the path from service quality to customer loyalty has been presented through applying PAKSERV service quality scale.

Following a positivist tradition, the service quality to loyalty path in Islamic banking sector of Pakistan is established. A self-administered survey was conducted to approach 300 Islamic bank customers in major cities of Pakistan. The respondents were purposefully selected based on their extent of using the retail banking services. The data were analysed through employing various quantitative measures such as correlation and structural equation modelling employing AMOS.

The findings reveal that Pakistani Islamic banking customers are satisfied with the service quality offered. All the dimensions of PAKSERV are found to significantly contribute towards customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, major focus of customer is on the dimensions such as responsiveness and sincerity which are understandable in high-risk avoiding and moderately power-oriented Pakistani society.

The research has been first of its type to present the validity of PAKSERV scale in a collectivist cultural context of Pakistan. Furthermore, the path from the customer satisfaction to loyalty by employing PAKSERV scale has been presented for the first time.