Abstract:

In the development of e-commerce, E-Service Quality has significantly gained importance in e-commerce. This study was conducted to determine the relationship of e-service quality dimensions on service quality expectation and service quality satisfaction in the banking sector of Bahrain.

A total of seven e-service quality dimensions: ease of access (EA), site aesthetics(SA), reliability (R), data security (DS), digital communication (DC), social banking (SB), trust (T) were being tested with endogenous variables, i.e. service quality expectation (OSE) and service quality satisfaction (OSQ).

Using a quantitative research strategy, focus group discussions methodology was employed comprising 249 participants, all residing in Bahrain, in two different types of focus group discussion, namely single focus groups and online focus groups where all the respondents have been actively using one of the e-banking portals of banks based in Bahrain. Partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) has been used to conduct the data analysis.

The results of this study captured the fact that all of the e-service quality dimensions have been significantly positive to OSE except DS, DC, EA, and SB, which negate a significant positive relationship. However, DS was positively significantly to trust, and thereby it has been implied that DS has an indirect positive impact on OSE. Likewise, it showed a similar indirect impact of EA on OSE through SA.