Digital Banking as a Service Innovation: Assessing Customer Awareness and Satisfaction in the Era of Transformation

Abstract

The concept of digital banking services is viewed as an ecosystem comprised of dimensions such as accessibility, security, usability, personalization, and reliability. It aims at analyzing its impact on customers’ satisfaction levels along with investigating the mediatory effects of customer awareness and moderation due to customer digital literacy level. For conducting the research, the sequential explanatory mixed-method design was chosen. Quantitatively, 356 surveys of digital banking customers were conducted and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Subsequently, a qualitative phase involving 14 semi-structured interviews took place. Based on quantitative data analysis, it can be seen that there is a statistically significant and positive correlation between service innovation and both customer awareness and customer satisfaction. Also, customer awareness is shown to have a statistically significant effect on customer satisfaction and to act as a significant partial mediator between these two variables. Moreover, digital literacy significantly strengthens the positive relationship between customer awareness and satisfaction. From the theoretical perspective, the research links three theories, namely Service Innovation Theory, Service-Dominant Logic, and Expectation-Confirmation Theory, by demonstrating the significance of awareness as a key mental link in the process of value co-creation. From the managerial perspective, it is crucial to stress that financial institutions cannot depend only on technological solutions; the banking industry needs to implement consumer education, transparency, and AI techniques.