Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which service quality, perceived price and fairness and service convenience influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty for Indian retail banking sector. It further explores the role of customer satisfaction as mediating variable between service quality dimensions, perceived price and fairness, service convenience dimensions and customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional research on 445 retail banking customers through questionnaire is conducted. Population of study is valued retail urban customers of banks in Rajasthan, India, who frequently visit bank premises for transactions, have accounts in at least two banks and have availed of at least one information technology-based services. Responses are analyzed using factor analyses and regression analyses. Findings – Results reveal that service quality dimensions, perceived price and fairness and service convenience dimensions have positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Moreover, customer satisfaction acts as mediating variable between its antecedents and customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications – This study has taken into account a specific category of retail banking customers. Thus, it limits generalization of results to other banking population. Practical implications – This study explains the importance of customer satisfaction for achieving customer loyalty for Indian retail banking sector. Originality/value – The paper underlines the importance of customer satisfaction for achieving customer loyalty. Impact of SERVCON dimensions on customer loyalty is found rare in literature.

This study examines the extent to which service quality, perceived price fairness and service convenience (antecedents of customer satisfaction) influence customer satisfaction for Indian retail banking sector. Dimensions of service quality are human behaviour, tangibility and information technology. Dimensions of service convenience are decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience and post-benefit convenience. A cross-sectional research on 445 retail banking customers through structured questionnaire is conducted. Population of study is valued retail urban customers of public and private sector banks in Rajasthan, who frequently visit bank premises for transactions, have accounts in at least two banks and have availed of at least one information technology-based services. Results indicate that except tangibility, all antecedents of customer satisfaction have positive impact on customer satisfaction. Human behaviour contributes maximum in explaining customer satisfaction. This study highlights the importance of service quality, service convenience and price in satisfying customers. With this knowledge, bank managers can focus on these factors to satisfy customers and to retain them.

This study examines the difference between public sector and new private sector banks with reference to service convenience dimensions; decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience and post-benefit convenience. A cross-sectional research on 445 retail banking customers through structured questionnaire is conducted. The population of the study is valued retail urban customers of the public and the new private sector banks in Rajasthan, who frequently visit bank premises for transactions, have accounts in at least two banks and have availed of at least one IT based service. The results reveal that service convenience dimensions differ between public and new private sector banks. New private sector bank customers’ mean score is found more than public sector bank customers. This study has theoretical and practical contribution. From theoretical point of view, service convenience scale is used and validated in retail banking sector in Indian context. For bank professionals, this study explains the difference of service convenience between public and new private sector banks and opens door to improve service convenience.

Strategic alignment of information technology (IT) is required to be included in the firms’ core activity in today’s business environment. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of ‘IT connectivity, IT infrastructure and IT human resources’ on ‘IT business strategic alignment’ by developing a model, in public and private organizations in India. A questionnaire was used to measure the constructs after its validity and reliability. The findings discovered that firms’ IT strategic alignment was significantly impacted by three IT dimensions, that is, IT connectivity, IT infrastructure and IT human resources (combined as IT capability). The IT investments and expenditures of a firm are aligned with its business objectives and priorities. Furthermore, the significant role of these dimensions in public and private organizations in India was examined.

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