Uncertainty Avoidance as a Moderator to Service Fairness and Customer Satisfaction in Online Banking

Abstract

A growing number of studies have addressed the role of culture in ecommerce recently and more research on ecommerce with a cultural perspective is called for to further understand the nuances, and sometimes vast differences between customers of different cultural background. This article explores the issue of cultural differences in the context of online banking and examines one particular cultural dimension: uncertainty avoidance's impact on how customers' perception of fairness affects customer satisfaction. 131 surveys were analyzed and results show that uncertainty avoidance has a significant role moderating effect on the fairness-satisfaction and fairness-trust relationship for online banking customers. The findings suggest that customers with high uncertainty avoidance experience more satisfaction and develop more trust toward the service provider of online banking when they perceive that they have been treated fairly than customers with relatively low uncertainty avoidance and vice versa.