Customer satisfaction is a central concept in consumer marketing research. Companies and brands usually emphasize its importance in their marketing strategies (Otto, Szymanski, & Varadarajan, 2020). According to Jamal and Naser (2002), satisfaction is a customer’s feeling or behavior related to a specific product or service following their use experience. The customer satisfaction literature is based on Oliver (1981)’s theory that satisfaction level is related to the differences between real and expected performance for a specific service or product. Most of the satisfaction research falls under what authors classify as the disconfirmation paradigm because satisfaction is a result of a comparison between prior expectations and perceived performance (Hohenberg & Taylor, 2022).

Szymanski and Henard (2001) highlight that customer satisfaction is a cornerstone for customer-oriented business practices in diverse industries. Oliver's (2014) theoretical framework justifies the importance of satisfaction using consumer, firm, industry, and societal perspectives as a result of satisfaction’s centrality to vertical and horizontal interactions inside organizations’ processes. While the vertical orientation implies micro (individual) and macro (aggregate) dimensions, “horizontal analysis examines the process by which antecedents or determinants cause satisfaction and the subsequent effects of satisfaction on other consumer thoughts and actions” (Oliver, 2014, p. 9). Maybe because of these connections with different touchpoints of the organizational structure, the empirical literature on satisfaction is diverse and sometimes inconclusive.

The meta-analytic and systematic review proposed by Ladeira et al. (2016) found a significant number of studies related to antecedents of satisfaction in banking sectors, such as a bank’s atmosphere, special treatment and relational benefits, timesaving features, the dimensions, and perceptions of service quality. The analysis showed that the variables were positively associated with satisfaction in the banking industry over a diverse set of research contexts but did not provide a model to test that relationship. Then, a meta-analysis proposed by Santini et al. (2018) found a positive correlation between service quality and satisfaction in online banking, which reinforces previous assumptions.

The current literature of satisfaction in the banking sector has concentrated on investigating the antecedents of satisfaction in an online context, more specifically mobile banking (Khan, Lima, & Mahmud, 2021; Ivanova & Noh, 2022). These studies have investigated the feature of platforms having a significant impact on service quality; service quality has a positive impact on satisfaction and loyalty. However, research into the antecedents of satisfaction in physical banking attempts to investigate various routes of service quality and participation. For example, Shetty et al. (2022) assessed the impact of service quality on customer loyalty in Indian public sector banks through a modified SERVQUAL. Jiang, Balaji, and Jha (2019) examine the mediating role of role stressors on the relationship among customer participation, behaviors, and customer satisfaction.

The customer participation concept used in this study is the same as Chan, Yim, and Lam (2010) used, defining customer participation as a behavioral construction, being a measurement for customers who give and share information, suggest, and get evolved in the decision making during the service co-creation and the delivery process. The seminal studies about customer participation used the expression “involvement of customers in the execution of services,” suggesting that customers not only act as customers, but also as financial co-producers or part-time employees in the companies (Lovelock and Young, 1979). Moreover, pioneering studies about customer participation (Chase, 1978; Levitt, 1972) raked services considering the level of customer interaction with the system, referring to the amount of period in which the customer interacts with the system in relation to the total needed for the service to be performed. From this perspective, the author suggests that companies should decrease their interaction with customers to increase their productivity. Levitt (1972) also recommend the restriction of customer participation to avoid losses on their effectiveness. On the other hand, other authors suggest that customers can reassure the quality of the service when they interact with service providers. Ennew (1996) suggests that customer participation provides a more transparent comprehension about their needs to service providers, making them aware about service providers restrictions regarding what can or cannot be delivered during the service execution.

Based on the service-dominant logic, Jiang, Balaji, and Jha (2019) show that consumer involvement and value facilitation via the Airbnb platform define the customer-perceived value, which in turn influences customer satisfaction with the Airbnb value co-creation process. It is plausible that customers tend to be satisfied when they perceive superior value of products and services (Jiang et al., 2016). Therefore, how to create a positive experience in participation that can positively affect customer satisfaction and other consequential outcomes is especially important in practice (Chen & Wang, 2016). The values perceived by customers through customer participation positively affect satisfaction (Chen & Wang, 2016). The authors’ findings reinforce an academic contribution proposed by the present study, which is to investigate the influence of the consumer participation in the perception of value and the customer satisfaction in financial services; therefore, it is expected that:

H1: The customer participation has a positive effect on their satisfaction with bankingservices provided.

H2: The customer participation has a positive effect on economic value perceived with banking services provided.

Value is known as one of the most important elements in business success (Zeithaml, 1988), and although the value concept is well considered in the literature, there is a wide variety of perspectives. Some marketing researchers define value mainly as monetary (Parasuraman, 1997), while others make a more complex definition, which includes non-monetary benefits and sacrifices, like social relationships, of quality, knowledge, time spent, more competitively and skills (Wilson & Jantrania, 1994, Song et al., 2015). Value concept is defined by Zeithaml (1988) as a result of the comprehensive evaluation of the perceived use of a product or service, based on the comparison between what is expected and what is received. That said, value can be defined as the relationship between perceived benefits and associated costs for receiving these benefits (Mcdougall & Levesque, 2000; Mulki & Jaramillo, 2011). Value creation is a recurrent theme in academic papers, where connection reports between value creation and customer participation are identified (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2000; Chan, Yim, & Lam, 2010). The current view of concept based on the new logic of dominant service proposed by Vargo and Lusch (2004) reverberated in studies suggesting that companies can only exist if they have the ability to offer any value proposal to their customers.

The present study is based on the principle that economic value is created through customer participation in the best quality of service, personalized service, and more control of customer about the service process (Chan, Yim, & Lam, 2010). Besides that, organizations will be more successful in the market if they are able to offer more value to their customers than their competitors can offer (Junior & Miyake, 2011). The reward will be a higher quality relationship and satisfaction from their customers, and they can also get new ideas about products, process, innovations, incomes, and new market access from them (Walter, Ritter, & Gemünden, 2001).

Customers can create more economic value through their participation with personalized services and more control. Customers with active evolvement in creating value can help ensure quality increase the likelihood reaching goals. This is based on the agency theory, where service customer monitors the fulfillment of service contract of providers (Mills, 1986). The empiric study made in the financial sector by Surprenant and Solomon (1987) suggests that service institutes compete in providing personalized services (more participation through sharing information and value creation). However, he reports that customers do not always want this kind of service at each meeting. This happens due to the lack of clarity of benefits to the customer and this may vary from the type of personalization, which brings costs both for the service provider and for the customer. Therefore, the added value should be evaluated with caution, and it is only between customer participation and satisfaction. This study results evidenced a positive relation between personalized services (value creation) and satisfaction.

The study of Song et al. (2015) indicates that functional and emotional values positively affect tourist satisfaction with temple stays. Nyadzayo et al (2022) show that customer participation positively influences perceived value. Satisfaction is positively influenced by perceived value, innovativeness, and relative advantage. Yet, customer participation did not influence satisfaction. The study findings support the mediating roles of perceived value.

Finally, according to the service-dominant logic, value can only be created and determined by the user, and the customer is always a value co-creator. Value is inherent to the use of product or services, such as perceived in the customer preferences and to calculation benefits (e.g., more personalized service), fewer costs (e.g., the effort expended), or to get involved in an exchange (Zeithaml, 1988). That said, finance institutions understand that the customer will be more satisfied if they create more value than their concurrence (Jiang, Xu, Cui, Zhang, & Yang, 2019). Besides that, in the financial segment, the results from Chan, Yim, and Lam (2010) show that the customer participation is meaningfully related to the economic creation of value and customer satisfaction, which means that economic value is a predictor of satisfaction. The relation between satisfaction and participation can be measured by economic value. Aligning these considerations, this study emphasizes the importance of economic the value in the satisfaction perception and participation of customers (Chen & Wang, 2016). Based on this, it is expected that:

H3: The perceived economic value has a positive effect on customer satisfaction in financial services.

H4: The perceived economic value mediates the relationship between customer participation and customer satisfaction in financial services.

Marketing studies about convenience created the concept of one only aspect time in economy regarding the purchase experience to a multidimensional construct.

The initial concept of convenience refers to time and effort spent by consumers to acquire goods or services instead of a specific feature of a product or service (Chan, Yim, & Lam, 2010). Convenience can be defined as a second order construct consisting of five types of costs of time and effort evolved with experience of services (Berry, Seiders, & Grewal, 2002; Seiders et al., 2007).

Some of the financial services related to customer participation and convenience are the ATMs, accessibility to use tools like internet banking and phone banking. By understanding customer needs from financial services, better satisfaction levels to customers can be generated when thinking about these convenience resources (Rao & Sharma, 2010). The internet has a high potential for interactivity, including convenience, customization (Yoo, Lee and Park, 2010), and may influence positively the satisfaction of customers through this variable. Besides affecting satisfaction, studies show that convenience affects the perception of quality of services (Berry, Seiders, & Grewal, 2002; Kaura, 2013). It is possible to relate these results to the equity theory (Adams, 1965), known as the distributive justice, which relates the fair balance of inputs (like time and effort) and outputs as partners in an exchange. The perception of convenience by customers and their effects on the evaluation of service can be influenced by the amount of time spent and the cost of energy (Bitner et al., 1994). Time and effort are personal resources, which are spent by customers when they purchase or use a service (Berry, Seiders, & Grewal, 2002).

A meta-analysis about online banking propose by Santini et al. (2018) have find a positive and significant correlation between convenience and satisfaction. It is possible to presume that the lesser the amount of physical and mental effort required to carry out a purchase, the more favorable the appraisal of the offered service and, thus, the greater the satisfaction of consumers. Biswas et al (2022) study on private sector banks in the Indian market unveils that service convenience has a strong positive influence on customer satisfaction, which further augments future behavior intention. Therefore, perceptions of serviced convenience affect the global evaluation of consumer service,including service satisfaction and quality of service perception. There is a positive effect of service convenience in the perceived service quality (Ngoc, 2011). That said, customer perception about quality service is not only based on what is offered to them, as the literature proposes (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Cronin & Taylor, 1992). Customers also analyze how much energy and time they will spend (beyond money) to evaluate the quality of the service process. The convenience has a direct impact on the satisfaction through the mediator role of quality of service perceived (Ngoc, 2011; Kaura & Sharma, 2015; Roy, Lassar, & Shekhar, 2016). Therefore, it is assumed that:

H5: The convenience in financial services has a positive effect on customer satisfaction in financial services.

H6: The convenience in financial services has a positive effect on service quality in financial services.

Quality of service is defined by Bitner and Hubbert (1994) as the general customer impression about superiority or inferiority of a specific organization or service. Financial services that stand out in quality of service usually have marketing strategies with higher revenue and customer retention, which increases their market share (Bowen and Hedges, 1993). There seems to be consensual among marketing research that quality of service and customer satisfaction are separated constructs, but both share a close relationship (Bitner & Hubbert, 1994; Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Patterson & Johnson, 1993). As previously stated, satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive and affective reaction to a service incident (or sometimes, to a long-term relationship of service). Satisfaction or dissatisfaction are usually the result of the experience with quality of service being compared with what was expected (Oliver, 1981).

Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) argue that higher levels of service quality result in more consumer satisfaction. Hossain and Leo (2009) states that service quality has been increasingly recognized as a critical factor to the success of anybusiness (Parasuraman et al., 1988), and in the banking sector, it is considered essential. The quality of service has been widely used as a metric to evaluate banking service performance. Financial business understand that customers are faithful if they receive higher service quality than competitors (Dawes & Swailes, 1999), and, additionally, banks can only obtain high profits if they are able to position themselves better than their competitors in a specific market (Davies et al., 1995). As a result, banks need to focus on quality of service as a central and competitive strategy (Chaoprasert & Elsey, 2004).

Previous studies related the importance of bank service quality in seeking customer satisfaction (Al-Hawari & Ward 2006; Amin & Isa (2008). Ladhari, Ladhari, and Morales (2011) analyzed banking customers in Canada and Turkey, and they found that despite the difference in quality perceptions, that occur due to the disparity in economy, society and cultural involvement that oscillate between countries (the service quality shows positive relationship with customer satisfaction. Al-Hawari and Ward (2006) investigated the relationships among service quality in an Australian bank empirically and found positive evidence in the relation between both variables. The results from Amin and Isa (2008) research performed in Malaysian financial services context match with Al-Hawari and Ward (2006) studies, because their main finding was that the establishment of higher levels of service quality might lead the customer to a higher level of satisfaction.

Levesque and Mcdougall (1996) consider service quality one of the main reasons for customer satisfaction and the intermediation for their future intentions with retail banking. Jamal and Naser (2002) report in their study that the customer satisfaction in financial services segment is based on central dimensions and relational service quality, what match with Levesque and Mcdougall (1996) studies, who report the same dimensions of service quality considering them important conductors to determine customer satisfaction with the services provided by banking institutions. More recently, Kaura and Sharma (2015) confirmed the positive impact of service quality on the satisfaction of banking customers in India and Ladeira et al. (2016) also confirms positive relationship in their meta-analytical study. Therefore, it is assumed that:

H7. The perceived service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction in financial services.

H8. The perceived service quality mediates the relationship between convenience and customer satisfaction in financial services.

The measures used in this study were an adaptation of previously validated measures or were developed based on a literature review. The scales used in this study were the same as used in Chan, Yim, and Lam (2010) studies, which already addressed the variables customer participation, satisfaction and economic value that are of interest of this study in the banking service context. Besides that, it was used Lassar et al. (2000) scales to measure the service quality, and Kaura (2013), to measure convenience. The scales were submitted to the reverse translation process (Dillon et al., 1994). The responses were analyzed by using the 7-point Likert Scale that range from (1) ‘strongly disagree’ to (7) ‘strongly agree’.

Before doing data analysis, a univariate statistic was done using SPSS 23. An analyze of collinearity was made from measurement models of each construct to verify if the measures were not harmful to multicollinearity. After that, to test the model by structural equation modeling was made by SPSS AMOS 23. Therefore, it was observed an adherence from items to factor through the factor load values (λ) and the square of estimates (e.g., communalities, λ²). The indicators that showed λ < 0.70 and λ² < 0.50 represented low capacity to measure the respective latent variable (Hair et al., 2009). From these estimates, composite reliability (CR) was calculated, and the average extracted variance (AVE) to test, respectively, the intern consistency and the convergent validity of the model. The discriminant validity was assessed by the criterion Fornell-Larcker (1981).

To test the hypotheses that predicted direct effect among variables, in what the regression importance (β), its significance (p) and the determination coefficient (R²). In all CB-SEM procedures the model settings were considered: the reason between chi-square of model (χ²) and the degrees of freedom (df); normed fit index (NFI); goodness-of-fit index (GFI); adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI); root mean square error approximation (RMSEA); Comparative Fit Index (CFI). In the measurement model, also it was observing an adjustment from the standard deviation.

To test the mediating effect, it was made a three-way procedure suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986): first of all, the regression of the mediator variable in the independent variable; second a regression of independent variable in the dependent variable, and in the end, the mediator variable must affect the dependent variable (Hair et al., 2009; Baron & Kenny, 1986). The meaningfulness of the indirect effect was evaluated by Sobel (1982) procedure.

It started from collinearity analysis. It was identified that, in the first moment, the collinearity analysis seven presented variables with values of tolerance lower than 0.20 and VIF values higher than 5.0. Therefore, the 4 variables were eliminated, because they presented shallow values. After these adjust, it was not identified new cases of multicollinearity. After some item’s elimination, it started the analysis in CB-SEM. It was decided that customer participation would be sufficiently considered in content value if measured only through its 2 observable variables. Thus, nine positive correlations were inserted between the same construct variable. The estimated of measurement model are presented in table 1.

Table 1 –
Estimated of measurement model

Table 1 –
Estimated of measurement model

* standardized coefficient

The standard residues of the covariates of observable variables of models presented at Table 1 showed magnitudes less than |2.58|, which indicate that the specification of the model can be considered adequate (Hair et al., 2009). After adjustment of indicators, the measurement index presented adequate to acceptable standards (X2/df = 2.664, GFI = .856, AGFI = .835, NFI = .926, CFI = .952, RMSEA = .052) for a reasonably good fit (Hair et al., 2009). Therefore, it was possible to compute the composite reliability, average variance extracted, which presented generally accepted standards, by Hair et al. (2009) and Marôco (2010). After obtained these indexes, it was made Fornell and Larcker (1981) test to obtain the discriminated validity, see table 2.

Table 2 –
Discriminant Validity – Fornell-Larcker’s test

Fornell and Larcker (1981) criterion, presented in table 2, identified that is a positive correlation between the construct convenience and the dimension relationship of the construct of second order service quality. Therefore, it was needing the application of the Bagozzi and Phillips’test (1982), where it was used the values of fix chi-square (4508.276), and the free chi-square (1792.343) and the test resulted in p < .000 values, giving the evidence that can measure the constructs, even with high correlation, because the superposition is not affecting the estimative quality.

We test all the relationship between constructs and considered an acceptable standard of significance for being less than .050 (Hair et al., 2009). The first index analysis of adjusting presented the indicators NFI, GFI and AGFI out-of standard indices generically accepted.

Seeking an improvement in the structural model through adjusts nine positive correlations. All of those were suggested by software AMOS 19.0 and the variables are from the same construct. After all these adjustments, the model structural shows all the criteria of recommended level (X2/df = 2.775, GFI = .850, AGFI = .829, NFI = .921, CFI = .948, RMSEA = .072) for a reasonably good fit (Hair et al., 2009; Marôco, 2010), Figure 1 and table 3 shows the intensity of case/effect among model variables.

The hypothesis H1 was not supported (β = -.089; p < .05), we found a negative effect between customer participation and customer satisfaction. The findings are contra intuitive the proposal of Jiang, Balaji, and Jha (2022) and Jiang et al. (2016) as the effect was significant but negative. It is perceived that customer participation is significantly related to economic value (β = .438; p < .001), which confirmed the hypothesis H2. However, customer participation presented a negative correlation with satisfaction, and the economic value perception is also related to customer satisfaction (β = .168), and the hypothesis H3 was also supported.

The results indicate that convenience has significant effect on satisfaction (β = .388, p < .001), supporting H5 hypothesis. Our finding was supported by previous meta- analysis about online banking (Santini et al., 2018) have find a positive and significant correlation between convenience and satisfaction. Besides that, convenience also has a significant standardized effect on service quality (β = .863, p < .001), which supports the H6 hypothesis. This finding confirms previous supposition (Ngoc Thuy, 2011). Likewise, service quality has a significant standard effect in satisfaction (β = .388, p < .001) supporting H7 hypothesis this finds are reinforce by literature (Ngoc, 2011; Kaura & Sharma, 2015; Roy, Lassar, & Shekhar, 2016).

Figure 1 –
Intensity of cause and effect among the model variable
Notes: * p < .001., ** p < .05

Table 3 –
Test results of direct hypothesis

According to Baron and Kenny (1986) suggestion, there were used three regressions to do the mediation test: first of the independent variables (convenience and customer participation) over mediators (service quality and economic value). Second: from independent variables (convenience and customer participation) over dependent variables. Third, the independent variables (convenience and customer participation) both for mediator variable (service quality and economic value) and dependent variable (satisfaction). The results obtained from these regressions are in table 4.

Table 4 –
Mediation hypothesis test results

In the H4 test, the independent variable (customer participation) affected the mediator variable (economic value) in the first regression (β = .438, p < .001). Second, the independent variable effect did not present significance on the dependent variable (β = -.019, p = .514). Third, the mediator variable affected the dependent variable in the third regression (β = .168, p < .001), it means that not all criteria of Baron and Kenny (1986) was met. Sobel’s test presented that indirect effect (a x b), of .074, presented z = 3.721. It means significance in p < .050 level; therefore, the mediator effect exists, supporting H4, which establishes the mediation effect of economic value between customer participation and satisfaction. In line with previous research by Chen and Wang (2016) and Özkan et al. (2019), who found that the customer participation through economic value perceived positively affect satisfaction. However, despite the existence of the mediating effect supporting H4, since the direct causal relationship was not evidenced, there is an inconsistent mediation (Mackinnon, Fairchild, and Fritz, 2007), which matches to results from Rocha, Mota, and Matos (2011).

Finally, in H8 test, Sobel test showed that indirect effect (a x b), from .335, z = 2.702. So, it showed significance in p < .050. The mediator effect existed, supporting H8, which establishes the effect of partial measurement of service quality among the relation of convenience and satisfaction. It can also be stated that H8 was supported because of four other conditions imposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) to prove the mediator effect. First, the independent variable (convenience) affected mediator variable (service quality) in the first regression (β = .853, p < .001) in the second regression. Second, the independent variable affected dependent variable (β = .721, p < .001) in the second regression. Third, the mediator variable affected the dependent variable in the third regression (β = .388, p < .001). The last condition refers to the need of effect that the independent variable causes over the dependent variable to be smaller in the third regression than in the second one, what also happened (β = .388 < β = .853). However, as the independent variable effect was not null in the third regression (β = .388, p < .001), it is confirmed the partial mediation effect, because a total measurement occurs, when the insertion cancels the independent variable on the dependent. Our findings suggest that convenience has a direct impact on the satisfaction through the mediator role of quality of service perceived (Ngoc, 2011; Kaura & Sharma, 2015; Roy, Lassar, & Shekhar, 2016).

These findings contribute managerially, since it agrees with other authors who see ungraduated students as potential customers to financial institutions, especially in emerging economies like Brazil, where retail financial institutions often create advertisements and marketing strategies focusing in this market segment. This is explained because ungraduated students are identified as a niche of the customer with strong potential of high incoming after graduation, comparing to those customers with lower education levels (Yao & Matthews, 2007), and they are considered to be a profitable market for financial institutions (Chigamba and Fatoki, 2011). Our results corroborate with Jia and Wang (2016), because show that managing participation is more important than encouraging participation. Moreover, the simulation results confirm that the high actual value of a firm’s service leads to superior satisfaction. Therefore, for firms, a basic way of facing fierce market competition and generating customer satisfaction involves increasing service value. Service providers should continuously improve service quality.

It is the manager’s responsibility to seek solutions to get efficient management of customers’ portfolios. This management should provide interaction through customer participation, which can provide more perception of economic value, and mainly, facilitate the sharing of information, so that the client perceives this interaction with the banking service as attractive and also, that can provide interesting benefits. Therefore, the customer may feel more motivated to promote this value co-creation and identify the best options to promote this interaction with other customers. These actions should prevent any negative perceptions of customer about their participation during the process of service providing and avoid that the customer sees their participation as a task, which only provides a way of shifting the workload from the bank to the client (Auh et al., 2007). This practice may become a strategy when seeking customer satisfaction. Briefly, proper communication programs should be designed and executed to make customers able to share information and perceive in a positive and correct way the quality of service provide (Ladeira et al., 2016), as well as of economic value and specially their participation, which in fact was presented as the construct of conflict results to the other two studies related to its influence to customer satisfaction.

Although the present study was constructed with scientific accuracy, it is suggested to replicate it in another context different than banking sector, but of similar nature (e.g., medical, statutory), to determine the generalization of results. Considering the composition of the sample, it was found a limitation in this study, even with the offered incentive to students willing to participate in the survey, and the fact they are a group who represents a market segment with extremely importance to financial institutions, this sample may have caused a number of biases in the results, because it was selected by convenience. It is important to emphasize the application of a theoretical model in different realities and samples because this practice can overcome this limitation. Then, this mode can get strength in the search for generalization of results in a context where there are significant cultural differences. Therefore, these findings should be appreciated over the investigated sample, and the generalization of the results for different sample contexts can also be a limitation in this study.

Due to the conflicting results regarding the effect of customer participation on their satisfaction, the need of establishment of a more precise understanding of the phenomenon stands out. The investigation of customer participation is not recent, but the different results presented reinforce the need of new studies directed to this phenomenon. Longitudinal studies may help to clarify the impacts caused by customer participation, and this can be verified with the implementation of strategies that incentive customer participation during the service process. Additionally, it could be verified if the economic value perception would persist in the long term. The approach through a meta-analysis may also be suitable to establish a clearer comprehension of the effects of investigated variables from this study.

To conclude, future studies should verify possible moderating variables in the sample analysis, like the comparison of findings between customers from private and public banking institutions. It is possible that the inclusion of these moderating variables explains the non-confirmation of the hypothesis H1, in addition to complementing knowledge related to the investigated phenomenon.

E-mail:alan.andrew.caxias@hotmail.comE-mail:claudiodamacena@unisc.brE-mail:clecio.araujo@pucrs.brE-mail:bianca.alirs@gmail.comE-mail:nathy.seibt@hotmail.com