MEDIATING IMPACT OF "TRUST" IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN E-SERVICE QUALITY & CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNET BANKING

The main objective of this study is to find the role of trust as a mediating variable between e-service quality and customer satisfaction in Internet banking. Structure equation modeling has been used to analyze the effects of independent variable e-service quality on customer satisfaction and the role of mediating variable trust. Stepwise analysis has been done to examine the effect of trust on customer satisfaction. E-service quality was found strongly correlated with customer satisfaction. The results does not confirm trust as a mediating variable between e-service quality and customer satisfaction, though a positive significant relation can be found between trust and customer satisfaction when tested in a separate cause and effect model. The research implies that banking service providers should focus mainly on the improvement of the service quality of Internet banking to get more satisfied customers.