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IJBM 22,5

Corporate image measurement

A further problem for the tangibilization of Internet banking services
n Carlos Flavia
Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

366
Received July 2003 Revised April 2004 Accepted May 2004

Eduardo Torres
tica, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Departamento de Auditoria e Informa o-B o, Brasil, Chile, and University of B

u Miguel Guinal
Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Keywords Internet, Banking, Corporate image, Electronic commerce Abstract The study and measurement of image especially in the Internet banking eld has become an important tool to help the management of the banks operating on the Internet to make decisions. As there are no previous scales in existence to enable the image of this type of bank to be measured, our paper is centered on developing and proposing a reliable and valid scale that enables us to measure the corporate image of a bank in the context of the Internet. The results obtained show that an Internet banks image is a multidimensional construct composed of its reputation and security as perceived by the consumer, as well as of the services offered and access to them. These results provide a management tool to measure the Internet banks image. Similarly, the new scale shows in detail which aspects need to be acted on in order to improve the banks image with its clients.

The International Journal of Bank Marketing Vol. 22 No. 5, 2004 pp. 366-384 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0265-2323 DOI 10.1108/02652320410549665

1. Introduction Globalization, the large number of competitors, and the banks constant struggle to offer something different in their services to distinguish them from the rest, have led them to explore alternative channels such as the Internet (Balmer and Stotvig, 1997). The Internet, therefore, has become a distribution channel that is used by almost all banks in the developed world, in which they offer traditional services as well as services that enable them to show that the Internet is an alternative and convenient channel for their clients. Despite all these efforts, the number of clients who operate through the Internet has not increased as much as expected, due to the strategies implemented by companies and the idiosyncratic characteristics of this new channel. In fact, previous research shows that the reason people do not operate through the Net is due to the lack of differentiation of the companies, distrust in the system, impersonal treatment rquez, 2000), a perceived lack of security, and because of the scant knowledge that (Ma consumers have of the benets provided by this new channel (Sathye, 1999). This has forced major banks, such as the Spanish bank, Patagon, to open bricks-and-mortar
The authors wish to express their gratitude for the nancial support received from the n General de Arago n and from the University of Zaragoza (UZ2002-SOC-06). Diputacio

ofces in order to boost consumer trust and their own credibility, and thus enhance their image as a bank. Thus, the Internet has become a major challenge for the banking business, in which customer perception has become essential for success in banking. Indeed, many authors consider that a strong corporate image is the most effective means for differentiation in banking (Morello, 1986; Richardson and Robinson, 1986; Van Heerden and Puth, 1995) and the start point for subsequent customer loyalty-building (Nguyen and LeBlanc, 1998). In view of all this, the banking system has been attempting to gather more and more information on aspects that induce people to do their banking over the Internet (Gerrard and Cunningham, 2003; Sathye, 1999). At the same time, it has particularly been interested in nding out customers perceptions of banks operating in this medium, in a bid to master the technology that will enable the banks to make innovations, stand out from the others, and provide services that are more attractive to their customers. In this context, image has become an important management tool for these companies (Worcester, 1997) and an extremely complex concept that calls for an increasing number of elements for its analysis (Balmer and Stotvig, 1997; Biel, 1992; Keller, 1993; LeBlanc and Nguyen, 1996; Nguyen and LeBlanc, 1998; Park et al., 1986; Van Heerden and Puth, 1995; Worcester, 1997). This paper is presented in a context in which nancial institutions give increasing importance to the study of the image that they transmit to consumers, and where the constant changes experienced by the banking business (such as the development of Internet banking) mean that such a study is becoming increasingly complex from a global perspective. Specically, the main objective of this paper centers around designing a valid and reliable scale for measuring the corporate image of banks operating via the Internet from a global perspective. Interest in this topic is particularly high as a result of the proliferation of banking services over the Internet. Indeed, service companies often attempt to make their services more tangible by using different strategies to distinguish them from their competitors. The problem of making services more tangible is particularly complex when they are provided, not in a physical premises, with its own atmosphere, design or personal contact, but over the Internet. Yet it should also be pointed out that the usefulness of a scale of these characteristics is undeniable, not only for banking management but also for researchers in this eld. Indeed, this scale not only enables us to quantify a banks image and compare it with that of competitors, but it also enables us to analyze the relationship and inuence that this variable may exert on other relevant dimensions of business management, such as perceived risk, service quality or customer satisfaction. 2. Antecedents in the measuring of image in the banking context Image is a particularly complex concept. In fact, image has been said to be composed of a set of elements that go beyond an individuals mere perception. In this respect, some authors suggest that corporate image is the net result of the interaction of all experiences, impressions, beliefs, feelings and knowledge people have about a company (Worcester, 1997). The internalization of these elements has meant that researchers recognize that image is identied as a non-palpable item and can only be perceived by each individual

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in his own way. Thus, the perception of one individual will never be the same as that of another (Gray and Smeltzer, 1985). Using this reasoning, Nguyen and LeBlanc (1998, 2001) recently stated that corporate image is not a single entity, since it depends on the perception of each specic group of people and on the type of experiences and contacts they have had with the company (Dowling, 1986, 1988). When tackling the analysis of aspects that involve a certain degree of abstraction, as is the case of image projected by a company in the mind of its consumers, or the perceived quality of its products, we should begin by highlighting the particular complexity of such a study when dealing with companies devoted to the marketing of services. Indeed, services are a special case because of their intangibility, the difculty in separating production from consumption, their heterogeneous nature, and the fact that they are perishables. All this has meant that, when latent variables such as quality of service are analyzed, it is particularly complex to measure them. This is due to the need to include aspects that are typical of the supply of a service as against the distribution of tangible goods (Berry, 1980; Bitner, 1992; Joseph et al., 1999; Jun and Cai, 2001; Lassar et al., 2000; Lovelock, 1983; Newman, 2001; Oppewal and Vriens, 2000; Parasuraman et al., 1985). These additional aspects give rise to the development of service quality measurements that include dimensions that are different to those used when analyzing perceived quality in the marketing of tangible goods, such as the well-known SERVQUAL (Zeithaml et al., 1990) or SERVPERF (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) scales. The concept of service quality has often been associated with the idea of business image. Service quality comes from a comparison between actual results and the initial expectations of the customer (Parasuraman et al., 1988), bringing the concept closer to the idea of satisfaction (Cooper et al., 1989). For its part, image may be dened as general impressions about an organization (Rynes, 1991). This may be expressed as the picture of an organization as perceived by target groups (Van Riel, 1995). Thus, the concept of image is more abstract than the idea of service quality. This abstract nature has meant that there is no widespread consensus among researchers as to how it should be measured, and in some cases it has even been considered as open to manipulation:
It is just as imprecise, equally pretentious and on top of all that has sinister overtones all related to allegedly sophisticated techniques of manipulation (Balmer and Greyser, 2003)

In spite of the absence of consensus, a clear relationship has been observed in the literature between image and perceived quality. For example, Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) state that service quality is made up of three basic dimensions: (1) physical quality (e.g. equipment, buildings, etc.); (2) interactive quality, deriving from personal interaction between the company and its customers; and (3) corporate quality, which affects the company image. nroos (1984) denes service quality based on two dimensions (the Similarly, Gro technical or results dimension and the functional dimension, related to the process), and associates them with the corporate image, since this image can determine what is expected from the service provided by the company. This is how the connection between the concepts of service quality and image may be observed. In the banking business, there have been many good studies concentrating on analyzing the perceived quality of the service being offered. One example is the study

by Bahia and Nantel (2000). These authors developed a reliable and valid scale composed of 31 items grouped into six dimensions which enabled them to measure perceived quality of banking services. The study of service quality is something that is obviously distinct from an analysis of the image transmitted by a nancial institution. However, we should like to repeat that quality studies have made a major contribution to a better understanding of the image concept, due to the great inuence exerted by certain aspects such as service quality on the forming of the image as perceived by consumers. Focussing our attention more specically on the analysis of image in the banking sector, it is probably true to say that the interest shown by management and researchers in quantifying bankings image is not a recent phenomenon: as early as the 1970s a great many studies focussed on image from a multidimensional perspective (Durand et al., 1978; Evans, 1979; Laurent, 1979). Later, in the 1980s, several studies attempted to identify the true dimensions of this concept using multivariate techniques. In this respect, Mandel et al. (1981) showed that a banks image may be considered as a multidimensional concept made up of multiple aspects, including the benets offered to the customer and the prots obtained by the bank as a result. More recently, LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996) developed a model that includes certain factors that inuence the forming of a banks corporate image and which also help to analyze corporate image from a multi-dimensional perspective. Focussing our attention on studies conducted in the electronic banking eld, it should be emphasized that they have largely chosen to analyze aspects such as degree of customer satisfaction (Mols, 1998), reasons for justifying the adoption or otherwise of this type of banking (Al-Ashban and Burney, 2001; Gerrard and Cunningham, 2003; Howcroft et al., 2002; Polatoglu and Ekin, 2001; Sathye, 1999; Thorton Consulting, 1996), and so on. Yet, important as these studies are, it is hard to nd studies that analyze the image transmitted by nancial institutions when they operate on the Internet. Nevertheless, the models that do exist in the literature which concentrate on analyzing the image of conventional banking might be used as an initial reference point for any modications that would enable us to adapt such models to the new reality of Internet banking. 3. Methodology As for procedure, in order to have a reliable and valid scale, the methods proposed in the literature for this type of analysis were used (Deng and Dart, 1994). First, it was necessary to ensure a content validity, that is to say that the proposed scales to measure the image of the banking were designed according to a detailed analysis of the literature and a subsequent sifting. As a second step, the data of the primary source of information were obtained; then as a third step, the psychometric properties of the data were analyzed through an exploratory analysis and further conrmatory analysis of the data, to nish with the presentation of a proposed scale that enabled measurement, in this case, of the corporate image of the banks on the Internet. For the purposes of developing a valid and reliable scale to enable us to quantify corporate image transmitted by the Internet banking sector, we took as our start point the multidimensional scale proposed by LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996) for measuring conventional banking image. These authors developed a scale made up of different dimensions referring to service quality perception, such as personal contact, tangible details of the premises and the services available. This model also includes the aspect of reputation, something which has been thoroughly

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analyzed in the literature (Balmer and Stotvig, 1997; De Chernatony, 1999; Gray and Balmer, 1998; Harris and De Chernatony, 2000; Nguyen and LeBlanc, 2001) and which is closely linked to other concepts such as credibility (Herbig et al., 1994) or coherence between attributes of a company (Herbig and Milewicz, 1993)[1]. Finally, it is worth emphasizing that LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996) also include corporate identity in their model and link it to the personality and distinctive characteristics of a company (Bernstein, 1985), such as the name, logo, price of services and the quality of advertising. In short, these authors suggest that image is latent, and therefore not directly observable, variable, and so quantifying that it calls for the analysis of other concepts. After a review of the most pertinent literature regarding the measurement of corporate image, a preliminary questionnaire was designed. For the items making up the measurement scales, an analysis was made of the literature regarding the measurement of traditional banking image from a multi-dimensional viewpoint. Among these works are those by Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981), Owing to the fact that a large part of the literature dealt with traditional distribution channels, or else used misvalidated scales, a prior sifting of the items proposed initially was required. This der (2003), sifting, following the recommendations of De Wulf and Odekerken-Schro was based on opinions expressed by focus groups made up of various experts in e-banking and e-marketing, as well as a series of in-depth interviews with around a dozen users of e-banking and traditional banking. Finally, a quantitative pre-test was conducted with a sample of 30 users, based on exploratory factorial and Cronbach a analyses. The aim of these initial siftings was to ensure that the questions posed were understood correctly, as well as to include the most pertinent aspects in the measuring of image perceived by the consumer of an Internet banking service. As a result, of the dimensions proposed by LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996), the following were included in the study: reputation, services offered, personal contact, and access to services. In addition, in view of the importance of the perceived security variable in Internet transactions (Janda et al., 2002), it was decided to include this concept as a dimension of perceived image of an online bank. Detailed information on the origin of the items considered appears in the Appendix (Table AI). Once the scale had been suitably modied to reect the particular characteristics of this new business, a survey was conducted among a sample of customers who used the services of the main Spanish nancial institutions operating over the Internet. The eld study was carried out over the months of May and June 2002. The sample was made up of a total of 151 users proportionally divided among each of the banks operating through Internet. This sample corresponds to a condence level of 95 per cent and a permissible maximum error of ^ 7.9 per cent. To select the nancial institutions on the Internet, the classication proposed by pez (2001) was considered, including traditional banks operating through Internet Lo and virtual banks, that is to say, those which operate only on the Internet or else through some other means of virtual communication[2]. 4. Sifting of the measurement scale and its properties Once the data from the survey had been obtained, we proceeded to analyze the psychometric properties of the data. This analysis began with an exploratory study including an analysis of reliability and unidimensionality, and a later conrmatory analysis of the construct designated as corporate image of the banks on the Internet.

4.1 Exploratory analysis 4.1.1 Initial reliability. At this point, we aimed to sift the scales making up the image construct, eliminating all items that prevented the scales from reaching an appropriate level of reliability. This initial reliability analysis was measured using Cronbachs a measurements (Cronbach, 1951). When applying this, it yielded a Cronbachs a of 0.76 for the access to services subscale, 0.81 for services offered, 0.73 for personal contact, 0.92 for security and 0.82 for reputation. As may be seen, all values surpassed the established threshold of 0.6 for an exploratory study and 0.7 for a conrmatory study in all the analyzed subscales (Hair et al., 1998). In spite of these good results, it was observed that variable ACCI5 and PERI15 belonging to the subscales access to services and personal contact, respectively, had a correlation of 0.06 and 0.22 which is below the established value of 0.3 for such effects[3]. Therefore, these two indicators were eliminated from the study in order to improve the internal consistency of their respective subscales. 4.1.2 Unidimensionality analysis of the ve subscales. With this analysis we aimed to nd out whether each of the ve subscales making up the corporate image of an Internet bank had its own identity, that is to say, whether they constituted a unique n and Lozano, 2003) factor (Flavia To achieve this, an exploratory analysis was applied using the SPSS 10.0 statistics package[4]. In accordance with the positions of Hair et al. (1998) and the studies carried n and Lozano (2003), by the application of this analysis, indicators less out by Flavia close to a certain factor are identied, enabling a sifting of each of the subscales before carrying out a more rigorous study by means of the conrmatory factorial analysis. When observing Table I, we may conclude that almost all subscales that enable measurement of the image of an Internet bank represent a unique factor, except for the latent variable designated services offered, where the analysis shows that this construct can be summarized in two factors. Despite this situation, there are antecedents that allow us to conclude that the scale in question presents a major degree of unidimensionality. This is not only based on the important variance percentage explained by the principal factor, but also for the high signicance possessed by each of the items making up the services offered subscale, easily surpassing the limits proposed by Hair et al. (1998) for a factorial load to be signicant and to form part of the main factor[5]. Therefore, according to this approach, it was not necessary to eliminate indicators of this construct. 4.2 Conrmatory analysis 4.2.1 Unidimensionality analysis of the corporate image construct. In order to carry out the conrmatory analysis of the measuring scales, the structural equation method was used. We also considered the procedure suggested for such effects by Churchill (1979) n and Lozano (2003) using for this the EQS statistical package version 5.7b and Flavia (Bentler, 1992). As an estimation method, we decided on robust maximum likelihood, as it operates with greater security in samples that do not unequivocally overcome the multivariate normality test. Starting from the development of the model made up of ve latent variables representing the image construct, an improvement process was carried out by means of a model development strategy (Hair et al., 1998) consisting of eliminating indicators or variables less appropriate for reaching better adjustment measures, unidimensionality and an appropriate number of variables for each subscale (Ding et al., 1995)[6]. In order reskog and Sorbom to continue with this procedure, three approaches proposed by Jo

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IJBM 22,5
Factor name Variable Access to services Convenience in the service Necessary time to carry out the transactions Easy to use Banks schedule Services offered Interest received on savings Commission paid for services Attractiveness of the products and services offered Interest paid on loans Quantity of products and services available Individualized treatment Human contact Friendliness and treatment received Financial advice Security in transactions Security of deposits Security of data I believe that this bank does what it promises for its clients This bank or savings bank has a good reputation I believe that the reputation of this bank or savings bank is better than that of the rest of the companies

Variance explained (per cent) Factor loading by rst factor Eigenvalue 0.88 0.84 0.82 0.81 0.83 0.79 0.76 0.72 0.67 0.88 0.86 0.69 0.64 0.95 0.93 0.92 0.91 0.87 0.80 60.29 2.41 70.21 2.81

372

57.19

2.86 1.13

Personal contact

Security Reputation Table I. Exploratory factorial analysis of the scales of corporate image of an Internet bank

86.79

2.60

74.26

2.23

(1993)[7] were used. This meant carrying out a new conrmatory factorial analysis every time an item was eliminated. Table II shows in detail the results of each stage of the various factorial analyses. When applying the rst criterion[8], it was not necessary to eliminate variables from the analysis, since we observed that all the indicators presented a weak convergence with their corresponding latent variable (t . 2.58). However, when going on to the second approach, it was necessary to eliminate the SERI9 and SERI10 indicators since they did not comply with the established limit for this parameter (l . 0.5). Finally, we arrived at a third model where it was decided to eliminate the variable PERI14 as it presented a R 2 of less than 0.3. At the fourth stage, we did not consider it appropriate to eliminate from the pattern a bigger number of variables, because although the third criterion was not applied strictly, the model did not show signicant improvements in its adjustment measures to make such decision (Table II). Besides this, the elimination of a new variable would take the number of representative indicators of some factors to an inappropriate limit, so it was decided to halt the process in the fourth conguration of the model (Figure 1).

Adjustment t measures Eliminated items

Optimum value

Stage 1 SERI9 405.00 (142) p , 0.001 355.12 p 0.0000 263 1.742 0.780 0.227 0.111 0.706 0.773 0.800 0.840 0.837 121 2.852 0.642

Stage 2 SERI10 343.54 (125) p , 0.001 307.14 p 0.0000 218.537 1.447 0.815 0.213 0.108 0.747 0.797 0.826 0.860 0.860 93.537 2.748 0.651

Stage 3 PERI14 232.44 (109) p , 0.001 208.28 p 0.0000 123.440 0.817 0.850 0.178 0.087 0.789 0.849 0.891 0.914 0.912 14.440 2.132 0.680

Stage 4

Corporate image measurement

Absolute adjustment measures x 2 (df) p. 0.05 p Satorra-Bentler x 2 p. 0.05 p NCP Minimum SNCP Near 0 GFI Near 1 RMSR Near 0 RMSEA [0.05, 0.08] Incremental adjustment measures AGFI . 0.9 NFI . 0.9 NNFI . 0.9 IFI Near 1 IFC Near 1 Parsimony adjustment measures AIC Minimum x 2/df [1, 5] PNFI Maximum

196.05 (94) p , 0.001 174.66 p 0.0000 102.047 0.676 0.863 0.178 0.085 0.802 0.867 0.903 0.926 0.924 8.047 2.085 0.679

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Table II. Successive conrmatory factorial analyses for the rst examination of the scale of Internet banking image

Figure 1. Optimum internet banking image model (rst examination)

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Continuing with the analysis and projecting the results toward later analyses, we found, after the unidimensionality analysis carried out with the conrmatory factorial examination, a decisive aspect that caused us to question the real validity of this model of Internet banking image. This relevant aspect showed null correlation existing between personal contact and two of the remaining factors: access to services and reputation that would determine, in the future, a lack of convergent validity (Figure 1)[9]. When interpreting these results, we concluded that what the model showed us was what we had expected to a certain extent: that personal contact was not a relevant factor for measuring Internet banking image since, as shown by the practical evidence, it is difcult and on some occasions rather confusing to evaluate it from this point of view. This idea was supported when one considers that one of the factors that contributed to the slow growth in the number of clients coming to Internet banking rquez, 2000). was, among others, the absence of personal contact with the clients (Ma Considering these arguments, we saw t to eliminate this latent variable and to carry out the conrmatory factorial analysis again, starting from the situation of the pattern presented after the exploratory data analysis. In line with this decision, we set up a new model made up of 15 indicators gathered in four factors (access to services, services offered, security and reputation)[10] and then we proceeded to carry out a new sifting of the scale until we came to a third conguration of the theoretical model (Table III). As we can see in Figure 2, this model, without the personal contact factor, shows signicant correlations among all the factors involved, so we foresee that this version should not present inconveniences for further analyses.
Adjustment t measures Eliminated items Absolute adjustment measures x 2 (df) p Satorra-Bentler x 2 p NCP SNCP GFI RMSR RMSEA Incremental adjustment measures AGFI NFI NNFI IFI IFC Optimum value p. 0.05 p. 0.05 Minimum Near 0 Near 1 Near 0 (0.05, 0.08( . 0.9 . 0.9 . 0.9 Near 1 Near 1 Stage 1 SERI9 294.25 (84) p , 0.001 210.249 p 0.0000 210.249 1.392 0.790 0.215 0.129 0.700 0.799 0.806 0.847 0.845 126.249 3.502 0.639 Stage 2 SERI10 241.20 (71) p , 0.001 170.202 p 0.0000 170.202 1.127 0.834 0.206 0.127 0.754 0.825 0.830 0.870 0.868 99.202 3.397 0.644 134.90 (59) p , 0.001 75.904 p 0.0000 75.904 0.503 0.882 0.143 0.093 0.818 0.891 0.913 0.936 0.935 16.904 2.286 0.674 Stage 3

Table III. Successive conrmatory factorial analyses for the second examination of the scale of Internet banking image

Parsimony adjustment measures AIC Minimum x 2/df [1, 5] PNFI Maximum

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Figure 2. Optimum Internet banking image model (second examination)

4.3 Reliability and validity analysis Three analyses were carried out to determine the reliability[11] of the subscales: Cronbachs a analysis, reliability compound coefcient and extracted variance analysis. As we can see in Table IV, the Cronbachs a indices easily surpassed in all cases the established threshold of 0.7, except for the services offered factor. As the value of this index is slightly below 0.7, we felt that there was no reason to ensure the lack of reliability of this factor[12]. In the case of the construct reliability, all the subscales show values higher than the limit of 0.7. Finally, in the extracted variance analysis, we can see that although values in two subscales are slightly lower than 0.5, they are less enough to be considered un reliable.
Access to services Services offered Personal contact Factor not considered Factor not considered Factor not considered Security 0.92 0.85 0.65 Reputation 0.82 0.76 0.52 Table IV. Reliability of the representative subscales of Internet banking

Cronbachs a after conrmatory analysis 0.86 0.69 Construct reliability 0.79 Extracted variance analysis 0.49 0.72 0.48

Note: Starting from the loads and errors presented by the denitive global models, compound construct reliability was calculated: (S standardized loads)2/[(S standardized loads)2+(S measure errors); and the extracted variance: S(standardized loads)2/[S(standardized loads)2+(Smeasure errors)

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At this point, it was necessary to carry out scale validity tests (Bohrnstedt, 1970). In our study, to measure the scale validity, the schema outlined by Nunnally (1978) was followed. According to this author, for validity to exist, it should be checked that the scale used has content validity[13], construct validity (convergent validity and discriminatory validity) and criterion-related validity. With regard to convergent validity, it should be borne in mind that the proposed model will gain this condition if its latent variables are strong and signicantly correlated among themselves. When observing Figure 2 showing the model resulting from the sifting process carried out by means of the conrmatory factorial analysis, we veried that the correlations among the latent variables composing the image scale were in all cases relatively high and signicant to 0.01 t . 2:576; so we can state that, in this model, there is convergent validity. As for discriminatory validity, it should be borne in mind that the scale proposed will have discriminatory validity if the factors used to measure it are not suitable for measuring other constructs. In order to test this, we used the procedures proposed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988) consisting of the test of differences between chi-square and the condence interval test. The rst of these consists of comparing the chi-square between the model resulting from the conrmatory factorial analysis and various alternative models (six in this case) where it would be supposed that two of their latent variables had perfectly interchangeable items and therefore represented the same concept. As may be seen in Table V, the differences between the theoretical model resulting from the conrmatory factorial analysis and the different alternative models are highly signicant in all the studied cases, and so we may conclude that latent variables making up the construct image of Internet banking are signicantly different from each other, and therefore discriminatory validity exists. To conrm these results, it was necessary to carry out the condence intervals discriminatory test indicating that the discriminatory condition exists when in the condence intervals applied to the correlation between two latent variables of the studied construct, the value 1 is not identied. Table VI shows the condence intervals analyses for the image construct of Internet banking. We can see that the value 1 is not contained, and indeed, in all cases, the correlations are a long way from this value[14]. Therefore, with all these antecedents we are able to state that among the latent variables making up the Internet banking corporate image model, discriminatory validity exists. Having carried out the analyses to determine internal validity through the content and construct validity, it was necessary to carry out one nal analysis, but in the

Correlation xed on one of the following latent variables Access to services services offered Access to services security Access to services reputation Services offered security Services offered reputation Security reputation

x 2 difference between models (df)

91.174 321.272 125.548 92.554 61.909 121.095 (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1)

p , 0.001 , 0.001 , 0.001 , 0.001 , 0.001 , 0.001

Table V. Discriminatory validity in Internet banking image (x 2 test)

context of the external validity. To test this validity, it was necessary to carry out an analysis called a criterion-related validity analysis[15]. To analyze this type of validity, Pearson correlation coefcients were considered among the analyzed variables and other representative variables of a concept that n and Lozano, 2003). In this case, the might be inuenced by this rst variable (Flavia correlations were calculated between image and various indicators that measure the condence of users with regard to an Internet bank. As may be seen in Table VII, the correlations between the global image scale and the condence indicators for an Internet bank are relatively high and highly signicant, and this shows the possible predictive capacity of this scale in the context of this type of bank. Finally, considering all the analyses carried out in the study, we may conclude that the subscales nally proposed for measuring the corporate image of an Internet bank show a good degree of reliability and validity (see Appendix). 5. Conclusions and future research lines All through this study, we have emphasized that the major revolution undergone by electronic banking over the last few years has produced signicant changes, not only in the technological eld but also in the commercial eld. Specically, in the commercial context, aspect such as the image perceived by a nancial institutions customers has become key element for success in electronic banking. In this respect, this study has attempted to make progress in the measuring of these perceptions, with the aim of establishing a start point that will enable the management of these nancial institutions to have a closer relationship with their

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Condence interval for correlations among the following Access to services services offered Access to services security Access to services reputation Services offered security Services offered reputation Security reputation

Condence interval at 95 per cent 0.15; 0.16; 0.14; 0.09; 0.09; 0.12; 0.27 0.21 0.23 0.17 0.18 0.20

1 in the interval? No No No No No No Table VI. Condence interval of estimated correlations to measure discriminatory validity in Internet banking image

Condence variables I trust this entity to carry out my transactions through the Internet I am condent that the operations carried out through the Internet with this entity, will be exact and without errors The operations carried out through the Internet with this entity give me absolute condence I believe in the truthfulness of the information that this entity provides me through the Internet

r 0.694* 0.645* 0.711* 0.593* Table VII. Concurrent validity

Notes: *the correlations are signicant at 0.01. The image scale used for this analysis was calculated as the average of the ve subscales with their respective indicators that remained after the conrmatory factorial analysis

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customers. Indeed, possessing a good image is essential for Internet banking to be perceived as a reliable means of transaction, thus becoming a satisfactory option for the customer. The multidimensional nature of perceived image calls for management and researchers alike to adopt a broad analysis perspective that will enable them to process the large number of elements that make up the consumers perceived image of electronic banking. Taking this start point as a reference, the objective of this study has focussed on developing a valid and reliable scale for measuring consumers overall perceived image of Internet banking. For this reason, starting from a theoretical model, we have carried out an exhaustive study of their factors and indicators through exploratory and conrmatory analyses, and validity tests have enabled us to present a scale with a sufcient degree of reliability and validity to measure the image of an Internet bank (see Appendix). The results of this research are important not only for specialized marketing theory, but also for Internet banking image management. Specically, this work has shown that image in the context of Internet banking is a concept that may be measured as a latent variable. This result is a signicant step in the study of image measurement in this context. Traditionally, corporate image used to be analyzed from a multi-dimensional viewpoint, but was never considered as a latent variable. This means that improvement in image depends on the proper management of a set of inter-related factors. Bearing in mind that this analysis is based on specialist literature concerning the analysis of the image of conventional banking and a series of subsequent adaptations, it should be emphasized that one of the main differences between the perceived image of virtual, as opposed to conventional, banking is that the importance assigned to personal contact in the latter case is not such a relevant aspect in virtual banking. Indeed, the importance of personal contact is diluted in favor of the other dimensions that make up the image of Internet banking. Specically, the four dimensions identied refer to services offered, access to services, perceived security and the reputation of the nancial institution. The Internet banking scale nally selected, despite being made up of four subscales, showed clear conditions of unidimensionality, since all these factors were clearly related and they integrated a single image factor with regard to Internet banking, thus showing the multidimensional and latent character of this concept. It is for this reason that we should emphasize the high prole of the image concept within the studied context. In fact, through this study we were able to verify that the image can be seen from different perspectives, all integrated in a single measurement instrument applied, in this case, to the users of Internet banking. This poses major challenges to banking management, in that when planning and administering corporate image, they need to consider a good many factors at the same time. Taking these different dimensions into account and assessing their relative importance is essential today, when differentiation has become a key issue for nancial institutions, particularly Internet banks. Indeed, the companies competing in the Internet banking sector are constantly striving to offer new services, lower charges for the customer or even innovatory products such as deposit auctions through the Internet, initiated some years ago in Spain by the nancial institution, ebankinter. All these aspects are helping to form a general and specic perception of this type of bank in the minds of consumers. Specically, the results of the empirical analysis

carried out in this paper show that the marketing managers of banks operating on the Internet need to focus their attention especially on the services offered, the accessibility of these services, enhancing the level of security as perceived by their customers, and being consistent with all the elements and actions that make up the reputation of the company. With the administration of Internet banking corporate image, it is essential that management clearly understands the function that the various elements making up the banks image performs, and how the behavior and trust shown by the consumers changes with variations in each of the factors analyzed. In short, we might say that, in an increasingly competitive market such as the banking sector, it is necessary for the management of all nancial institutions, when drafting the strategic planning of their companies, to be fully aware of the corporate image they are transmitting (Balmer and Stotvig, 1997), as well as the image they are attempting to transmit, in order to administer it as effectively and efciently as possible through their marketing strategy. Finally, it should be pointed out that future research might do well to examine the validity of the scale in more detail, and attempt to test its discriminatory validity by carrying out alternative tests that relate the concepts of image with other constructs signicantly different to those analyzed in this study. Similarly, it would be interesting to test validity with regard to a criterion. This analysis could be carried out with a predictive validity analysis that would reveal whether the image construct analyzed could predict other variables in the future. In the same way, one could test concurrent validity using a model which showed the causal relationship between image and other constructs, such as trust or loyalty towards Internet banking. Future research might also repeat this study over a broader geographical area, or else in other countries, so as to test, as faithfully as possible, the potential extrapolation of the scale developed in this study.
Notes 1. In this respect, a company may have multiple reputations depending on the attribute being analyzed. This compels it to comply with each of the companys attributes in order to maintain a single strong corporate image. 2. The authors consider virtual banking to be a specic form of banking for Internet characterized by the fact that it does not have a registered name or conventional branches where clients can carry out their transactions. Although the clients can go to the traditional banks of the group to make their deposits, the operations are transacted exclusively by telephone or Internet. 3. According to Nurosis (1993) this is the minimum items-total subscale established for this type of analysis. 4. The exploratory factorial analysis was carried out on each of the subscales considered, applying principal components, and when necessary Varimax rotation. The factor extraction criterion used was the eigenvalue, although for the nal decision on the number of factors to consider, variance explained by the rst factor (which had to be close to 60 per cent) and factor loads (which had to be higher than 0.45) were analyzed. The tests applied to the ve subscales that were part of the image construct of Internet banking presented a KMO of 0.798; 0.717; 0.704, 0.745 and 0.671, with Barlett sphericity tests producing 270.470 (6); 325.674 (10); 195.453 (6); 348.822 (3) and 182.210 (3).

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5. According to these authors, for a level of trust of at least 95 per cent, as is our case, and for a sample size of 150, the value each factorial load should possess as a minimum over the main factor is 0.45. 6. The ideal according to the positions of Hair et al. (1998) is for each subscale to contain at least three indicators for their analysis. 7. Criteria of weak convergence would eliminate indicators that did not have a signicant factorial regression coefcient (t . 2:58 : p 0:01). Criteria of strong convergence (Steenkamp and Van Trijp, 1991) would eliminate those indicators that were not substantial, i.e. those whose standardized coefcient is less than 0.5 (Hildebrant, 1987). reskog and Sorbom (1993) propose the elimination of those indicators that least Lastly, Jo contribute to the explanation of the model, considering the cut-off point as R 2, 0.3. 8. We must remember that this construct is presented to the conrmatory factorial analysis with 19 variables, since in the exploratory analysis the variable ACCI5 and PERI15 were discarded. 9. It is necessary to mention that, unlike Internet banking, in the case of the sifting of scales carried out in another study concerning traditional banking, the personal contact factor presented a very high correlation with the other factors that make up the construct, shown by the importance that this concept has to measure the image of traditional banking. 10. These were the 19 indicators considered in the rst theoretical model when beginning with the conrmatory factorial analysis, minus the four indicators related to the latent variable designated personal contact. 11. We should consider that validity can be divided into internal and external validity. To demonstrate internal validity it is necessary to check reliability, content validity and construct validity. As regards construct validity, a convergent and discriminate validity analysis needs to be carried out. Finally, to analyze the external validity, it is necessary to carry out a criterion-related validity analysis. 12. We should also consider that the lower Cronbachs a value of this factor is probably due to the small number of indicators that make it up (three items). 13. Regarding content validity, we should be aware that the scales proposed to measure the image of an Internet bank are designed according to a detailed analysis of the literature and the result of several modications starting from diverse tests carried out on the measuring instrument and conversations with experts of the sector being analyzed. 14. This discriminate idea among the latent variables may be even more evident considering that the correlations among these factors (represented in Figure 2), although high, do not surpass the threshold of 0.8 considered a critical value to demonstrate that there are differences between the two factors making up the image constructs of this type of bank. 15. The main purpose of this analysis was to nd out how effective the analyzed concept was with regard to the criterion variables that theory indicates should be related. From the point of view of the time when the analyzed variables are obtained, two types of criterion-related validity can be carried out: concurrent and predictive validity. Owing to the fact that the rst type of validity, unlike the second, is based on determining the relationship between a cause variable and a criterion variable at the same moment in time, in our study we only revise this type of validity. References Al-Ashban, A. and Burney, M.A. (2001), Customer adoption of tele-banking technology: the case of Saudi Arabia, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 5, pp. 191-200. Alonso, J. and Cruz, I. (1991), Estudio de Imagen y Posicionamiento de Instituciones Financieras Competidoras en un Territorio Determinado, in III Encuentro de Profesores Universitarios a. de Marketing, Salamanca, Espan

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Appendix
Access to services ACCI1 Easy to use Necessary time to carry out the transactions Convenience in the service Banks schedule Possibility to make complaints Origin/adapted Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) New item Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) New item Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995), Mandel et al. (1981) and Parasuraman et al. (1988) Alonso and Cruz (1991), Evans (1979), Llorca (1995) and Mandel et al. (1981) New item

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ACCI2 ACCI3 ACCI4 ACCI5a

Services offered SERI6 Quantity of products and services available SERI7 SERI8 SERI9c SERI10
c

Attractiveness of the products and services offered Interest received on savings Interest paid on loans Commission paid for services

Personal contact Friendliness and treatment received PERI11c PERI12c PERI13 PERI14c PERI15a Security SEGI16 SEGI17 SEGI18 Reputation REPI1 REPI2 REPI3 Table AI. Denitive scale to measure the image of Internet banking
c

Individualized treatment Human contact Financial advice Accessibility for carrying out consultations Security in transactions Security of deposits Security of data

I believe that this bank does what it promises Nguyen and LeBlanc (2001) for its clients This bank or savings bank has a good Nguyen and LeBlanc (2001) reputation I believe that the reputation of this bank or Nguyen and LeBlanc (2001) savings bank is better than that of the rest of the companies

Notes: Each item was measured with a seven-point Likert scale; aarticles eliminated in the rst sifting process; barticles eliminated in the second sifting process; carticles eliminated in the third sifting process