The Impact of Service Quality and Cultural Beliefs on Intention to Use Financial Services: The Moderating Role of Trust

In the context of developed countries and in several Middle Eastern countries, the problem of motivating consumers to make use of banking services has been resolved. However, in Yemen, majority of the citizens are non-bank users. This fact leads to a major issue and negatively affects the economy of the country. In this regard, the present study aims to shed a light on the factors that have the potential to influence Yemeni citizen’s use of the country’s banking system like service quality and Yemeni culture. For this purpose, 850 questionnaires were distributed to part-time university going students. Data collected was analyzed with the help of correlation and multiple regression analysis to determine the factors prediction of the behavioral intention to use Yemeni banking system. The results showed the positive and significant effect of service quality and the significant and negative effect of culture on the consumers’ use of Yemeni banking system. Moreover, hierarchical regressions were used to test the effect of trust as a moderator variable. Student’s trust had a statistically moderating the relationship between cultural belief and intention but in the negative direction. The study contributes to the academic understanding of the behavioral intention of consumers in the context of Yemen and to the practitioners and policy makers use of the effective strategy to attract customers to the country’s banking system.