Customer Loyalty towards Islamic Banks: The Mediating Role of Trust and Attitude
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
General comment
I congratulate the authors for the effort made.
The study is fascinating, different and current. I appreciate the opportunity to read and comment on the document. I congratulate the authors for the idea, and the work is done. The following suggestions could help improve the document.
0.- Title
a) Could the title be changed to "Customer loyalty to/towards Islamic banks: The mediating effect of trust and attitude"?
b) Perhaps the title could be more related to the objective of the study. For example, with the prediction of the purchase intention.
1.- Abstract
a) Excessively long sentences should be shortened (e.g. lines 16 to 19).
b) Contextualize: explain why the study of loyalty is necessary in the case of Islamic banks.
c) Explain why these variables are introduced, particularly religion.
2.- Introduction
a) In line 38, modify the character ";" after "such as".
b) Explain the difference between a conventional bank and those chosen in this study.
c) An additional effort should be made to add clarity, logical and sequential structure, from the general to the particular, linking the aspects discussed: 1.- What exactly will be studied; 2.- Why is the study necessary and what justifies it? What is the state of the matter? What objectives, methodology and sample are studied?; What does the document contribute, and who is particularly interested in the reader?
3.- Literature review
a) A somewhat more detailed examination of loyalty, particularly in the sector under study, should be included in the literature review.
b) In a different section and followed by the literature review, the dependent variables and relationships should be discussed, justifying the corresponding hypotheses.
c) In case of leaving it as is, title the sub-section "Review of the literature and hypotheses" and include more information on loyalty.
d) The proposed causal model should be included in this section, in any case at the end of the last hypothesis.
e) An additional effort should be made to add clarity, logical and sequential structure, from the general to the particular.
4.- Methodology, Materials and Methods.
a) Explain and justify the PLS-SEM methodology used.
b) Detail the process followed by applying the questionnaire.
c) Section "3.2 Theoretical model" can be moved at the end of the hypothesis section.
5.- Results
a) What do the results of the descriptive analysis indicate?
b) Descriptive results should refer to items, not dimensions.
c) Essential: the authors must make an effort to follow the steps proposed in the current literature to explain the measurement model, the structural model, predictive validity.
d) The number of decimal places used must be homogeneous (example Table 3).
e) It is suggested to reorder the hypotheses from the latent starting variable to the dependent variable. For example, hypothesis 1 (H1) should be SAT → TR; hypothesis 2 (H2) should be RO → ATT. The keys of the latent variables should have the same number of letters.
f) Table 5 must include the relationships' significance (P-value), including the new order of relationships.
6.- Discussion
a) The section should be reordered once the hypotheses are adjusted (see note 5.e).
b) I would include the implications in the conclusions section before the conclusions.
8.- Conclusions
a) The conclusions could be reinforced and rearranged after reinforcing the previous sections.
7.- References
a) The bibliography and citations in the document should be adapted to the journal's requirements, both in form and content.
Thank you very much.
Author Response
Reviewer 1
Note: Revisions are made using blue color text.
I congratulate the authors for the effort made. The study is fascinating, different and current. I appreciate the opportunity to read and comment on the document. I congratulate the authors for the idea, and the work is done. The following suggestions could help improve the document.
Response: Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions to improve the paper.
0.- Title
- a) Could the title be changed to "Customer loyalty to/towards Islamic banks: The mediating effect of trust and attitude"?
- b) Perhaps the title could be more related to the objective of the study. For example, with the prediction of the purchase intention.
Response: We changed the title to “Customer loyalty towards Islamic banks: The mediating role of trust and attitude”
1.- Abstract
- a) Excessively long sentences should be shortened (e.g. lines 16 to 19).
- b) Contextualize: explain why the study of loyalty is necessary in the case of Islamic banks.
- c) Explain why these variables are introduced, particularly religion.
Response: Thank you for the suggestions. We have revised the abstract as per your suggestion.
2.- Introduction
- a) In line 38, modify the character ";" after "such as".
- b) Explain the difference between a conventional bank and those chosen in this study.
- c) An additional effort should be made to add clarity, logical and sequential structure, from the general to the particular, linking the aspects discussed: 1.- What exactly will be studied; 2.- Why is the study necessary and what justifies it? What is the state of the matter? What objectives, methodology and sample are studied?; What does the document contribute, and who is particularly interested in the reader?
Response: Thank you for the suggestions. We have revised the introduction as per your suggestion. Please see the introduction section where we have added new paragraphs (Blue colored texts)
3.- Literature review
- a) A somewhat more detailed examination of loyalty, particularly in the sector under study, should be included in the literature review.
- b) In a different section and followed by the literature review, the dependent variables and relationships should be discussed, justifying the corresponding hypotheses.
- c) In case of leaving it as is, title the sub-section "Review of the literature and hypotheses" and include more information on loyalty.
- d) The proposed causal model should be included in this section, in any case at the end of the last hypothesis.
- e) An additional effort should be made to add clarity, logical and sequential structure, from the general to the particular.
Response: We have added new literature and revised the existing ones as per your suggestion. Please see the literature review and hypotheses section.
4.- Methodology, Materials and Methods.
- a) Explain and justify the PLS-SEM methodology used.
- b) Detail the process followed by applying the questionnaire.
- c) Section "3.2 Theoretical model" can be moved at the end of the hypothesis section.
Response: Thank you for the suggestions. We have added justification for PLS-SEM methodology used and revised the methodology section as per your suggestion. Please see the hypothesis and methodology section.
5.- Results
- a) What do the results of the descriptive analysis indicate?
- b) Descriptive results should refer to items, not dimensions.
- c) Essential: the authors must make an effort to follow the steps proposed in the current literature to explain the measurement model, the structural model, predictive validity.
- d) The number of decimal places used must be homogeneous (example Table 3).
Response: Thank you for the suggestions. We have added descriptive statistics for items and some explanation. Please see the Results section. We have revised the write up of the measurement model, structural model, and predictive validity. The decimal places are adjusted accordingly.
- e) It is suggested to reorder the hypotheses from the latent starting variable to the dependent variable. For example, hypothesis 1 (H1) should be SAT → TR; hypothesis 2 (H2) should be RO → ATT. The keys of the latent variables should have the same number of letters.
- f) Table 5 must include the relationships' significance (P-value), including the new order of relationships.
Response: Thank you for the suggestions. May we keep the hypotheses as in the current order since changing the order requires to change the entire write up. Based on the literature, we noticed that relationships’ significant is presented either stating p-value or t value. May we choose to keep t-value only. Thank you.
6.- Discussion
- a) The section should be reordered once the hypotheses are adjusted (see note 5.e).
- b) I would include the implications in the conclusions section before the conclusions.
Response: We have revised the implication part and added to conclusion as per your suggestions. Please see conclusion section Thank you.
8.- Conclusions
- a) The conclusions could be reinforced and rearranged after reinforcing the previous sections.
Response: We have revised as per your suggestions. Thank you for the suggestions.
7.- References
- a) The bibliography and citations in the document should be adapted to the journal's requirements, both in form and content.
Response: Revised accordingly. Thank you.
Reviewer 2 Report
Consumer behavior toward financial services is an area that will always remain relevant, given the high stakes and increasing dependence on retail participation. Due to this, I congratulate the author/s on their choice of topic. Having said this, I would like the authors to substantially improve the manuscript, particularly the literature section. Here are some of the major revisions that I suggest be made by author/s to make the study aligned with the quality standards of Sustainability:
- The introduction should have 1) a concise but full justification of the topic's importance both academically and practically, and 2) an explanation of the gaps both in research and practice. Please review appropriate and recent literature in the introduction, with the research question clearly arising from that review.
- The Literature Review needs to include updated and recent references. Update the literature to include more recent studies and provide a theoretical framework to contextualize the conceptual model. You may refer to the following studies:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137404
- https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-07-2020-0831
- In discussion, serious flows are seen.
First, discuss key findings in comparison to past studies. Then have conclusions under which implications to theory and practice are mentioned as well as limitations and future research directions. These need to be advanced as currently it is not clear how this study’s findings contribute to existing knowledge. In fact, much of what is being mentioned we already know.
- Future research section needs to add at the end of the paper.
Author Response
Note: Revisions are in orange and blue color text.
Consumer behaviour toward financial services is an area that will always remain relevant, given the high stakes and increasing dependence on retail participation. Due to this, I congratulate the author/s on their choice of topic. Having said this, I would like the authors to substantially improve the manuscript, particularly the literature section. Here are some of the major revisions that I suggest be made by author/s to make the study aligned with the quality standards of Sustainability:
Response: Thank you very much for your valuable comments to improve the paper. Your suggestions are highly appreciated here.
- The introduction should have 1) a concise but full justification of the topic's importance both academically and practically, and 2) an explanation of the gaps both in research and practice. Please review appropriate and recent literature in the introduction, with the research question clearly arising from that review.
Response: Thank you for the suggestions. We have revised the introduction. Please see the introduction section.
- The Literature Review needs to include updated and recent references. Update the literature to include more recent studies and provide a theoretical framework to contextualize the conceptual model. You may refer to the following studies:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137404
- https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-07-2020-0831
Response: We have updated the literature review section. Thank you.
4. In discussion, serious flows are seen.
First, discuss key findings in comparison to past studies. Then have conclusions under which implications to theory and practice are mentioned as well as limitations and future research directions. These need to be advanced as currently it is not clear how this study’s findings contribute to existing knowledge. In fact, much of what is being mentioned we already know.
Response: We have revised the section. Thank you.
5. Future research section needs to add at the end of the paper.
Response: Future research opportunity is added in the conclusion section.
Reviewer 3 Report
The title and premise of this submission is interesting; however, it does have few minor concerns.
The paper is replete with typos (e.g., page 6, …..were targeted to collect data1.) and the style of writing somehow some places are problematic. Need careful proof reading. Also, the concepts of trust, satisfaction, and customer loyalty should have latest references or currency of research. There are many key latest literatures missing. A quick search reveal that the following key references are missing in terms of satisfaction, loyalty and trust. Specifically, trust played mediating role in many diverse business relationship settings. In the present research, you can draw some arguments on how other research examined mediating role of trust and how it fits in the current research:
Saleh, M. A., et al. (2017). "Quality and image of banking services: a comparative study of conventional and Islamic banks." International Journal of Bank Marketing 35(6): 878-902.
Haron, R., Subar, N. A., & Ibrahim, K. (2020). Service quality of Islamic banks: satisfaction, loyalty and the mediating role of trust. Islamic Economic Studies.
Bianchi, C. and M. A. Saleh (2020). "Investigating SME importer–foreign supplier relationship trust and commitment." Journal of Business Research 119: 572-584.
Andaleeb, S. S., et al. (2021). "The moderating role of cultural similarity in developing commitment in the industrial importer-supplier relationship." Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. (https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-07-2020-0309).
There are few methodological issues needed to be fixed. Data collection method is not clear (e.g., A total of 550 questionnaires were distributed to clients, HOW?) on whether it was mail or internet survey or personal interview etc.. Out of 496 responses 80 were largely incomplete, Why?? Need clear explanation. What is the key of analysis? Need an explanation on how you have minimised common method bias in this study. Also need to report convergent and discriminant validities of the measures.
Contribution: The study has no clear claim on theoretical and managerial implications. In managerial implication, there is intermittent evidence or validation of the results. What is novel in this study?
Finally, the paper has a very good flow but need some adjustment before final acceptance.
Good luck with the revision.
Author Response
Reviewer 3
The title and premise of this submission is interesting; however, it does have few minor concerns.
The paper is replete with typos (e.g., page 6, were targeted to collect data1.) and the style of writing somehow some places are problematic. Need careful proof reading. Also, the concepts of trust, satisfaction, and customer loyalty should have latest references or currency of research. There are many key latest literatures missing. A quick search reveal that the following key references are missing in terms of satisfaction, loyalty and trust. Specifically, trust played mediating role in many diverse business relationship settings. In the present research, you can draw some arguments on how other research examined mediating role of trust and how it fits in the current research:
Response: Thank you very much for your valuable suggestion to improve the paper. Your suggestions are highly appreciated by the authors.
Saleh, M. A., et al. (2017). "Quality and image of banking services: a comparative study of conventional and Islamic banks." International Journal of Bank Marketing 35(6): 878-902.
Haron, R., Subar, N. A., & Ibrahim, K. (2020). Service quality of Islamic banks: satisfaction, loyalty and the mediating role of trust. Islamic Economic Studies.
Bianchi, C. and M. A. Saleh (2020). "Investigating SME importer–foreign supplier relationship trust and commitment." Journal of Business Research 119: 572-584.
Andaleeb, S. S., et al. (2021). "The moderating role of cultural similarity in developing commitment in the industrial importer-supplier relationship." Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. (https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-07-2020-0309).
Response: We revised the entire paper and updated literature review as per your suggestions.
There are few methodological issues needed to be fixed. Data collection method is not clear (e.g., A total of 550 questionnaires were distributed to clients, HOW?) on whether it was mail or internet survey or personal interview etc.. Out of 496 responses 80 were largely incomplete, Why?? Need clear explanation. What is the key of analysis? Need an explanation on how you have minimised common method bias in this study. Also need to report convergent and discriminant validities of the measures.
Response: The questionnaires were distributed face-to-face (See page 9, line 368). Of the 496 returned questionnaires, 80 were largely incomplete (i.e., more than 50% of the questions were unanswered); thus, they were not considered usable. We have added how er have minimized common method bias in this paper (See page 9). Convergent and discriminant validities are observed through Table 3 and Table 4. Thank you.
Contribution: The study has no clear claim on theoretical and managerial implications. In managerial implication, there is intermittent evidence or validation of the results. What is novel in this study?
Response: We have added both theoretical and managerial implications in the conclusion section. Thank you.
Finally, the paper has a very good flow but need some adjustment before final acceptance.
Response: We have revised the paper. Thank you for your suggestions.
