Assessing the Relationship Between Internet Banking and Investment Decision Through Sustainability and Competitive Advantage: Evidence From Congolese Banks

Abstract

Competitive advantage and sustainability emerge as important factors for the success of an organization’s overall differentiation. This research aims to identify the relationship between internet banking and bank investment decision, as well as gaging the mediating effects of sustainability and competitive advantage as attributes of investment decisions. To achieve that, a questionnaire was administrated to banks’ employees and customers. To carry out the hypothesis testing, we have employed structural equation modeling through SPSS and SmartPLS. The findings suggest that internet banking, sustainability, and competitive advantage constructs are significant antecedents of banks because they highlight valuable attributes for banks to attain future benefits. This paper contributes to bank managers and scholars by providing a framework and supporting theories that help to identify relevant constructs and strategic resource characteristics. From the findings, we recommend conducting future studies in other countries or fields to generalize our results.

Effect of financial innovation and stakeholders' satisfaction on investment decisions: Does internet security matter?

“…That is, this analysis considers current market attitudes, allowing us to assess how the banking industry responds to innovation for investment decisions. Our findings are further partially consistent with Wu & Pea-Assounga [ 16 ], who showed that fintech is related positively and significantly to sustainability and competitive advantage, which in turn straightened the firms' rational investment choices.…”

“…Yet, not all investments are profitable as the investments’ decision makers do not behave or act sensibly all the time. Many factors, including technological advances, expertise, stakeholder satisfaction, competitive advantage, and sustainability, influence bank investment choices [ 16 , 17 ]. Fundamentally, everyone undertakes investment decisions in life at certain points, whether depositing or saving money, purchasing equipment, insurance, stocks, or constructing infrastructure, and every capital invested implicates risks taken [ 33 ].…”

“…Also, we based our research on a sample of selected Congolese banks, where financial technologies and innovations influence many aspects such as the financial market, financial development, and organization performance. Moreover, it is highlighted that financial innovation contributes to 4% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Congo [ [14] , [15] , [16] ]. With improved infrastructure, ICT is expected to contribute even more, particularly in the banking sector and service industries which it is already playing a significant role.…”

“…According to the World Bank [ 15 ], Congolese banks are experiencing emerging technologies like mobile banking, internet banking, etc., which are contributing efficaciously to the overall country's development. Additionally, the electronic transaction market (mobile banking) has expanded dramatically, increasing financial development and accessibility of financial services [ 14 , 16 , 17 ].…”