NICE TO HAVE OR MUST HAVE? ASSESSING NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS FOR CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN ELECTRONIC BANKING

Abstract

Purpose – Despite the widespread adoption of electronic banking, maintaining long-term customer loyalty remains a challenge. This study investigates whether key customer experience factors – specifically service quality (SQ), service efficiency (SE) and customer satisfaction (CS) – not only influence customer loyalty but also act as necessary conditions for achieving high levels of customer loyalty (CL) in the context of electronic banking. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a dual-method approach combining partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA). This integration enables the identification of both causal (sufficient) relationships and necessary conditions. Data were collected through a survey of 974 Polish electronic banking users. Findings – The results show that CS is the strongest direct predictor of CL. SQ has both direct and indirect effects, while SE influences loyalty only indirectly through CS. NCA reveals that all three constructs – SQ, SE and CS – are necessary conditions for achieving high loyalty, with satisfaction emerging as the most critical bottleneck. The relative necessity of each factor depends on the desired level of loyalty. Originality/value – The study contributes to loyalty research in digital financial services by integrating sufficiency and necessity logics. It addresses previous calls for more comprehensive theoretical models of digital loyalty and offers new empirical evidence from a large Central European sample. Managerially, it provides clear strategic directions: while SE is typically well-developed, SQ and CS offer the greatest leverage for achieving and sustaining loyalty, as they represent minimum necessary requirements.