Internet technology and customer linking in Nordic banking

Internet banking is now such a well‐established fact in the most developed countries that it is possible to map its actual role in customer relations. Inspired by the resource‐based view of the firm and based on a recent empirical study in the banking industry in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, this paper traces important antecedents of Internet banking adoption and analyses its impact on relationship‐marketing performance. Based on structural equation modeling, the findings offer some support for the view that the more advanced Internet applications adopted and the more attractive the Web site, the more the banks are able to keep profitable customers. However, the results question whether it pays to be a first‐mover and organizational factors related to market orientation and customer‐relationship management seem to have a much stronger impact on customer‐related performance.