Mobile banking service quality and customer satisfaction in the Afghanistan banking sector through a modified E-SERVQUAL framework

This study examines the impact of mobile banking service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction in the Afghan banking sector. A quantitative, deductive research design was employed, utilizing a structured questionnaire distributed to 250 active users of Azizi mobile banking services across six major Afghan cities, with data analyzed using PLS-SEM. The findings reveal that four of the eight dimensions significantly influence customer satisfaction: Efficiency (β = 0.380, p < 0.001) emerged as the strongest driver, followed by Privacy & Security (β = 0.217, p = 0.015), Sharia Compliance (β = 0.194, p = 0.010), and Site Organization (β = 0.157, p = 0.017), collectively explaining 79% of the variance in customer satisfaction (R 2 = 0.790), while Reliability, Responsiveness, User Friendliness, and Personal Needs did not demonstrate significant relationships, suggesting that traditional service quality dimensions may function differently in developing country contexts. Theoretically, this study contributes by extending the E-SERVQUAL framework with Sharia Compliance and Privacy & Security dimensions, demonstrating that religious and ethical considerations represent an essential extension of service quality theory in Islamic digital banking contexts. Practically, banks operating in Afghanistan should prioritize maintaining strict Sharia compliance, improving transaction efficiency, strengthening cybersecurity measures, and investing in professional mobile application design. The study is limited by its cross-sectional design, reliance on self-reported data, and focus on a single bank's customers in six major cities, suggesting that future research should employ longitudinal designs, incorporate qualitative approaches, examine mediating variables such as Trust and Perceived Value, and conduct comparative studies across different Islamic banks and regions of Afghanistan.