Towards VES Function for Creating a Sustainable Method for Evaluating e-Banking Websites Quality

The main objective of the article is to analyze the possibility of using the authors’ own VES (variable elasticity of substitution) class function as a reference point to examine the adequacy of the use of multi-criteria analysis (MCDA) methods to make decisions during the evaluation and subsequently to select and evaluate websites in the electronic banking sector. The secondary goal is to identify the best e-banking websites in Poland in 2020 (during the Covid-19 pandemics) from the point of view of an individual client. Drawing on the previous experiences related to the VES function application and assessment of the internet banking sphere, the authors take hypothetical results from the VES function as a reference point and compare them with other selected methods: the scoring methods, the author’s own conversion method and the Promethee method. The data for the study are collected using an original questionnaire and verified during a pilot study. To participate in the survey, respondents had to visit a dedicated website containing a questionnaire and answer some additional questions concerning the relations between economic and technological attributes/criteria of the banking websites. The research sample included over 930 individuals from the academic environment, and the study was conducted in April 2020. The results obtained in the survey appear to be promising. The “ideal” VES function seems to be a very good reference point for the selected assessment methods. On this basis, the authors could determine which of the applied evaluation methods is the best in this case. Moreover, when analyzing the ranking of banks, it was found that economic criteria and some of the technological aspects such as the simplicity or intuitiveness of navigating the website or the number of access channels are the most important factors for customers when selecting e-banking services. The main implication for researchers is the possibility to use the VES function as a reference point for the assessment of MCDA methods, as evidenced in the course of the study. This function can also be applied for the evaluation of bank websites. However, there were two main areas of limitations of the present study. The first one concerned the subjective selection of parameters of the VES function. The second limitation was related to the selection of a research sample only from the academic community. Originality/value/contribution – The scope of this article fills the research gap that exists in terms of the methods applied in website assessment focusing on the selection of the best method to evaluate e-banking websites using the VES function. However, the VES function requires the estimation of parameters for the banking sphere on the basis of time series from recent years. Furthermore, it is recommended to expand the research sample to include the respondents who represent other demographic characteristics. The present article analyses the opinions of the academic community, and for this reason, the findings of the present study cannot be fully generalized.