USERS’ ASSESSMENTS OF BKASH AS A MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICE (MFS) PROVIDER IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

This research aims to provide a demand-side mobile financial service (MFS) assessment of bKash, the 48% market-share holding leading MFS in Bangladesh, through the lens of users’ perspectives in the post-COVID-19 realities. It also aims to derive recommendations, reflecting customers’ experiences, to foster enhancements of the services. It shows how the same mobile financial service appears differently to users when gender and urban-rural differentials are in play. It evidences the impacts of contemporary manufacturing philosophy and required technical skills on the choices users are compelled to make. It also reveals patterns in user assessments and the impacts of its abuses on the broader image of MFS. This study uses the existing SERVQUAL framework but in a new way, incorporating ground realities in the new normal, by using user-defined compound weights of the factors to form the components of the SERVQUAL framework rather than simple gap calculations.