Service quality implementation in shaping sustainable banking operating system

Purpose This paper adopts an existing body of theory (gaps model of service quality) and aims to further contribute to it. The theory building within this paper is expected to represent an extension to the existing theory, particularly with regard to the reconceptualisation and redefinition of service quality in sustainable banking. Design/methodology/approach The case study was based on primary data collected through a series of qualitative interviews with the 35 bankers who were from different departments. In addition, available secondary data such as academic books and journals, government and regulatory authority’s publications, website publications, Maybank’s annual reports and sustainability reports were reviewed to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the Maybank’s sustainability banking operating system. Findings This paper has documented various findings identified with the aspects of sustainable banking in Maybank. Essentially, these findings are focussed on filling the gaps that currently exist in the literature and in the practice of sustainable banking in Maybank. Maybank is in the phase of preventive banking because, in recent years, it has been observed that Maybank is moving towards the initiative to embrace sustainability in their banking operations. Maybank has used the sustainability criteria for the credit risk management process and socially responsible investing. When viewed from this perspective, it is possible to say that a transition process has started towards offensive banking. In addition, this research’s findings imply that the determination of the service quality level of customers focusses not only on the homogenous customer’s quality evaluation, but it also includes the examination of heterogeneous customers. Heterogeneous customers are those who have an indirect interest in the bank; they are indirectly affected either positively or negatively by the actions of the bank. Research limitations/implications The reconceptualisation and redefinition of service quality, which embeds the novel concept of sustainable banking, can be attributed to a handful of distinctive financial institutions which have been proactively and gradually shaping their corporate images as advocates of socio-environmental sustainability. Originality/value The limited literature on sustainable banks and to the best knowledge of the researchers, no other researcher has examined sustainable banking in the Malaysian banking industry to date. This study is designed to address this gap with the central objective to investigate the aspect of sustainable banking operating system provided by Maybank by using the gap model of service quality which was developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985).