Digital Banking Transformation in a Developing Economy: Bridging Employee Engagement and Customer Acceptance in Laos
List of Authors
Nguyen Huu Phuc, Tiengmany Soulita
Keyword
Digital Banking Transformation, Employee Engagement, Seamless Experience, UTAUT, Customer Acceptance
Abstract
Lao PDR’s digital transformation demands a dual-front strategy, requiring synchronized success in both employee engagement and customer acceptance. Analyzing 354 bank employees and 128 customers, this study confirms that transformation is a “dual-front” challenge. Employee adoption is primarily driven by their belief in a tool’s Performance Expectancy (PE), shaped by organizational culture, management support, and regulatory influence. Customer adoption, meanwhile, hinges on Seamless Experience (SE), a new construct where users perceive application smoothness (Effort Expectancy) and infrastructure reliability (Facilitating Conditions) as a single, indivisible service. Our holistic model demonstrates a critical causal chain: a bank’s internal capacity, fostered through employee engagement, is the essential prerequisite for delivering the external seamless experience that drives market adoption. Success is achieved by addressing both human and technical challenges through this synchronized approach.