The impact of technology investment on financial service quality: Evidence from bank hirings
摘要
Utilizing a near-universe dataset on bank job postings, I examine whether banks’ human capital investment in technology impacts the quality of financial services. I find that higher investment in technology professionals is not associated with overall consumer satisfaction. However, further investigation reveals more complicated impacts from technology investment. While higher investment in technology specialists is significantly associated with an increase in service quality regarding loan applications and loan service (i.e., routine transactions), but associated with a decrease in the service quality of loan collection (i.e., sophisticated issues regarding financial distress), particularly when the bank has no branch presence in the local area. This evidence supports the proposition that investment in technology alone can increase financial service quality through building better information infrastructure and offering more convenient, standardized services. However, technology is inadequate when dealing with complex financial distress issues, particularly when not complemented by human service personnel. Overall, this study provides the first empirical evidence on the impact of technology investment on financial service quality through the lens of human capital investment.