Examining the dynamics leading towards credit card usage attitude: an empirical investigation using importance performance map analysis

Many researchers have investigated the consumer’s attitude towards using credit cards. However, how the different attributes contribute to credit card usage attitude is not evident. Thus, the main theoretical contribution of this study is to examine the importance and performance of a set of variables that explain the attitude towards using credit cards. It provides essential inputs to banking institutions towards the relationship between bank image, credit knowledge, transaction behaviour, transaction control behaviour, and credit card usage attitude using cognitive–motivational–relational (CMR) theory. We used an adapted questionnaire to survey 383 Indian consumers from the National Capital Region (NCR). We applied variance-based partial least square structural equational modelling (PLS-SEM) on SmartPLS software to identify the importance and performance of each variable using importance performance map analysis (IMPA). Some significant findings include that credit knowledge and transaction behaviour are essential constructs determining credit card usage attitude. Moreover, the study also found that if banks enhance the credit knowledge of their consumers, they could build positive attitudes among consumers, based upon which their service marketing strategies could be shaped accordingly.