Emotional and behavioural appeals as key determinants in Ghanaian consumer pre-banking behaviour

Purpose: The pre-purchase phase of consumer behaviour for financial services, especially retail banking, has been under-researched. This study explored the determinants of consumer pre-banking behaviour (BAB) in the Ghanaian banking sector.

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach was employed by extending the constructs of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and technology acceptance model (TAM) to include affective and conative components and utilising a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis.

Findings: Affective, conative, cognitive attitude, emotions and perceived trust (PT) were significant determinants of consumer pre-BAB. From a practical point of view, marketing managers need to be emotionally connected with their potential consumers to enhance the propensity of automatic purchasing.

Research limitations/implications: The country context, sample type and size are limitations and so extending the study to other countries, with larger samples and additional insights on subjective norms (SNs), could help improve the model's efficacy.

Originality/value: The results presented in this paper are relevant and original because it is the only study, based on potential customers in an emergent economy context, to advocate the need for an emotional connection with potential consumers at the pre-banking stage to enhance the possibility of automatic purchasing.