Abstract:
The paper examined how the cultural orientations influence customers’ perception on the banking services offered in
the Tanzanian banking by carrying out a comparison between foreign and local banks. The sample size of 380 customers
were involved, of whom 196 used local banks services while 184 used foreign bank services. Confirmatory factor
analysis was used to examine the psychometric properties of cultural orientations as based on the Tanzanian bank
customers. Validity and reliability assessment as well as measurement invariance testing were performed on the cultural
orientations’ measurement models used in the study. In carrying out the confirmatory factor analysis, Sharma’s (2010)
cultural orientation scale was applied and, the dimensions consumer innovativeness, traditional values and prudence
values were used in the model. The findings indicate that Foreign bank customers had significantly higher mean values
than local bank customers for consumer innovativeness and traditional values, but there was no significant difference
between the two types of banks for prudence values. The findings of the study suggest that there are significant
differences in the consumer innovativeness between local and foreign bank customers, with foreign banks customers
having significantly higher latent mean consumer innovativeness scores than local customers. There were no significant
differences between local and foreign bank customers based on prudence values. Surprisingly, foreign bank customers
had a slightly higher significant mean traditional values than local bank customers. The study recommends that Bank
managers should change the strategic focus of their offerings by identifying the exact customers’ needs, incorporating
cultural values so that these needs can be met and exceeded.
