Exploring bank website expectations across two task scenarios

This article compares consumer expectations of bank website functionality for two online task scenarios: information search and transaction. This study uses task technology fit theory and follows a novel methodological approach by using expectation ‘fit’ according to a set of website attributes. An online questionnaire, distributed through e-mail invitation, achieved a sample of 469 Internet users. This research finds several points of similarity and difference with regard to consumer expectations of website attributes according to task context and makes an important and original contribution to both practice and theory. For marketing practitioners, the findings inform how they might ‘manage’ expectations to facilitate positive website experiences. Theoretical contributions are made through integrating IS and Marketing theory to identify the impact of goal-directed behaviour on satisfaction with website attributes.