# Evaluating the Perceived Quality of Mobile Banking Applications in Croatia: An Empirical Study
## 1 Introduction
Findings of a recent study conducted in Croatia [8] indicate that the possibility of paying bills is the main motivating factor for using mobile banking, followed by the possibility of monitoring account balance, a savings account, credit card transactions, loan payments, and of receiving notifications about new services, which was perceived as the least relevant motivating factor. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [13] conducted a study on the determinants of mobile banking adoption, focusing primarily on the benefits and challenges in that respect. Their findings suggest that the most common benefits of mobile banking are reduced cost, reduced time, and personalization, while the most frequently reported challenges are related to the overall quality of the system, security, regulatory environment, and economic viability. According to [PERSON] and [PERSON] [14], the next step in improving mobile banking applications is the implementation of new technologies such as Big Data, the Internet of Things, and Blockchain. The main objective of this paper is to examine the perceived quality of mobile banking applications that are mostly used in Croatia. Therefore, we raised the following research questions:1. Which services offered by mobile banking applications are most commonly used? 2. What are the main advantages and drawbacks of mobile banking applications? 3. Is there a significant difference in the perceived quality among different mobile banking applications? 4. Is there a significant difference in the perceived quality of mobile banking applications among users belonging to different age groups? 5. What dimensions of the perceived quality contribute to customers' satisfaction and their behavioral intentions related to the continued use of mobile banking applications? To obtain answers to the above-mentioned research questions, we conducted an empirical study. Drawing on the review of the recent and relevant literature in the field, we identified eight constructs that constitute the perceived quality of mobile banking applications and proposed a research framework in the form of a conceptual model that represents the interplay of these constructs. As a follow-up, we designed a measuring instrument in the form of a post-use questionnaire that was employed for collecting data from the representative sample of mobile banking application users in Croatia. The validity and reliability of the research model were together with hypothesized relationships between constructs examined with the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. Based on the data collected from users, we identified three different age groups of mobile banking application users and determined which four mobile banking applications are the most commonly consumed in Croatia. Then we applied the Kruskal-Wallis tests to determine if a significant difference in the perceived quality among examined mobile banking applications as well as among identified user age groups exists. Finally, descriptive statistics were used to analyze qualitative data gathered with open-ended items, thus identifying the advantages and disadvantages of evaluated mobile banking applications. The contributions of this work can be summarized as follows:  
* Overview of current advances in the assessment of mobile banking applications;
* Measuring instrument in the form of a post-use questionnaire that can be employed for evaluating the perceived quality of mobile banking applications;
* A valid and reliable conceptual model that can be used for predicting customers' satisfaction and their behavioral intentions related to continued use of mobile banking applications;
* List of pros and cons of mobile banking applications that are predominantly used in Croatia. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The theoretical background to our empirical study is offered in the next section. The research methodology is described in the third section. The findings of the empirical study are reported in the fourth section and discussed in the fifth section.