Since the dawn of the automobile age at the beginning of the 20th century, oil has guided the growth of the global economy. The availability of oil and its price have been a determinant in times of both war and peace. The Allied nations achieved victory in two world wars in large part because of their ability to dominate the oil supply. The post-war boom ran on oil that was widely accessible and reasonably priced. When that supply tightened and became subject to political manipulation with the formation of OPEC, there was a direct correlation with slowing growth. This supply and demand relationship between oil and the rest of the modern economy was the underpinning of a Paradigm: when oil was readily available the economy could grow; when it became too scarce or expensive, the economy stalled. Following the end of the Cold War, geopolitics focused on ensuring access to supplies in the Middle East - the swing producing region whose output determined marginal cost and price – even at the expense of wars in Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria and ongoing tensions with Iran. Following the financial crisis of 2008, the pattern of economic growth began to diverge from the supply and price of oil. In the emerging New Paradigm, renewable energy, climate impacts, and new sources of supply from fracking and new discoveries are the determining factors. Oil and its derivatives remain important but their close link to economic performance has been broken.

The use of banking electronic services (e-services) increased dramatically during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This increase has been associated with failures, defects, and shortcomings in such services. Research on this topic is increasingly using different methodologies. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and validity) of a recently developed scale designed to measure customers experiences with banking e-services in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. This scale has been reported to have acceptable face and content validity. The quantitative research approach is applied and data is collected through a research survey. The scales questionnaire has two parts: one part consists of items on demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, and experience of service failure) and the other of 75 items on topics such as perceived information quality, digital commitment, service satisfaction, and cultural impact on choice of e-banking services. A descriptive-explorative, cross-sectional research design was used in this study, which focused on Saudi banks and utilized a non-probability sample of 555 customers. The scale was subjected to normality testing and did not violate normal distribution assumptions. The scale also showed acceptable levels of sphericity, and the Q–Q plot showed a significant relationship among items, reflecting normal distribution of items. The scales internal consistency value was 0.986. The results of a principal component analysis showed that all 75 items loaded above the cutoff point of 0.50 and could be subsumed under four factors information processing and quality of services, perceived justice, security and safety, and e-services recovery and banking choices. The newly developed scale is valid and reliable for the target population and can be used to measure customers experiences with banking e services. Further testing is warranted to ensure the scales suitability and stability over time and for other populations.

Described as a communications theory, the diffusion of innovations theory describes the pattern and speed at which innovative ideas, practices, or products spread through a population. The functions and processes of the diffusion model, however, appear to fit better as a business model; more specifically, a marketing model. The main players in the theory are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The model helps a business to understand how a buyer adopts and engages with new products or technologies over time. Companies will use it when launching a new product or service, adapting one, or introducing an existing product into a new market. To that end, this paper explores how diffusion and adoption might better apply as a marketing theory.