Editorial

Citation

Eriksson, K. and Estelami, H. (2015), "Editorial", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 33 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-02-2015-0019

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Bank Marketing, Volume 33, Issue 3.

The traditional role of banking has been to act as an intermediary between those who have access to financial resources and those who need them. Despite the transition of banking and financial services marketing into electronic forms this role still remains a fundamental characteristic of what banking is. The papers in this issue of IJBM examine the role of banks as intermediaries. They explore issues related to the physical location of banks and how location affects the ability of banks to serve their customers. They also explore how the different electronic modes of service delivery are perceived by bank customers. In addition, the research presented in this issue go beyond the examination of the physical contact points with banks and study the emotional and psychological aspects of the relationships that banks have with their customers. Finally, the critical social role of banks as providers of financial resources to the needy and the poor is examined in the specific context of activities that banks engage under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The first two papers in this issue deal with the logistic and physical aspects of delivering banking services.

The first paper by Ansong, Chowa and Adjabeng, is entitled “Spatial analysis of the distribution and determinants of bank branch presence in Ghana”. In this paper, the significance of the geographic location of bank branches in servicing customers is demonstrated, in the specific context of the Ghanaian population. The authors examine the accessibility of bank branches in both urban and rural areas and attempt to explain the sources of disparities that may exist in the geographic accessibility of bank branches. The findings indicate that there is significant inequality in the distribution of bank branches, with urban areas having a more dense distribution of branches. In addition, the presence of bank branches is influenced by factors such as literacy levels and population size. The findings highlight the significant role that banks can have in improving access to financial services and the need for a more balanced means of distribution, both using branch banking and electronic means. The second paper in this issue of IJBM, builds on the first paper by focusing on the electronic means of service delivery for banks in India. In their paper entitled “Selection of appropriate electronic banking channel alternative: critical analysis using analytical hierarchy process”, Mishra and Singh examine factors that influence the adoption of various channels of electronic banking, in the specific context of India. Utilizing bank-customer data, preference levels for various channel choices are quantified. The findings suggest that factors such as self-efficacy, ease of use and security affect the adoption of the various channels and that certain channels such as ATMs and online banking are the most preferred among Indian bank customers.

The next two papers in this issue of IJBM shift the focus from the physical contact points between banks and their customers, to the psychological aspects of bank relationships. In the paper entitled “Customers’ emotional reactions in the banking industry,” Marinkovic and Obradovic highlight the significant role that emotions have in financial services exchanges. Despite the fact that normative models assume customers to be rational agents, the profound impact of emotions in financial decisions, and in the establishment of trusting and positive relationships is critical to understanding what constitutes a good bank-customer relationship. In this study, the authors demonstrate that factors such as image, trust and social bonds drive customer satisfaction as well as customers’ affective commitment towards the bank. Interestingly, service quality was found not to influence affective responses, highlighting the importance for banking institutions to focus on the intangible components of their relationships with their customers to enhance customers’ positive experiences. The next paper in this issue of IJBM further explores the issue of satisfaction creation in banking. In the paper entitled “Modelling roles of commitment on rapport and satisfaction”, Fatima, Razzaque and Mascio explore how customer satisfaction is influenced by calculative, affective and normative measures of commitment, and how the relationship may be mediated by employee-customer rapport. Utilizing customer data from bank customers in Bangladesh, the authors find that affective and normative commitment have considerably greater impact on developing rapport with bank employees, than calculative commitment.

The next two papers in this issue of IJBM have a specific focus on insurance marketing. O’Connor focuses on the US health insurance industry. She examines how the form of health insurance coverage impacts customers’ utilization of health services. Utilizing secondary data from a major metropolitan health care system, she finds that the presence of insurance coverage and additional pre-disposing factors have a predictable and positive impact on health care service utilization. Furthermore, this effect is found to vary across demographic groups. The paper by Ali Dehghanpour Farashah and Zeinab Rezvani also focuses on insurance. The authors focus on the highly sensitive issue of insurance fraud from a consumer perspective. Using a large secondary database, the authors examine factors that contribute to an insurance customer’s propensity to file fraudulent claims with an insurer. The authors find that depending on one’s views on insurance fraud and one’s perceptions of the likelihood of being caught, there are four different segments of customers. Demographic and psychographic differences among the segments are examined and prescriptions for insurers seeking to minimize financial losses attributable to insurance fraud are provided.

The next two papers in this issue of IJBM focus on banking services in India. In their paper entitled “Serving the poor: captive market CSR and repurchase intention”, Jose, Khare and Buchanan explore if corporate social responsibility (CSR) measures taken by a bank influence the repurchase intentions of poor captive consumers. Utilizing a survey of microfinance borrowers in India, the authors find that CSR activities in the borrowers’ communities positively impact repurchase intentions. The findings indicate the effect to be strongest for unmarried female customers. Their paper demonstrates the important social role that banks have in serving all segments of the population, including the poor. The paper by Mittal, Gera and Batra also focuses on the Indian banking services marketplace. In this paper, the authors examine the underlying drivers of customers’ service quality perceptions. Utilizing both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the findings suggest that there is a hierarchical structure to the formation of service quality perceptions. The extracted dimensions include service delivery, tangibles, reliability, core service features and competence. The findings are helpful to management effort by banks in India intended to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction with banking services.

The next paper in this issue of IJBM focuses on banking in United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this paper, Sayani examines factors that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty in the specific context of UAE banks. The author studies the underlying relationships for both Islamic and conventional banks. Utilizing a customer survey, the findings indicate that customer satisfaction with Islamic banks is driven by satisfaction with Shariah Advisory Boards, convenience factors and service accessibility. For customers of conventional banks, factors such as bank reputation and speedy handling of customer issues on the phone have a large impact on customer perceptions. This study can help guide efforts by UAE banks to serve customers of both Islamic and conventional banks by identifying the underlying drivers of customer perception and behaviour formation. The final paper in this issue of IJBM by Chahal and Bakshi examines how intellectual capital can be used as a source of competitive advantage in the banking sector. In examining this relationship, the role of factors such as innovation and organizational learning are studied. The relationships are then empirically tested using survey data from both public and private banks in the Indian banking sector.

The papers featured in this issue of IJBM highlight the social role of financial services. Despite the growth of electronic means of distributing banking services, banking remains a physical process in many parts of the world. Geographic accessibility is critical to ensuring equitable distribution of financial services to the population. Furthermore, providing bank customers with the desired modes of electronic banking is critical to the process of optimizing bank-customer exchanges. The papers in this issue have also highlighted the strength of emotions in driving customer loyalty and rapport-building, and the need for banks to focus on enhancing non-tangible aspects of their relationships with their customers. Furthermore, the global and far-reaching impact of financial services are demonstrated through empirical studies spanning across national and cultural boundaries. The research studies presented in this issue of IJBM are intended to solidify our understanding of these critical aspects of banking, which have for decades been at play and continue to grow in their significance as banks reach out to new segments of the population and as they utilize emerging technologies to expand beyond the geographical boundaries of their branch operations.

Kent Eriksson and Hooman Estelami