Improving relationship quality during the crisis Estrada-Guillén, Marta; Monferrer-Tirado, Diego; Moliner-Tena, Miguel
The Service industries journal,
03/2020, Letnik:
40, Številka:
3-4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The economic crisis in Spain has had a considerable impact on the financial sector and has led to a deep and widespread restructuring in the industry. The combination of a vigorous expansion policy ...and the burst of the housing bubble brought about an economic depression with emotional consequences. As a result, customers have had to use their emotional intelligence to manage a range of emotions and this management has affected the perceived quality of their relationship with their bank. In this article, we develop a theoretical approach starting from the hypothesis that customers' emotional intelligence influences relationship quality. We also explore the possible interactions between the variables that make up the macro-construct of relationship quality. Results from a sample of 1125 customers in a study using structural equations models allow us to confirm these relationships and to reflect on the need to generate strategies that can maximise customers' positive emotional performance.
The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between sustainability with customer satisfaction and service experience in service ecosystems, by analyzing the moderated role of business ...models. A model with four variables is proposed, whereby customer satisfaction is the dependent variable, perceived sustainability of the service ecosystem is the explanatory variable, service experience is the mediator variable, and business models is the moderator variable. The model is applied in a survey of tourists. The results enable comparison of the causal model: perceived sustainability influences customer satisfaction directly and indirectly through service experience; and business model can play a moderator role since significant differences are identified in one of the three types of tourism destinations.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of service quality dimensions as determinants of the emotional and relational behaviours experienced by the client in bank branches in ...the post-crisis context experienced by Spanish financial institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
Data taken from a total of 1,125 customers were analysed through structural equations modelling (EQS6.1) to test the relationships of the proposed model’s variables.
Findings
The results support the hypotheses stated, with the exception of the influence of a service quality dimension (servicescape) on emotions during the service. In fact, the dimensions of the service quality of an intangible nature (personnel, outcome and social) are determinants of the positive emotions and relational behaviours of clients around the service provided by the branches. For its part, servicescape quality, of a more tangible nature, exerts indirect influence on the other dimensions that compose the quality of service.
Practical implications
This paper provides senior bank executives established evidence on the degree of influence of the different dimensions in relation to the quality of service in the bank branch. Furthermore, it emphasises the importance of emotional factors during service as essential elements in strengthening customer–staff relationships under a non-transactional dynamic.
Originality/value
This paper has adopted an analytical holistic, theoretical and empirical perspective on the impact of the different dimensions of service quality (servicescape, personnel, outcome and social) as well as to the emotions experienced by banking customers during services and its lasting effect on customer engagement and customer advocacy.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the customer engagement and customer self-brand connection on customer advocacy and firms’ financial performance. The research focuses on ...the financial sector and studies a complex organization with a uniform strategy, but which attends the public in different centers (bank branches).
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical model of effects is tested using dyadic methodology, with 225 dyads (bank branch manager – average of five customers). The authors use structural equation modeling (EQS6.1) to test the relationships.
Findings
The results corroborate the hypotheses, with the exception of the influence of customer self-brand connection on financial performance. These analyses show that in the banking sector, where the intensive use of new information and technologies has led to a reduction in direct physical contact with the customer, the off-line experience continues to have a notable economic impact. Furthermore, investment in the brand from an experiential approach determines customer advocacy.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is twofold. This research analyzes from a theoretical and empirical perspective the impact of the customer engagement and customer self-brand connection on customer advocacy and firms’ financial performance.
As the Covid-19 pandemic brought most in-person activities to a halt, radical and visible changes were imposed in all social interactions, including teaching and academic activity in general. This ...challenging setting tested the education system's capacity to successfully address the Sustainable Development Goals. The success of education for sustainable development (ESD) requires training in the specific skills needed to face the highly emotionally demanding post-pandemic context. In this line, this study focuses on university students' capability to understand and manage emotions, an issue considered to be a key factor in ESD. The aim of this study is to show how students' emotional intelligence influenced their resilience, with repercussions on their engagement and subsequent academic performance. The research model was tested through a questionnaire addressed to 340 students from three different universities during the full lockdown of March–May 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
Results show that emotional intelligence was positively related to resilience, which in turn was related to engagement, and consequently, resulted in better academic performance. This finding should spark interest in developing emotional intelligence in education, not only because it produces healthy citizens in the long term, but also because of its short-term positive impacts in the classroom, particularly in such adverse situations as those described here. This study provides a model that links classic variables on educational and positive psychology research with ESD in times of COVID-19.
•ESD requires the training of the specific skills needed for pandemic context.•The capability to understand and manage emotions is a key factor for the ESD.•Students' emotional intelligence influenced their resilience, engagement and academic performance.
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) an unprecedented global pandemic. Nearly every country across the globe is struggling to reduce the spread of ...the COVID-19 virus and to limit its health, societal and economic consequences. As a response to that, with almost immediate effect, students, teachers and workers in general and across the globe were thrown into a new scenario of online work and education. In the midst of this emotional climate laden with fear, uncertainty, sadness and anxiety, millions of students all over the world were confined to their homes and the entire educational community had to adapt to a distance education model. The same occured with workers of different disciplines; they have to balance work and life in the same place. Therefore, homes suddenly became schools, universities and workplaces all at the same time. Against this backdrop, this Special Issue focuses on the study, evaluation and analysis of the opportunities the pandemic offers in three related aspects: first, for building an education for sustainable development. Second, for creating decent working conditions. Finally, to enhance health and well-being both at the workplace and at home. Authors from a range of disciplines, such as education, psychology, management, social sciences and other areas related to sustainable development, have contributed with differrent manuscripts. They address the challenges of studying, working and living in times of uncertainty in order to build sustainable development in those areas from theoretical and applied research.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the central role of bank customers’ engagement as a mediating variable between customer experience and two non-transactional customer behaviors ...(advocacy and attitudinal loyalty).
Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypothesis, a model was designed with two antecedents of bank customer engagement (satisfaction and customer emotions), and two non-transactional behaviors (attitudinal loyalty and customer advocacy). The model was tested on a sample of 1,790 customers of two Spanish banks.
Findings
Results confirm bank customer engagement as the mediating variable between customer experience outcomes and non-transactional behaviors.
Practical implications
Banks should design physical spaces with an atmosphere that will have a positive impact on their customers, and pay particular attention to interactions with contact personnel and other customers present at that moment of truth. The new concept of the branch now being introduced looks to the future, transforming it into a place to attend to and advise customers, and designed to encourage and facilitate a more personal and enduring relationship. This transformation includes longer opening hours and a concept that appears to draw from the store model. Its design is more accessible, more agile, more welcoming and more digital, conceived to attract the customer’s attention from the first moment.
Originality/value
The contribution of this research is related to the analysis from a theoretical and empirical perspective of the mediating impact of customer engagement between customer experience outcomes (satisfaction and emotions during the service) and non-transactional behaviors (advocacy and attitudinal loyalty).
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of bank branch managers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in CSR marketing outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper ...proposes a causal model establishing that managers’ perceptions of CSR influence the perception of CSR held by the branch’s customers, which in turn directly affects customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer engagement and customer loyalty. The unit of analysis in this quantitative study is the bank branch. Two questionnaires were administered: one to branch managers and another to five customers in each branch.
Findings
Branch managers’ perceptions of CSR have a marked influence on customers’ perceptions of CSR, which again have a notable impact on the relationship variables studied: customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer engagement and customer loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was taken from two banks in the same country (Spain) and only five customers were interviewed in each branch. The type of customers analyzed should be taken into account since a growing number of customers now carry out all of their banking online and are less likely to visit their branch.
Practical implications
The results highlight the importance of adopting socially responsible actions not only in the bank as a whole, but also in individual branches. It would, therefore, seem crucial for high level bank executives not only to involve branch managers in the bank’s CSR strategy, but also to empower them to undertake CSR actions that involve the customers and local community with which they interact.
Originality/value
First, the paper reveals the differences within the same organization in the way its CSR strategy is implemented. Second, intermediary figures or supervisors are shown to have a key role in ensuring the organization’s CSR strategy is effective. Third, the study emphasizes the importance of customers’ perception of CSR in achieving the main outcomes of relationship marketing (satisfaction, trust, engagement and loyalty). Fourth, the methodology applied in the study is innovative in its construction of dyads in which the branch is the unit of analysis, enabling a comparison between the manager’s perceptions of CSR with that of five customers from the same branch. Fifth, the findings add to the knowledge of a particularly relevant sector in the recent economic crisis, namely, the retail banking industry.
Social value in retail banking Carlos Fandos Roig, Juan; Estrada Guillén, Marta; Forgas Coll, Santiago ...
International journal of bank marketing,
01/2013, Letnik:
31, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose - The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of perceived value on customer loyalty, going into depth in the special case of social value.Design methodology approach - A total of 200 ...personal surveys have been conducted on customers of financial institutions, and structural equation modelling has been used to compare the relationships arising.Findings - The importance of perceived value for consumer loyalty is confirmed, and the core performance of the service received is the main determinant of satisfaction. The effect of social value on customer loyalty is also examined in two ways: as a determinant of the attitude of the individual and as a normative component directly influencing behavioral intentions.Research limitations implications - This research was carried out in financial services. Further research of the proposed conceptual model across different industries and countries is needed to determine the generalizability and consistency of this study's findings.Practical implications - It highlights the interest of social marketing programs and corporate social responsibility to maintain the customer's loyalty.Originality value - The contribution of this work is that it makes it possible to study the effect of social value along with other relational variables in consumer loyalty. The authors compared the effect of the core service performance with the social component as an element influencing the individual's attitude and as a normative element.
Based on an ambidexterity approach and using data from 384 Spanish bank branch managers, the results of this study confirm that market orientation facilitates the development of dynamic exploratory ...capabilities in bank branches and these, in turn, influence their capacity to exploit knowledge through marketing capabilities, leading to higher performance. The findings provide researchers and managers with practical insights into the joint application of certain key approaches and theories (market orientation, ambidexterity, resources- and capabilities-based view, and dynamic capabilities theory) in order to guarantee the sustainable performance of service firms in general, and banks in particular, especially in a context of crisis.
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