Editorial

Citation

Estelami, H. (2016), "Editorial", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-12-2015-0189

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Bank Marketing, Volume 34, Issue 3.

Editorial for Issue 3 of the 2016 Volume

The papers featured in this issue of the International Journal of Bank Marketing focus on two distinct dimensions of modern bank marketing practices. The first four papers have a unique focus on technology utilization in banking, as topics related to the adoption of internet and mobile banking are examined. These four papers help us understand how technologically driven modes of delivering banking services vary in their capabilities across the different countries from which the reported data have been collected. The remaining three articles in this issue of the journal emphasize the human dimension of bank marketing, as they focus on topics such as customer loyalty formation, customer satisfaction, emotional intelligence, and employee engagement.

In the first article featured in this issue of IJBM, Amin examines the topic of service quality in the context of internet banking. He utilizes a survey of over 500 internet banking customers to determine how service quality interacts with customer satisfaction and loyalty in this unique environment. Through the empirical process adopted in this paper, Amin is able to identify the underlying dimensions of service quality and finds them to be good predictors of service quality as well as customer loyalty. The next article in this issue of the journal, by Jun and Palacios, focusses on yet another growing technology platform for modern banking, by examining the underlying dimensions of service quality in the context of mobile banking services. The findings reveal 17 underlined dimensions for mobile banking service quality. A subset of these dimensions – namely, convenience, accuracy, application diversity, ease of use, and continuous improvement – are found to be the primary drivers of customer satisfaction.

The third paper in this issue of the journal, by Koksal, further examines mobile banking by studying the adoption behavior of this mode of bank-customer interaction, specifically in the context of customers in Lebanon. Utilizing a survey of nearly 800 respondents, the author differentiates customers who are highly likely to adopt mobile banking from those who are least likely. The findings indicate that factors such as perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, ease of use, and trust can help identify those customers who are most likely to adopt mobile banking. This study is unique since it examines the mobile banking adoption phenomenon in the unique context of Lebanon and therefore expands past research from both geographic and conceptual perspectives.

In the next article, Oni, Ayo, Adewoye, and Eweoya further examine the issue of adoption of new bank interfaces, by studying factors that affect e-banking usage. The authors develop a conceptual model that integrates critical concepts such as e-service quality, self-efficacy, and diffusion of innovations to understand variations in the usage of e-banking services. Using a structural equations modeling framework the proposed model is tested and validated. The findings indicate that variables such as the level of competence of the support staff, system reliability, and responsiveness of the bank staff in and e-banking interface are critical to the formation of customers’ service quality perceptions.

While the first four articles in this issue of IJBM have a unique focus on technology, the next three articles are more focussed on organizational and perceptual dimensions of bank marketing. The paper by Karatepe and Aga examines the link between perceived organizational support, work engagement, organizational mission fulfillment, and job performance in a banking environment. Utilizing data from frontline bank employees in Northern Cyprus, a structural equation modeling approach is taken. The findings highlight the importance of approaches that bank management can take to enhance the effectiveness of frontline bank employees, for example by engaging them in the formulation of the mission statement and enhancing their overall level of work engagement.

The next paper in this issue of the journal, by Bhat and Darzi, further emphasizes the critical role that bank employees have in building relationships with the customer base. The authors examine how the competitive advantage of a bank and the loyalty exhibited by its customers can be affected by customer relationship management practices. Utilizing data from nearly 300 customers of a private bank in India the authors test a structural model developed based conceptualization derived from existing theories in the services marketing literature. Among the findings, one of the more notable results is the fact that customer knowledge is the most influential variable in providing banks a competitive edge through the generation of higher levels of customer loyalty. Other dimensions of customer relationship management practices – namely, complaint resolution, customer empowerment, and customer orientation – are also studied.

Similar to the previous paper, the final paper of this issue, by Saleem, Zahra, Ahmad, and Ismail – also examines topics related to the formation of customer loyalty. The authors study how customer loyalty is affected by market orientation, service quality, and social influence. Furthermore, the moderating effect of emotional intelligence is examined. Utilizing survey data collected from bank customers in Pakistan the authors demonstrate that market orientation, social influence, and service quality impact customer loyalty levels, and that customer satisfaction can mediate the process. In addition, emotional intelligence was found to contribute to the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. The results emphasize the importance of investing in banking practices that result in a higher levels of market orientation, generate higher levels of service quality, and produce more positive social influence among customers.

What is unique about the papers featured in this issue of the International Journal of Bank Marketing is the wide spectrum of activities that enable and enhance bank marketing practices. On the one hand, increasing levels of technology utilization by banks and the growing adoption of mobile and internet banking by customers around the world has made it more important for bank marketers to understand how these technologies are adopted and eventually used by the masses. On the other hand, the human element of banking persists as indicated by the articles featured in the second half of this issue of IJBM. Banking remains largely a human activity, and challenges related to the formation of customer trust and emotions, frontline employee engagement, and customer loyalty can never be removed from the process. The articles that have been featured in this issue of the journal therefore emphasize the wide array of opportunities and challenges that face bank marketers today.

Hooman Estelami