Modelling customer-based bank reputation: the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance
International Journal of Bank Marketing
ISSN: 0265-2323
Article publication date: 13 February 2019
Issue publication date: 13 February 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating role of culture in terms of uncertainty avoidance in the antecedents of customer-based bank reputation in two countries with different cultural patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was carried out by surveying 910 bank customers of the main banks in the UK and Spain. The hypotheses employed in this research were developed by contrasting the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance in the relationships between bank reputation and its antecedents, and were then tested through the use of partial least squares modelling.
Findings
Significant differences between British and Spanish bank customers were found with regard to the impact of innovation, workplace and leadership on bank reputation. However, the results obtained when considering uncertainty avoidance as a continuous moderator variable suggested that only the differences found as regards workplace and leadership were owing to this variable, thus providing empirical support for two out of the eight hypotheses developed on the basis of cultural theories.
Originality/value
This is the first study to analyse whether the relative importance of the antecedents of bank reputation differ with regard to customers’ uncertainty avoidance patterns, which is the cultural variable that is most closely linked in literature to customers’ banking decisions. This study contributes towards reputation research by showing that cultural differences in terms of uncertainty avoidance should be used with caution when establishing business guides for bank managers.
Keywords
Citation
Ruiz, B. and García, J.A. (2019), "Modelling customer-based bank reputation: the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 340-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-12-2017-0273
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited