Editorial

Citation

Eriksson, K. and Estelami, H. (2013), "Editorial", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm.2013.03231eaa.001

Editorial

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Bank Marketing, Volume 31, Issue 5.

In this issue of the International Journal of Bank Marketing there are four papers that further our insights into customer loyalty, value creation, and resistance to new technologies. Both banks and customers typically benefit from long-lasting relationships and mutual loyalty between the bank and the customer. Since customers increasingly take part in the value creation process, the bank can organize its operations so that customers can take part in the creation of their own service experiences. The customer then co-produces value. For banks, facilitating customer co-production could very well be a promising future business development area. Accordingly, research in this issue finds that leadership that focuses on market orientation also increases bank performance. The results reported in the papers included in this issue provide resounding support for the view that bank managers should lead their organizations towards value creation for their customers. Bank investment in new technologies is costly, and research in this issue of IJBM provides useful insights on how to approach customers who resist using new technologies.

Banks’ relationships with their customers is complicated because banks typically offer a wide variety of services, ranging from relatively simple transaction processing services to complex knowledge-intensive services. Customer relationships are also complicated by the existence of multiple distribution channels in banking. As in other type of services, consumption and production of bank services take place simultaneously. Bank customers effectively become co-producers of the bank's service, since they provide input that is necessary for the operation and performance of the service. But this co-production process is complicated by the range of services and multiple distribution channels in banks’ service offerings. In this issue, Nätti and Lähteenmäki conceptualize the value to the bank customer of co-production as the customer's “value-in-use”. They go on to identify obstacles to increasing the customer's value-in-use. Their findings are that obstacles can exist if a bank has a producer-oriented service offering, lacks employee commitment to provide high-quality service, or if the bank places excessive emphasis on being product or sales oriented. These obstacles can also be seen as strategic advantages, in the sense that banks that manage to overcome them can create more customer value than their competitors can.

Banking is often described as an industry built on long-lasting customer relationships. In this spirit, Fandos-Roig, Estrada-Guillén, Forgas-Coll, and Palau-Saumell study factors that influence customer loyalty to banks. They use the theory of reasoned action together with theories of social value and customer satisfaction to develop a model that helps explain what causes customer loyalty. Their findings are that customer satisfaction and customers’ perception of the social value associated with the bank determine customer loyalty. The customer's perceived value of benefits they receive from being bank customers influences customer satisfaction, which in turn influences loyalty. Therefore, the effect of the customer's perceived benefits has an indirect influence on customer loyalty, working through customer satisfaction. This means that a customer that perceives benefits needs to also to be satisfied, before the customer's loyalty increases.

It is commonly believed that the performance of banks is reflected in the quality of their leadership. The research done by Kivipõld and Vadi confirms this contention. In their paper, the researchers study how bank leadership influences bank performance. They find that leadership that focuses market orientation cohesively among employees in the organization result in increased performance. The findings emphasize that increased performance can be achieved by leading staff in the bank towards market orientation. In the recent past, management of banks have been focused on crisis management, much of which was a result of the financial crisis. However, as the effects of the crisis fade away a renewed focus on leadership is essential and management can concentrate on improving market orientation.

One of the major conundrums in banking is to decide when to invest in new technologies. Customers often resist using new technologies, and understanding this resistance can be key to the timing of investments in new technologies. The paper by Mzoughi and M’Sallem studies customer resistance to change by examining customers who postpone the decision to use a new technology, and those who reject and oppose using the technology. The theory of reasoned action is used as a framework to understand how these three categories of customers differ in their resistance to change. The paper identifies that there is a need to approach customers who resist using new technologies in different ways depending on whether they, reject or oppose using it.

As the recent economic crisis abates, many banks now show positive results. Finally, banking can focus not on crisis management and cost cutting, but rather on the creation of customer value and long-term investments. One of the areas in which new investments are needed is technology. The power of customer involvement in the service production process is shown by companies such as Facebook, Amazon, and Tesco. Banks can become more market oriented by learning from these companies and facilitate customer co-production of service value. Banks need to invest in management approaches and technologies that help their customers recognize the value of their services and transform customers into satisfied and loyal partners in co-producing the service experience.

Kent Eriksson and Hooman Estelami