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Purpose – This paper focuses on a unique historical case study of industry evolution in order to develop a road map where historical and strategic research could develop a common ground for trans-disciplinary inquiry.

Design/methodology/approach – The industry I explore is the Universal Credit Card Industry since its inception with the Diners Club in 1949 until its maturity in late 1990s. My empirical objective here is to develop a historically detailed and theoretically rich case study in which evolutionary processes are discovered as a result of the historical narrative.

Findings – The historical account of the industry demonstrates how the evolution of alternative business models as organizing forms has led to the establishment of interorganizational platforms with unique ecosystems. These alternative business models, through various experimentations, have ultimately produced two critical interorganizational organizations, one based on an open-loop system represented by Visa and MasterCard, and the other based on a closed-loop system represented by Diners Club and the American Express. The historical account also shows that in a given industry competition is not only among specific firms in the industry but also among the business models and the platforms created by these models.

Originality/value – I conclude that historical analyses reveal the nature of competition not only among firms but also among alternative business models where traditional strategy research rarely covers.

This paper aims to develop a set of tactical electronic business solutions for the electronic credit card issuing industry.

Specifically, a strategic credit card issuing (SCCI) model is developed to analyze e-business in the credit card issuing industry. Second, a set of tactical solutions is derived on the basis of the SCCI model. Third, pattern analysis is conducted on the basis of data collected from dominant credit card issuing companies to further investigate the implementation status on these electronic business solutions in the credit card issuing industry.

The findings show that three categories of electronic business solution items can be classified. The average variability of electronic business implementation patterns for business-to-business, business-to-customer and business-to-internal in each company shows a variety of electronic business strategies implemented by these dominant companies.

The results will help managers and executives when they make strategic and tactical decisions on electronic business in the credit card issuing industry.

The purpose of this paper is to inform readers about pervasive “predatory lending” practices in the credit card industry and to explore the limitations of the Congressional response to this problem.

National attention has been focused on illegal and unscrupulous behavior in the mortgage industry, but practices common to the credit card industry have been virtually ignored. This issue is explored through a description of the modus operandi of credit card lenders, details of regulator positions on predatory lending, and the recent Congressional response to this trend via The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009.

“Predatory lending” is a fraudulent practice that presents serious financial risks to consumers. Recent attempts to minimize those risks by Congressional statute may be inadequate. This paper identifies some of the limitations of those regulatory provisions to raise awareness of the issue.

While the response to predatory lending has been well‐intentioned, lenders are constantly findings new ways to circumvent current law and regulations. As a result, research must continue to properly investigate and address the issue.

Exploration of credit card lending practices is relevant in the context of the current economic environment. Further, investigation of the prevalence and impact of “predatory lending,” as well as the recent Congressional response, are necessary to determine if enough is being done to stymie this problem and protect consumers from continued economic marginalization.

This paper provides current information relevant to the pervasive issue of predatory credit card lending in the USA.

Using data from the Survey of Consumers, this study focuses on consumer’s resolution efforts with credit card problems and the likelihood of “exiting” – that is, discontinuing the use of a given credit card or of the financial institution associated with the card. Among all households with a problem, nearly two‐thirds (63 percent) were able to resolve their problem, while over half (55 percent) exited. Exit was associated with marital status, race, how dissatisfied the consumer was, number of problems related to credit cards, and attribution. Holding all else constant, consumers who were likely to resolve their problem were only half as likely to exit. Thus, credit card companies need to carefully and quickly address their customers’ problems and resolve their complaints.

The Federal Reserve Board has recently adopted a final rule amending the Truth in Lending Act's Regulation Z, effective October 1, 2001. The first study investigates how vulnerable consumers (i.e. college students) might respond to the revised credit card disclosure requirements and investigates credit card knowledge of college students. The second and third studies examine external validity issues, that is, whether urban college students are more knowledgeable about credit cards than rural students, and whether adult populations are more knowledgeable than student populations. These latter studies further investigate the relationships among objective knowledge, subjective knowledge and product usage. The results show that consumers in general are not very knowledgeable about credit cards. In order to avoid government regulation of the industry, it is recommended that credit card issuers become involved in educating consumers.

Japan has a large number of credit cards on issue and many of these are issued by Japanese retailers. Two such retailers, Saison and Daiei, illustrate why and by what means Japanese retailers have entered the credit card market. This provides the backdrop to an explanation of how those major retail groups are now seeking to redefine the payment system supply chain to their own advantage. Makes reference to the worldwide competition between Visa and Master Card and how in Japan retailers have been able to play one card association off against the others. Also highlights the value of the information flows from the cardholder to the retailer and vice versa and draws attention to the potential of the retailer credit card in customer retention, recruitment and relationship building.

Given the proliferation of the credit card industry in today’s US households, and the aggressive promotional tactics employed to get college students to sign on as customers, this exploratory study takes a look at the credit card activity of college students at one Midwestern campus. The majority of students surveyed did not report knowledge of their credit card interest rate, although approximately half did report knowing their credit balance and credit limit. Students appear to have a realistic attitude toward the use of credit cards.

In the USA, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) has adopted a final rule amending the Truth in Lending Act's Regulation Z, effective October 1, 2001. The present study aims to use the elaboration likelihood model to explore how consumers might respond to the revised credit card disclosure requirements, focusing specifically on college students.

Each subject was randomly assigned to one of two financial scenarios and asked to choose, among competing offers, the credit card that presented the “best” match to the scenario. Subsequently, all subjects completed measures designed to test hypothesized relationships within the framework of the elaboration likelihood model.

College students possess a fairly low level of knowledge of credit cards and thus are not very well equipped to make educated choices concerning such cards.

The use of a rural student sample is a limitation and future research should investigate different populations, including those in urban and international markets.

Since the variable APR information appears to distract consumers from taking into account other important cost information, credit card issuers should develop solicitations that aid consumers in making knowledgeable choices.

The present research is the first to investigate the impact of the FRB's recently adopted final rule amending the Truth in Lending Act's Regulation Z. The findings should thus be of interest to regulators, credit card issuers, and consumer advocates.

The purpose of this paper, which is based on author's PhD study, is to assess the efficacy of Indonesia's credit card fraud prevention from a strategic point of view, using a model of payments fraud prevention practice developed by the author based on similar practices in the USA, the UK and Australia.

Primary and secondary data, particularly from the payments system of the USA, the UK, Australia and Indonesia were used. Such data were collected by means of literature reviews and in‐depth interviews with payments system professionals.

The author establishes that credit card fraud prevention practice in Indonesia is still at a lower level of robustness than those in the USA, the UK and Australia. Deficiencies in the credit card fraud prevention practice in Indonesia are indicated, inter alia, by a lack of reliable fraud data collection, management and distribution mechanisms as well as a lack of effective and efficient identity management practice. Deficiencies and weaknesses in the system should be identified and action taken to make it more consistent with credit card fraud prevention practices of other countries.

The paper sees credit card fraud prevention practice in Indonesia as a function of many factors which influence one another, based on which the analysis is built.

In a fiercely competitive industry, credit card issuers need to develop a loyal customer base and motivate their card holders to use their cards at a sufficient level to assure profitability. The purpose of this article is to propose a consumer model of customer loyalty in the credit card industry.

A model of customer loyalty incorporating service quality, value and involvement is developed theoretically and validated empirically through SEM using data collected from a global sample of 114 credit card holders.

The loyalty model proposed was validated, showing that the independent variable, i.e. customer involvement, had path loadings of 0.32 and 0.26 on quality and value, respectively, while both service quality and value had direct effects on loyalty, with path loadings of 0.30 and 0.51, respectively.

Customer involvement has been shown to directly influence both service quality and value, and it should be further investigated for its effect on sustaining relationships, as well as a variable for segmenting customers.

In order to develop sustainable relationships, marketers of credit cards should leverage involvement in their customers by employing strategies such as branding, positioning, and attractive and flexible frequent use benefits. Further, credit card customers desire high service quality, but at an affordable cost, therefore making value a prime consideration for achieving loyalty.

This study has identified “involvement” as an independent variable that provides stability and sustainability to the firm‐customer relationship. Despite its pertinence, this customer characteristic that may be also used to segment customers has not been investigated in prior quantitative studies.