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This study analysed the effect of online negative word-of-mouth (nWOM) firestorms in the retail banking sector. By understanding negative sentiment and sentiment recovery across an entire retail banking sector, the research exposed a unique view of banking in South Africa.

The study made use of both a sentiment and topic analysis of over 1.7 million social media posts in South Africa. The methodology made use of both NLP and human validation techniques to measure changes in social media sentiment during online firestorms. This measurement included each of South Africa's major retail banks over a twelve month period.

From the analysis, key trigger characteristics for these firestorms (product failures, service failures, social failures and communication failures) were categorised. In addition, the average duration of a firestorm was calculated and factors that impact sentiment recovery were explored.

The study was located in South Africa and, unlike firm level studies, researched nWOM for the whole retail banking sector. A theoretical footprint depicting the typical anatomy of a firestorm was derived in order to aid stakeholders to be more vigilant and better equipped to provide correct intervention in such times of crisis.

This paper aims to show that a generic bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) segmentation strategy does not represent a multi-country BoP consumer profile. A series of multinational entry failures has clearly shown that a one-size-fits-all strategy is inappropriate for emerging markets, especially in Africa.

The study analysed literature defining and profiling BoP consumers at both a global and local level using South Africa as a case study. Being Africa’s largest economy, South Africa was an ideal subject. The findings were then independently triangulated with seven experts for validation.

The results show that the South African BoP has eight characteristics that align with definitions in global BoP consumer literature. An additional five characteristics were identified that were not general BoP characteristics, and that applied specifically to South Africa.

The findings add to the growing evidence that BoP markets are complex and heterogeneous, and they make a case to consider each BoP market individually. As there is yet to be a model to define BoP market differences systematically, this study provides a foundation for new developments in BoP segmentation in Africa and in other emerging markets.

While there is evidence that BoP markets are complex and heterogeneous, there is yet to be a model to begin the process of defining these differences systematically to improve strategic direction for multinational companies and regional decision makers. This study, therefore, provides a foundation for new developments in this field of segmentation in Africa and in other emerging markets globally.

This study provides empirical evidence for the impact that income and expenditure fluctuations have on understanding the fundamentals of BoP household share-of-wallet in South Africa.

The study used a longitudinal financial diary methodology to record household income in 80 households (in four different geographic areas) over four monthly waves.

The study showed the lack of reliability of aggregated population income and expenditure surveys when understanding the specific behaviour of BoP households. The study concludes that major category trade-offs occur on a monthly basis, and that these trade-offs directly impact our fundamental understanding BoP SoW.

While the BoP consumer theory is developing (especially in the last decade), most of the theory is focused on development and business strategy. Empirically based consumer theory is noticeably lacking, given that the BoP is the largest population segment on earth. In addition, research is largely absent of highly rigourous and in-depth quantification of consumer SoW behaviour. This study contributes to the BoP theory by examining monthly fluctuations in income and expenditure, a line of analysis not done before to this extent. In doing so, the study proposes a new metric for the measurement of category expenditure as an index of the total spend.

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence South African customers to potentially switch from one bank to another. Instead of using established models and survey techniques, the research measured social media sentiment to measure threats to switch.

The research involved a 12-month analysis of social media sentiment, specifically customer threats to switch banks (churn). These threats were then analysed for co-occurring themes to provide data on the reasons customers were making these threats. The study used over 1.7 million social media posts and focused on all five major South African retail banks (essentially the entire sector).

This study concluded that seven factors are most significant in understanding the underlying causes of churn. These are turnaround time, accusations of unethical behaviour, billing or payments, telephonic interactions, branches or stores, fraud or scams and unresponsiveness.

This study is unique in its measurement of unsolicited social media sentiment as opposed to most churn-related research that uses survey- or customer-data-based methods. In addition, this study observed the sentiment of customers from all major retail banks across 12 months. To date, no studies on retail bank churn theory have provided such an extensive perspective. The findings contribute to Susan Keaveney’s churn theory and provide a new measurement of switching threat through social media sentiment analysis.

This paper aims to investigate the factors that influence millennial purchase behaviour, brand choice and distribution channel selection in an evolving technology-driven environment.

The study was exploratory, using qualitative methods of personal interviews and some ethnographic observations to collect data from 585 millennials from ten cities in nine African countries.

Findings from the study confirm and support the critical role of e-commerce in facilitating millennials engagement with brands, highlighting how brand purchases are integral to their lifestyle choices. There is an overwhelming confirmation of the importance of influencer marketing and social media in shaping purchase decisions, with new insights into the role of local micro-influencers and social networks. The findings from the study highlight the pivotal role of a brand’s country of origin in influencing millennials’ brand preferences. The study supports and advances insights into the importance of online shopping and diverse factors influencing millennials’ selection of distribution channels.

There is an opportunity to leverage the growing mobile telephone penetration and social media usage to develop innovative integrated marketing communications strategies. There are opportunities for co-creating marketing communication campaigns with millennials in different settings. These are outlined in the practical implications section.

The paper is based on original empirical data collected from ten countries and explores the behaviour of a growing but under-researched segment of millennials in Africa.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the nature of variations among established and emerging middle class consumers in South Africa in response to the institution context factors associated with emerging markets that are established in international business studies.

An exploratory research approach using semi-structured expert interviews was used to collect data.

Key findings indicate distinct approaches in dealing with factors such as different fallback positions, asset ownership, education, language, family responsibility, career aspirations and risk protection in the middle class process of attaining and sustaining middle class status.

The focus on one country has the potential to minimize the generalizability of findings from the study, however, South Africa has a significantly high proportion of sub-Saharan middle class consumers. This provides a basis for further a basis for further research into other sub-Saharan African countries.

Findings from the study provide practical insights on risk profiling of middle-class consumers for marketing practitioners.

The study provides insights into the distinct variations between emerging and established middle class consumers in areas such as language and education. These insights have potential implications on the implementation of government policies such as the Empowerment Policy and consumer protection.

The paper expands the research agenda in the area of middle class consumer behavior in emerging markets. By concentrating on South Africa, the research expands existing knowledge beyond emerging giants like China and India, which are often a focus in literature.

This paper examines the relationships between bank switching and both customer vulnerability and consumer-oriented policies (financial education and disclosure practices).

The analysis employs microdata from the Special Eurobarometer on Financial Products and Services, for 24 European nations. It carries out a probit estimation on the factors explaining propensity of bank switching, focusing on three characteristics associated with customer vulnerability: an advanced age, low educational attainment and residence in a rural or a relatively poor region.

The authors report that the probability of bank switching is significantly lower for three groups of vulnerable customers: the elderly, the less educated and those living in deprived regions. Further the authors identify that national financial education policies and disclosure practices have no significant effects on bank switching.

Based on these results, the authors propose more targeted policies recognising customers' heterogeneity are required to increase bank switching behaviour.

This paper exploits a unique source of information on bank switching behaviour and customer characteristics across European nations. These data are complemented with information about consumer financial education policies and disclosure practices from the World Bank and geographical, market and regulatory factors at the regional and national levels. The paper contributes to two academic areas. First, it presents further evidence on heterogeneity of bank customer switching behaviour, addressed at improving the understanding of customer vulnerability in banking services. Second, it examines the efficacy of consumer-oriented policies (financial literacy and disclosure practices) in encouraging bank switching.

In the wake of lockdown regulations and limited mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic, dining habits shifted towards usage of food delivery apps to avoid physical interaction. Nonetheless, it is unknown whether the COVID-19 pandemic had an influence on the adoption of food delivery apps. Therefore, this study examined factors influencing the adoption of food delivery apps during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the moderating effects of education and age.

Data were collected from 282 food delivery application users in South Africa using a web-based survey. Partial least square structural equation modelling analysis was used to test the hypotheses, while partial least squares multigroup analysis was used to examine the moderating effect of education level and age.

The results indicated that perceived ease of use has a significant impact on perceived usefulness and attitudes, perceived usefulness has an impact on attitudes and continuous intention, attitude influences continuous intention and social pressure and convenience influence attitudes. The perceived COVID-19 threat had no impact on attitudes, and education and age had no significant impact on any relationships. The findings are imperative for restaurants and mobile application designers, as they enable more effective strategic management planning.

This study is the first paper to empirically employ technology acceptance model to analyse the adoption of food delivery applications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its uniqueness is in examining situational influence associated with the pandemic such as social pressure, perceived COVID-19 threat and convenience.