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Brand resonance will significantly improve the profits of the services industry in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this paper is to find the resonance score for modified customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model in mutual fund financial services and improve the conceptualization of customer-based mutual fund services’ brand equity through brand resonance.

The path values of SEM model was used to estimate the relative weights of criteria and sub-criteria in analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model and it was empirically tested with a sample of 240 mutual fund investors.

The brand resonance using AHP has been quantified. The resonance quantification of each brand has been demonstrated using two renowned Indian mutual fund services brands State Bank of India and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

The interdependency of the factors which influence the resonance score is not explored.

Research findings provide useful guidelines for fund managers/analysts of mutual fund services companies while improving the brand equity and strong brand’s resonance with investors.

The paper examines quantification of resonance for modified CBBE model in mutual fund services using data from a sample of investors in India with two mutual fund brands. The AHP structure model helps firms effectively quantify the resonance score.

The puprose of this study is to empirically test the suggestion that branding is more important for services than for physical goods and that there is a direct relationship between the level of intangibility and the importance of branding.

An exploratory study is employed using a scenario‐based repeated measures ANOVA design, wherein the degree of product intangibility is varied from high (mutual funds) to medium (hotels) to low (computers) through a survey distributed to 101 respondents.

The results support the position that intrinsic brand cues are more important for highly intangible service purchases (mutual funds) than for purchases that are more tangible (hotels and computers). The results also reveal that extrinsic brand cues are less important in purchase decisions of highly intangible services.

This study answers a call for additional empirical research into the dynamics of services branding and its effects on consumer decision making.

This study provides managers with information about how to prioritize brand‐building activities.

This study fills an important gap in the services marketing literature by offering a rare empirical study on services branding. Furthermore, this study makes an important extension to the research of Krishnan and Hartline in their article, “Brand equity: is it more important in services?”by testing the effects of specific brand cues on consumer's purchase decisions. The findings are more in line with prior conceptual research on the importance of services branding than the results presented by Krishnan and Hartline.

The experts in industry and academicians value brand resonance is the prerequisite factor in the firms of financial services. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to model the brand resonance score (BRS) for modified customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model in mutual fund financial services using structural equation modeling (SEM) and analytic network process (ANP).

Criteria and sub-criteria relative weights are calculated from the SEM and sub-sub-criteria relative weights are measured through pair-wise comparison matrix for BRS modeling using ANP approach.

The brand resonance using ANP has been quantified, and BRSs of each brand through brand judgments and brand feelings criteria are calculated using two renowned Indian mutual fund services brands State Bank of India and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Interdependency between sub-criteria are not explored. This research study is specific to Indian bank mutual fund services context.

Research findings provide useful guidelines for fund managers/analysts of mutual fund service firms to improve the brand resonance to investors.

The paper explained modeling BRS using ANP technique which helps organizations quantify the brand resonance effectively.

This paper aims to fill a gap in the literature of marketing communication by exploring the role of different nudges implemented through advertising and personal selling in enhancing purchase intention and sales of mutual funds in Pakistan.

Data collected by 20 semi-structured individual qualitative interviews in Pakistan were subjected to thematic analysis.

This study reveals the way managers apply different nudges in the form of Islamic beliefs and values in advertising and personal selling to enhance purchase intention and sales of mutual fund products among Muslim customers. Nudges that can be used in marketing communication may include religious cues, religious beliefs, religious values, spiritual elements, halal aspects of investment plans, religious icons and symbols, cultural music and images, appropriateness and correctness of sales messages and communicating halal aspects of mutual funds.

The conclusions are based on findings from a relatively small number of respondents from one investment firm, but they offer an empirical basis for future research on the effect of advertising and personal selling on the sales and purchase intention of mutual fund products in an Islamic society.

This study offers practitioners a better understanding of the marketing communication tools likely to influence consumers’ purchase intention of mutual fund products, with positive implications in creating advertising and sales management in Pakistan.

Despite the prevalence of promoting mutual fund products, little research-based analysis has been available to academics or practitioners.

Usage of updated technology is continuously empowering customer relationship management (CRM) to be convenient and user friendly, where customers are kept engaged with knowledge and information. This enables them on decision-making and managing their portfolio, especially in mutual fund investments. To improve toward a positive decision, certain quality related variables needed to be considered. Thus, this study aims to estimate the mediation effect of relationship quality and outcome (RQO) between CRM and investment decision-making in mutual funds (MFD).

The descriptive study adopted the constructs from existing empirical literatures to conceptualize the model with three higher order constructs with 12 dimensions. Survey method is used, and with a structured questionnaire, a total of 323 mutual fund investors were approached using nonprobability criterion sampling technique, of which 262 relevant responses were considered for estimating the structural model. Smart PLS was used to establish the relationship of the constructs.

The result emphasizes a significant direct and indirect relationship indicating that investors are more inclined to MFD through technology-enabled CRM and RQO plays a vital role in explaining the direct relationship between CRM and MFD. The results of the study are in-line with the existing literature.

The study highlights that financial institutions must focus not only on technological diffusion but also needs to ensure quality service by providing knowledge and information during every access of transactions by customers, making them independent and confident during investments.

This study indicates how capacity efficiency, which is a part of service productivity, can be managed without affecting the outcome efficiency by incorporating technology in the place of human interaction during relationship acquiring and retaining process.

Finance theory proposes that consumers require information about the risk‐return trade‐off credibility information to relieve principal‐agent conflict concerns, and transaction cost information – for investment decisions. This paper aims to investigate whether or not such information is present in advertisements for one investment vehicle – mutual funds.

All advertisements in Barron's and Money over two years were content‐analysed to determine the degree to which mutual fund advertising practice adheres to theories regarding information necessary for optimal investment decisions. Use of techniques known to influence advertisement noting (i.e. advertisement size and colour) and copy readership (i.e. visual size, text length, unique selling proposition/brand‐differentiating message, celebrity endorsements, direct or indirect comparisons with competitors, and emotional appeals) was also investigated. Finally, because mutual funds are a financial service, the presence of convenience information (e.g. investment minima, access to agents or account information, and liquidity) was studied.

Mutual fund advertisements are not providing the information necessary for optimal investment decisions. Mutual funds use techniques known to increase the likelihood that their advertisements are noticed, but they also use techniques known to decrease the readership of their advertisements. Also, they rarely included convenience information.

Mutual fund advertisements attempt the activation of the advertised brand‐quality and the long copy‐quality heuristic. However, future research must determine whether or not consumers are applying these two heuristics on seeing mutual fund advertisements.

Mutual fund advertising is not serving consumers. Regulators should require all mutual fund advertisements to include an easy‐to‐read table summarizing necessary investment information to assist consumer decision making.

Outlines previous research on the mutual fund industry and compares the characteristics of the US and European mutual fund markets using the structure‐conduct‐performance paradigm. Shows that the European industry is smaller, with more funds and more emphasis on fixed income, with the UK and US having lower concentration ratios than mainland Europe; and the US a wider range of fees. Contrasts the use of different distribution channels and performance statistics; and uses 1991‐1997 data to compare actual stock market returns against benchmarks and between countries. Analyses this in detail and notes with surprise the European funds have a better average performance than US funds.

This study estimates the impact of changes in the mutual fund distributor incentive structure on distributor-advised mutual fund flows. The authors employ two recent major policy interventions by the Indian self-regulatory authority and the financial market regulator – one partial ban and another complete ban on upfront commissions – paid to mutual fund distributors on distributor-advised mutual fund flows.

The authors use novel distributor-level data across the 198 largest distributors in India between 2013 and 2020 and a series of pooled panel random-effect generalized least squares models with robust standard errors to explore the effect of changes of distributor commissions on distributor assets-under-management (AUM), gross sales, commissions and changes (%) in the number of investors in alternate investment avenues like portfolio management services (PMS).

Changes in the incentive structure have a significant negative effect on mutual fund flows at an aggregate level and within MF distributor categories. A significant diversion of investor funds toward PMS is noted, which paid higher upfront commissions to distributors during the same period.

The authors posit that these two developments are not mutually independent and that both fall out of the aforementioned policy changes by Securities and Exchange Board of India and Association of Mutual Funds in India. The study findings have implications for all stakeholders in the Indian mutual fund industry and, by extension, for Indian and global alternative investment avenues.

This study is the first to explore the effects of these two major policy interventions by regulators on mutual fund flows in India.

This article explores how social actors negotiate the competing logics they face as a result of their work in organizations subject to institutional complexity. In particular, I theoretically focus on the unique characteristics associated with societal institutional logics, such as religion, family, and the state. Empirically, I analyze religious mutual funds (Catholic, Muslim, and Protestant) in the United States that dwell at the intersection of the competing logics of religion and finance. Through interviews with 31 people who work at religious mutual funds (or fund producers) and content analysis of religious mutual fund material, I focus on the symbolic boundary work that religious fund producers engage in. I find examples of boundary blurring and boundary building and suggest institutional complexity that involves at least one societal logic is especially likely to foster both modes of boundary work. This, I propose, leads to an increased likelihood of enduring institutional complexity.