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The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of service quality (SERVQUAL) from the perspective of the customers and its relationships with perceived overall SERVQUAL in retail banking and also investigate the relationships between perceived overall SERVQUAL and customer trust, customer satisfaction, and bank reputation.

A survey questionnaire was constructed, and data were collected from 375 regular customers of local banks. The convenience sampling method was employed to collect data from existing customers of local banks operating in the Klang Valley area of Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was applied to analyse the data.

The results of the study indicate four key dimensions of SERVQUAL – tangibles, empathy, reliability and security, and internet banking – all of which are significantly and positively related to customers’ perceived overall SERVQUAL. Internet banking facilities are another significant determinant of the perceived overall SERVQUAL. The results are indicative of the strong and positive effect upon customer satisfaction, their trust in the bank, and, finally, a bank’s reputation.

This study has presented and tested empirical study of perceived overall SERVQUAL model in the banking industry, particularly in the Malaysian context. This research identified the dimensions of SERVQUAL (i.e. tangibles, empathy, reliability and security, and internet banking) that influence the overall perceived SERVQUAL, and how these overall perceptions will eventually influence customer trust, customer satisfaction, and bank reputation is valid and reliable in retail banking industry. This study, however, only focussed on the banking industry. Given the diversity of the service industry, these findings may have to be tested for the applicability to different service industries in future studies.

This research is useful to bank managers as it helps them improve SERVQUAL to protect and expand their respective market share in a highly competitive industry. Banks could utilise the results of this study to improve their service tangibility, empathy, reliability, and security, which will affect both customer trust and satisfaction, and enhance a bank’s reputation.

The findings of specific dimensions of SERVQUAL will contribute to customer perception of banks’ image and reputation, and strengthen trust and satisfaction. Moreover, assisting customers towards the understanding of how they should received high quality of services with regard to quality should be perceived as emphatic, reliable, secured and tangibility of service.

The findings of this study highlight the specific dimensionalities of SERVQUAL in influencing the perceived overall SERVQUAL. This study will increase the understanding on the impact of perceived overall SERVQUAL on consumer trust, customer satisfaction, and a bank’s reputation. Specifically, it reports an empirical study of a model of perceived overall SERVQUAL that simultaneously considers the direct effects of perceived overall SERVQUAL on customer trust, customer satisfaction and bank reputation.

Social media platforms are important channels to create a favourable customer experience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the types of experiences customers can have with the branded content on social media.

Data were collected from 20 participants using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data.

The results identify seven types of branded content experience which are evoked when customers interact with branded content on social media. The results also suggest that branded content experience acts as a driver of consumer engagement with branded content which eventually leads to customers' sense of virtual community.

The findings provide theoretical implications for content creators. Further research should aim at comparing the branded content experience on different social media platforms and across different product categories.

This study contributes to customer engagement and experience literature in social media content by enhancing the understanding of branded content experience concept and its conceptual relationship with customer engagement in the social media context.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-10-2019-0333

The purpose of this study is to identify the customer perceptions of social media brand post characteristics that drive consumer engagement with the brand post. Furthermore, this study identifies the customer-brand relationship outcomes resulting from the behavioural engagement on social media.

An online survey of 407 social media users was undertaken. Structural equation modelling was used to test all hypotheses.

The results indicated that consumers respond positively to interactive and/or novel posts. Furthermore, consumer engagement with brand posts positively influenced all customer-brand relationship facets including brand love and customer-brand identification.

This study contributes to closing the empirical gap in social media consumer engagement research by providing support for consumer perception of brand post’s characteristics as a significant factor triggering consumer engagement with the brand post. This study also provides evidence that consumer engagement with brand posts leads to customer-brand relationships.

Islamic banking contributes significantly to the total assets of Malaysian banking sector. Yet, many argue that Islamic banking in Malaysia does not receive satisfactory support and participation from the public mainly due to poor awareness of its products and services and misconception about the Islamic banking system. It is timely to study consumers’ awareness of Islamic banking in the hopes of providing useful strategies for and assistance with marketing plans. This study is to explore consumer awareness towards Islamic banking products and services across a diverse set of demographic variables.

A quantitative approach was used in this study. A total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed via convenience and snowballing sampling method to bank customers in a public university in Malaysia, and 817 responses from the survey were used for the analysis. Descriptive and non-parametric statistics were employed to answer objectives of this study.

The findings of this study are anticipated to provide a holistic and comprehensive marketing insight to improve and strengthen Islamic banking in Malaysia.

This study examines the role of demographics such age, gender, race/religion, education level, occupation and income level in trying to understand the issues of Islamic banks’ product awareness. It is well accepted that the consumer’s attitude or behaviour should be studied among others through understanding customers’ demographics.

Despite the establishment of the Zakat, its role has been argued by the new Muslim (Muallaf) community. This research attempts to examine the role played by the Zakat institution in Selangor in distributing funds and supporting Muallaf.

A qualitative approach through a series of interview sessions with management of the Zakat institution was carried out.

The results show that the department has supported Muallaf, particularly in terms of education, finance and monitoring the Muallaf through various programmes starting from the first day they convert to Islam.

This chapter has its limitations in terms of the data collection from the Islamic religious centre. Future research should collect information from all rightful recipients, particularly the Muallaf community in order to measure the efficiency of the institution of Zakat. Future studies are important to understand how efficient the Islamic institution plays its role in managing and ensuring social economic justice among the other Muslim community.

This chapter indicates that the management of the Zakat institution should provide more systematic guidelines in managing Zakat fund for the efficient promotion, collection and distribution. Managing the institution of Zakat efficiently and effectively will help to enhance the image of religion, particularly Islam.

This chapter confirms that the Islamic Religious Department of Selangor has managed to successfully administer the Zakat fund. On top of that, the department has organized several programmes for Muallaf in order to support them to be a new Muslim in a majority Muslim country.

This chapter also clarifies the issues raised by the Muallaf community concerning the unfair treatment in distributing the Zakat fund and supporting them. This chapter contributes towards an understanding of the Zakat institution with regards to its concepts, role, issues and challenges.

The objective of this research is to investigate the effects of sex role orientation on role structure in family decision making in Malaysia. Four different purchase decisions were examined. A total of 240 couples were interviewed separately in four major cities in Malaysia. Structured questionnaires were used to interview husband and wife separately. It was found that there is no difference in sex role orientation among the four cultural groups of families. Also it was found that wives with higher levels of education have more modern sex role orientation. The effect of sex role orientation on wives' relative influence was found for the purchase of furniture, electrical appliances and groceries.