Mediating role of trust in the impact of perceived empathy and customer orientation on intention to continue relationship in Indian banks

Journal of Financial Services Marketing - Despite the relevance of empathy in banking services, very few studies in literature have investigated the multidimensional nature of both cognitive and...     

Banks,customer relationship management and barriers to the segment of one

Technological advances are changing the nature of marketing channels and altering how consumers shop. The same changes are improving marketers' ability to capture and manipulate data, leading to an enhanced understanding of customers. Financial institutions are using these technological capabilities to target the individual needs of customers. As the benefits of customer relationship management (CRM) are brought to the fore, this focus on the ‘segment of one’ has become a feature of the service offered by some banks and financial services institutions. This paper reviews case study evidence of progress towards the segment of one and identifies the barriers that are impeding progress.     

商业银行分析型CRM系统的发展与问题探究

客户关系管理最早起源于上世纪80年代的美国,关系营销为这一阶段的主要特征。由于市场竞争的日益激烈,企业愈加重视收集重要客户的联系资料,降低与客户打交道的成本,建立企业与客户间的互信关系。随着全球经济一体化、数据处理技术日新月异的发展、互联网信息工具的迅速普及,这些客观条件为客户关系管理概念不断发展和完善提供了肥沃的土壤。     

Market segmentation,performance differences and strategic orientation - the case of German reinsurers

We apply the concept of strategic groups to the German reinsurance market. We use a cluster analysis to subdivide reinsurance companies into strategic groups and analyze the effect of a set of strategic choice variables on their performance. Furthermore, we examine the impact of the financial crisis of 2008 on the reinsurance sector. Our dataset encompasses 142 firm-year observations for the years 2004 until 2012. Our results indicate the existence of three strategic groups in the German reinsurance market. Moreover, we find that most strategic choice variables that characterize the individual strategic groups affect the reinsurers’ level of performance. Finally, we find that the reinsurers’ performance increased in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This holds in particular for professional reinsurance companies.     

Extent of managerial IT use,learning routines,and firm performance: A structural equation modeling of their relationship

Organizations increasingly rely on information technology (IT) to improve performance. Yet, there is debate about the pay-off of the IT revolution, and empirical evidence suggests that investments in IT do not guarantee enhanced performance. Drawing from accounting, marketing, management and information technology literature, this study uses structural equation modeling to assess the extent to which managerial use of IT is intertwined with control issues including learning routines (internal and external), product quality, cost improvement, customer satisfaction and firm profitability. The conceptual framework builds on knowledge- and resource-based views and return on quality perspectives. The results indicate support for the theoretical framework. Extent of managerial IT use influences internal and external learning routines that influence quality and cost improvement. Quality improvement significantly impacts customer satisfaction and cost improvement that significantly impact firm profitability. The non-hypothesized paths are not significant, indicating that learning routines, quality improvement, cost improvement and customer satisfaction are intervening variables between extent of managerial IT use and firm profitability. Further, the sample is split into two industry subgroups, durable and nondurable goods subgroups, and the two-group analysis reveals that industry moderates the relationship among the variables under study. The effects are in general more pronounced for durable goods firms.     

The influence of change agents' behavioral intention on the usage of the activity based costing/management system and firm performance: The perspective of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

This study adopts the viewpoint of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to examine the change agents' behavioral intentions in the implementation of an activity based costing/management (ABC/M) system. ABC/M is an important management system that emphasizes the allocation of overhead costs on the basis of cost drivers, in order to provide relevant information for improved decision-making. A change agent is a person chosen to cause organizational change. Senior managers and often chief executives usually play the role that implements change. The behavioral intentions have been identified as a proactive attitude and action for promoting the ABC/M system in this study. Since there is little evidence of ABC/M adoption outside the United States and European countries, this research used Taiwanese companies as the sample. Questionnaires were used to investigate the factors influencing change agents' behavioral intentions to promote ABC/M systems and the type of facilitating conditions that affected the extent of usage of ABC/M systems. The questionnaires were carried out through the perspective of user acceptance of information technology (IT). Furthermore, the aim of this paper is also to explore whether use of the ABC/M system will produce an improved effect on performance. The empirical results from 100 valid responses collected indicate that performance expectancy and social influence directly affect change agents' behavioral intentions. Both change agents' behavioral intentions and facilitation conditions are important constructs that affect the extent of usage of ABC/M systems. The extent of ABC/M usage is also significantly associated with relative financial and non-financial performance. The results demonstrate that the adaptive UTAUT model is applicable for measuring change agents' behavioral intentions in current implementations of ABC/M systems. The study also reveals the positive effect of change agents on the performance of ABC/M systems.     

Human capital,pay structure,and the use of performance measures in bonus compensation

Traditional financial measures have been criticized for lacking relevance in today's economy where firms are increasingly competing with intangible assets. However, perhaps this criticism is not detrimental to firms if they take actions to supplement the information contained in financial measures. Thus, it is important to explore whether and when firms recognize this potential deficiency and take action to acquire the appropriate information. This study hypothesizes that two human resource variables, reliance on human capital and the firm's pay structure, are associated with the use of non-financial measures in top managers’ bonus compensation contracts since they provide information incremental to that provided by traditional financial measures. Using archival data from 177 firms, I estimate binary and multi-response ordered logit models. The binary logit model provides evidence that labor-intensive firms have a higher probability of placing emphasis on non-financial measures (along with traditional financial measures) and a lower probability of relying solely on traditional financial measures. Moreover, this relationship is moderated by the firm's pay structure. Analysis shows that the relationship is stronger in firms that employ a hierarchical pay structure. Furthermore, the multi-response logit model extends these finding by showing that these firms also have a higher probability of relying on human resource measures.     

Relationship marketing in the financial services industry: The importance of customer education,participation and problem management for customer loyalty

The effectiveness of relationship marketing efforts in services selling is to a large extent dependent on customers' commitment to increase the depth and breadth of their relationship with the organisation. In this study, we seek to extend current thinking by presenting a model that examines the relative importance of customer education, participation and problem management in driving customer loyalty. To test the relationships between these variables, we use data collected from 1,268 clients of a global financial services firm. Overall, the results support the hypothesised model and show customer education to be the strongest determinant of client loyalty. Current findings provide implications for multi-product financial institutions that are of theoretical and practical interest alike.     

Procedural justice in managerial performance evaluation: Effects of subjectivity,relationship quality,and voice opportunity

This study investigates the effect of subjectivity in performance evaluation on managerial perceptions of procedural justice. Using survey data from a sample of 317 managers, we examine two forms of subjectivity: use and weight of subjective performance measures and ex post flexibility in the weighting of multiple performance measures. We also examine the interaction effects of two contextual factors, superior–manager relationship quality and voice opportunity, on the association between subjectivity and perceived procedural justice. The results suggest that only the superior's use of ex post flexibility in weighting multiple performance measures adversely affects managers' perceptions of procedural justice. Moreover, superior–manager relationship quality reduces the negative effects of ex post flexibility in weighting multiple performance measures on procedural justice, whereas voice opportunity amplifies this negative effect. These findings have practical and theoretical implications, as they shed new light on the trade-off between the informative benefits and perceived unfairness of incorporating subjectivity into performance evaluation.     

Accounting and environmentalism: An exploration of the challenge of gently accounting for accountability,transparency and sustainability

Concern for the natural environment has not occupied a prominent role in accounting scholarship and practice. This paper attempts to redress this omission by investigating the implications for accounting of placing the environment at the centre of the analysis. The paper introduces the principles of this “deep green” position and explores how accounting might articulate them. Whilst there may be no place for what we currently consider to be conventional financial accounting in any “green utopia” the paper does not attempt to operationalise, within a non-green world, certain of the principles of the green position. Emphasis is placed on an accounting's potential for contribution to accountability and transparency in participative democracy, the potential for non-financial accounts of the biosphere and, perhaps most contentiously, the use of current accounting techniques for the operationalisation of an accounting for sustainability.     

Attraction of marketing and sales professionals in the financial services industry: An analysis of pre-, during and post-financial crisis job postings

Attracting talent is key to a successful sales force, and financial services firms have long used online recruiting to achieve this. However, little is known about how firms attract financial services marketing and sales professionals. In this study, we present a content analysis of job postings for sales and marketing positions in the financial services industry that were posted before, during and after the financial crisis of 2008. Specifically, job postings in the United Kingdom and United States in 2006, 2009 and 2013 were examined. Implications for financial services firms are discussed.     

An accounting analysis of the risk-return relationship in bull and bear markets

This study provides evidence that accounting beta (earnings and cash flow-based) provides information consistent with the risk-return relationship in up- and down-markets. We are not able, however, to provide similar evidence using market beta. Considering that investors' ability to assess the risk-return trade-off in up- and down-markets is central to efficient portfolio formation, the results suggest that accounting data can provide appropriate measures of portfolio upside and downside risk.     

An exploration of the mediating effects of auditor experience and position in internal accounting control evaluation

This study is an exploration of the effects of auditor background on internal accounting control judgements. A series of control evaluation cases were mailed to experienced auditors. These subjects were asked to rate the described control systems against three control objectives.No hypotheses were tested. Rather, the objectives of the study reported here were (1) to determine which, if any, background variables were associated with differences in auditor ratings and (2) to posit reasonable explanations, grounded in actual data, for any differences detected. Such differences were found for subjects grouped according to firm affiliation, auditor rank/years of experience, and control evaluation experience.These differences are discussed and related to several possible explanations, which focus on learning and goal orientation effects in decision making. The explanations are viewed as potential topics for further research.     

Managerial competition,information costs,and corporate governance: The use of accounting performance measures in proxy contests

This paper reports evidence that dissident stockholders who wage a proxy contest for board seats typically site poor earnings rather than poor stock price performance as necessitating the proposed hostile management change. Consistent with this finding, sample firms' pre-contest accounting returns are systematically below-market, whereas their pre-contest stock returns are not. During an election campaign, incumbent managers apparently exercise their accounting discretion to paint a favorable picture of their own performance to voting stockholders. If elected, dissidents tend to take an immediate earnings ‘bath’ which they typically blame on the poor decisions of prior management.     

Supermarket branch banks and traditional banks: An evaluation of differences in employees' attitudes regarding product offerings,job satisfaction and turnover

Traditionally, banking was an activity conducted primarily in an environment in which employees were housed in a central location. In this environment, the bank culture was relatively stable and well-known to customers and employees alike. Further, both the public and the market knew the bank's financial service offerings. The advent of the supermarket branch bank has created challenges for both employees and managers. Many employees are no longer under the direct supervision of bank management. The culture of the branch bank may be vague, and with this change in culture and in supervision, problems with consistency and quality of banking services may exist. Additionally, banks may experience challenges in terms of job satisfaction, turnover and perceptions of product offerings at the supermarket branch bank and at the traditional brick-and-mortar bank. This research evaluates these environmental changes in terms of their impact on the employees' perceptions of customer attitudes regarding branch and brick-and-mortar bank offerings. This research also assesses the employees' perceptions of job satisfaction and turnover at branch versus traditional banks.     

An ethnographic study of culture and performance in the UK lingerie industry

This paper examines a particular case of organizational culture, its nature within the work environment, the impact it has on motivation and its interaction with a novel framework of performance measurement. It extends the extant empirical domain of such studies to include a retail unit in the UK lingerie industry. The work is an ethnographic study, and uses participant-observation to focus on the performance framework used and the culture in the unit examined. The evidence shows that a strong culture, in tandem with the innovative package of performance measures in this organization, together lead to enhanced performance. The paper makes an empirical contribution to the literature by using ethnographical evidence on accounting practice, as moderated by organizational culture in this unique setting. From a practical standpoint, it proposes that managers pay more attention to the influence of accounting on organizational culture (and vice versa), when setting performance targets and goals.     

An analysis of the share price and accounting performance of rights offerings in China

This study examines both the short- and long-term share price and accounting performance of Chinese rights issues. Employing data from 432 rights offerings issued between 1994 and 1999, the study documents a statistically significant positive abnormal stock return of 4.8% on the ex-date. Over the long run, rights issuing firms significantly outperform control portfolios of firms matched on the basis of size, the book-to-market ratio, and both size and the book-to-market ratio. Similar to the case of U.S. experience, investors in China appear to underreact to the initial announcements of new equity offerings, but in the opposite direction. Interestingly, although firms issuing rights generally underperform their non-issuing peers in important operating performance metrics such as return on assets, their growth rates of sales and capital expenditures far outstrip non-issuers. Finally, the findings document that changes in the long-term stock performance of rights issuing firms are positively correlated with changes in post issue accounting performance.     

二级分行中心机房的规划、建设和运维管理

随着信息系统应用的不断深入和扩展,其安全稳定运行已经成为商业银行各项工作顺利开展和各项业务正常运行的前提条件。其中,作为信息系统的核心组成和重要枢纽部分,中心机房的规划、建设和运维管理必须得到重视。近几年来,在中国工商银行股份有限公司（以下简称“工行”）吉林省分行信息科技部的大力指导和支持下,工行通化分行按照总行相关制度和规范的要求,在完善中心机房的基础环境设施、提高系统高可用性建设等方面取得了一定成果,     

An examination of the relationship between manager self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions andperformance in mexican small businesses

Self-efficacy refers to the subjective beliefs that people have of their capability to perform a given task, a topic of continual research in the last two decades in different fields of human functioning. There is ample research about the relationship between self-efficacy and performance, and with entrepreneurship. Chen et al. (1998) in particular proposed a construct to predict the likelihood of an individual being an entrepreneur, which they tested in parallel samples of students and small business owners and executives; the construct consisted of five factors: marketing, innovation, management, risk-taking, and financial control. The present study was meant to validate the construct in a sample of small businesses in a small city of west-central Mexico, but results found show that the data converge in three factors that seem to relate to the difficulty and complexity of the task; such factors explain the business perceived performance, as well as the entrepreneurial intention of business owners and managers.     

IPOs,acquisitions, and the use of convertible securities in venture capital

This paper provides a new explanation for the use of convertible securities in venture capital. A key property of convertible preferred equity is that it allocates different cash flow rights, depending on whether exit occurs by acquisition or IPO. The paper builds a model with double moral hazard, where both the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist provide value-adding effort. The optimal contract gives the venture capitalist more cash flow rights in acquisitions than IPOs. This explains the use of convertible preferred equity, including automatic conversion at IPO. Contingent control rights are also important for achieving efficient exit decisions.