The Impact of Personal, Sociological and Institutional Influences on Relationship Commitment in the Retail Banking Sector
Most previous research in the domain of relationship marketing has focused on the antecedents of loyalty and commitment in the industrial market, distribution channel or consumer goods. This study however, models the antecedents of consumer's relationship commitment in the context of a retai...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2001
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/8153/1/GSM_2001_9__.pdf |
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| Summary: | Most previous research in the domain of relationship marketing has focused on the
antecedents of loyalty and commitment in the industrial market, distribution channel
or consumer goods. This study however, models the antecedents of consumer's
relationship commitment in the context of a retail banking service.
The success and survival of a commercial bank depends on its bankers ability to
understand customers' needs and find effective ways to satisfy them. Having
recognized that retail customers are the potential market niche, it is essential for
bankers to obtain information concerning their patronage factors towards specific
financial institutions.The impact of four key explanatory variables (personal influence, sociological
influence, institutional influence, and trust) on relationship commitment are
examined. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain primary data from
respondents consisted of bank consumer occupying the selected dwelling unit in
Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. A final sample of 578, which was obtained from
the both areas, was an acceptable representation of the population. The data was
tested using (i) Multiple Regression Analysis (ii) Pearson Correlation Analysis, (iii)
Path Analysis.
The result shows that sociological influences and trust have the most significant
direct impact on relationship commitment. Institutional influences give a great
impact on personal and sociological influences but it give a small impact on
relationship commitment. This result is consistent with the views of Anderson et. al
(1976) and Tan and Chua (1986) that the consumer decision to choose their bank are
greatly impacted by the sociological factors. The same study conducted in Malaysia
by Haron and Ahmad (1992) however found that social factors are the least
influential factors if compared to others.
In spite of these inconsistencies, the current studies have comes out with a new
conceptual model (Model of Determinant of Relationship Commitment) which
indicate that Sociological and Personal Influence, as well as Trust are the
determinant of relationship commitment in retail banking industry.However, it needs to be noted that the multiple regression analysis results only shows
that the four hypothesized variables investigated (personal influence, sociological
influence, institutional influence, and trust), only represents 25.5 per cent of the
consumer relationship commitment towards their bank.
In short, the bankers who seek success must become more and more oriented to
understanding consumer behavior in the financial marketplace. Causal factors
operative in consumer bank selection and patronization must be identified to
optimize bank marketing strategies. The bankers must adopt a more aggressive
stance, become more knowledgeable, acquire more skills and be totally committed to
nurturing high quality relationship with the consumer. |
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