Antonio Chamorro Mera

A New Web Assessment Index: Spanish Universities Analysis.

Despite the rapid growth of the World Wide Web in the last several years few studies have appeared in the literature assessing Web sites’ efficacy. This paper provides an original Web Assessment Index, focused on four categories: accessibility, speed, navigability and content. The scoring mechanism is explained and the index is applied to assess the Web sites of all Spanish universities. Finally, conclusions and implications derived from this study are presented.

COO vs ROO: importance of the origin in customer preferences towards financial entities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance that customers give to the origin attribute when selecting a financial entity compared to other features directly related to the service that these institutions provide. In addition, this study aims at analysing what level of brand origin provides a greater utility for customers in their preference structure: regional, national or foreign. Design/methodology/approach The technique of conjoint analysis is applied via a survey of 427 customers to determine customers’ preference structure when choosing a financial entity. Findings Of particular note among the main results is the great importance the respondents give to the origin of the entity, preferring regional over national or foreign institutions. The existence of three different segments of customers based on their preference structure is also a remarkable result. Research limitations/implications Place-of-origin effect is not universal. Due to this fact, the results of the studies focussed on this research topic are difficult to extrapolate to other geographical areas. Practical implications The current situation in southern Europe financial sector obliges many small financial entities to undertake mergers in order to face the stability and solvency policies established by European Central Bank. In this sense, these institutions must decide whether or not to maintain their regional brand identity. The results of this study show the appropriateness of maintaining and communicating the regional origin of the entities. These findings will contribute to guiding decision making on brand management for financial entities. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, there is a lack of research on the place-of-origin through different levels simultaneously. This paper provides a starting point for further research about this effect in the services sector.

Evaluación de la presencia en Internet de los principales operadores logísticos en España

New technologies and, especially Internet, are changing the logistics provider management styles and their services offer. So, it would be very interesting to assess the main Spanish logistics provider web presence, analyzing the quality of their corporate web sites. Among the different web sites assessment methods developed in the last years, we have selected the Web Assessment Index (WAI), adapted to the special characteristics of this industry. This index, already used in other sectors, allows us to value content and operative issues of these web sites. The WAI final value is determinated by 22 factors grouped in 4 main components: content quality, accessibility, speed and navigability. Our results show the differences among companies: so, business with higher sales have web sites with higher WAI value.

Financial firms’ social activities and how they influence their customers’ preference structure

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance that customers give to social investment activities in their region when selecting a financial entity compared to other features directly related to the service that these institutions provide, namely the origin, the treatment by employees, office location and electronic banking services. Design/methodology/approach - – The technique of conjoint analysis is applied via a survey of 427 customers to determine customers’ preference structure when choosing a financial entity. Findings - – The results show the importance that customers give to the financial entities’ social activities carried out in the region. Moreover, a buyer segment representing 35 per cent of the sample was identified that assigns greater value to these social activities than to the average customer. Originality/value - – The development of corporate social responsibility policies has been a common practice in Spain’s financial sector. However, there is a lack of studies focused on analysing the impact of these policies on customers’ decisions. The authors test this idea by proposing that social initiatives carried out by financial entities strongly influence the preferences of consumers towards these banks compared to other attributes.

The region-of-origin effect on the preferences of financial institution's customers: Analysis of the influence of ethnocentrism

The financial crisis that started in the USA in 2007 has obliged many small financial entities in southern Europe to undertake mergers in order to comply with the stability and solvency policies established by the European Central Bank. In Spain, this situation has led to a profound restructuring of the financial system, obliging many of these institutions to decide whether or not to maintain their regional brand identity after such a merger. The purpose of this study was twofold: on the one hand, to analyze the importance customers attach to the origin of their usual financial institution and the relative utility they give to the three levels of brand origin presented: regional, national and foreign, and, on the other, to assess whether consumers’ level of ethnocentrism modifies their preference structure and, if so, to identify the profile of the individuals composing each segment. The technique of Conjoint Analysis was applied to a survey of 427 customers. The results showed the banks to be the attribute with the greater importance in forming customers’ preferences than other characteristics of the institution such as the treatment by employees, the location of offices, the electronic banking services, and the number of social activities the entity carries out in the region. In addition, the respondents prefer regional brand origin over national and foreign. Both the importance and the utility attached to the regional brand origin increase with higher levels of consumer ethnocentrism. The findings of this study will serve to these entities as a guide for their decision-making regarding brand management.