Gurjeet Kaur

Exploring customer switching intentions through relationship marketing paradigm

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of customer switching and the reasons that underlie customer‐switching intentions. The paper aims to focus on the various factors on account of which a customer may or may not switch a particular bank.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 800 bank customers were selected randomly from a total population of 71,600 and were contacted personally to gather the requisite data.Findings – The paper finds that the model reveals significant effect of quality, satisfaction and trust on predicting switching barriers. Of these relationships, satisfaction emerged as the strongest factor which influences switching barriers.Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to Indian banks; a larger empirical study would be useful to replicate the results in the banking as well as other services.Practical implications – In order to ensure loyalty among bank customers, increased value addition in the banking services and wide‐ranging relationships ...

Internal market orientation in Indian banking: an empirical analysis

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the level of internal market orientation (IMO) in Indian banking as seen from the perspective of internal customers and suppliers, particularly with regard to the three components of market orientation: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on primary research conducted with data gathered from 611 internal customers and 37 internal suppliers of an Indian private sector bank.Findings – The results indicate that all the three components of market orientation mentioned above determine the IMO level. Furthermore, the continuous emphasis on IMO by internal suppliers results in organizational commitment and job satisfaction among internal customers.Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the three main dimensions of IMO: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness.Practical implications – In order to ensure increased satisfaction of internal cust...

A perusal of extant literature on market orientation - concern for its implementation

Market orientation has been defined distinctly from a marketing perspective but has been repeatedly discussed as the implementation of the marketing concept and the majority of the literature on market orientation has figured in the Journals of Marketing. Further, in a majority of writings on market orientation, the entire focus is on external market, viz., consumers and competitors, thereby ignoring internal customers’ satisfaction. While no unanimity has been reached with regard to the market orientation construct, Kohli and Jaworski, and Narver and Slater have developed two dominant measures, which have been considered incomplete on account of one or other loophole. The relationship between market orientation and business performance in terms of objective measures could not be strengthened. Moreover, the implementation of market orientation has not been addressed satisfactorily and concretely. At the end, knowledge management has been suggested as a mean for effective generation and dissemination of the market intelligence. Further, a scientific approach has also been proposed for the implementation of market orientation.

Factors obstructing intentions to trust and purchase products online

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore reasons for not buying products through online. The study also tries to explain the relationship between intentions to trust (IT) and online purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through well-structured instrument, distributed to 226 students of Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Computer Applications departments of a north Indian University. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modelling were used to analyse the data and to test the formulated hypotheses. Findings – The results of the study highlight that 90 per cent of the respondents are aware about online shopping sites but only 38 per cent are online buyers of various products. Major reasons for not shopping are lack of security, absence of physical examination and testing of products, lack of product’s complete information, unattractive visual displays and layouts, etc. However, it is observed that nearly 79 per cent respondents have pos...

Business Orientation of Indian Consumer Banking

The study analyzes the overall business orientation of Indian consumer banks by examining five important business philosophies, namely, production orientation, selling orientation, customer orientation, market orientation and relationship marketing orientation. It throws light on the extent to which each business orientation is followed by Indian banks. All the 39 branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank Pvt. Ltd (JKB), 13 of State Bank of India (SBI) and 17 of Punjab National Bank (PNB) functioning in Jammu city respectively were contacted. The study found that Indian banks are purely customer oriented and had not yet fully implemented a market orientation philosophy. Moreover, they are not following relationship marketing philosophy, which is the need of the hour and it is imperative for banks to focus on developing long-term relationships with their customers. Further, the two business philosophies, namely, production orientation and selling orientation show insignificant impact on the overall business orientation of Indian banks. Therefore, bank management should concentrate equally on technology and an effective promotional mix. Moreover, they should rethink customer-oriented strategies according to the changing competitive environment and simultaneously think of a market orientation philosophy. Further, management should focus equally on four components of relationship marketing, namely, trust, commitment, loyalty and customer retention.

Voyage of marketing thought from a barter system to a customer centric one

Purpose – Marketing thought originating from the era of the barter system, gradually evolved into production and sales orientations, with greater emphasis on the process, quality, and selling of products. Thereafter, customer satisfaction as an essential component of the strategic decision process occupies a significant position among various marketing activities. This paper aims to address the inadequate research inputs on determining the time‐specific evolutionary relevance of marketing thought divulging into the essential components of each marketing concept, especially those with customer satisfaction as a dimension in the measurement construct.Design/methodology/approach – A detailed, conceptually integrated analysis of various marketing philosophies is offered to facilitate business executives in examining the philosophy followed by their companies and how to move vertically in pursuance of improved business performance.Findings – In comparison to the Indian market, which is fast becoming an attract...

Improving the weakest link: A TOC-based framework for small businesses

Small businesses constantly face challenges as they respond to changing environmental factors such as the emergence of worldwide markets, marketing clouts, depth and range of better quality products and demand for faster delivery times. In order to survive and prosper, small businesses have to redesign themselves for successful and sustained innovations. The implementation of evolving management philosophies such as theory of constraints, can provide an effective opportunity for them to compete and lead. The purpose of this paper is to accentuate the distinctive features of theory of constraints framework consisting of 3Ms (mindset, measurements and methodology) in a simple way that will assist the small-business owners/managers in the implementation. The proposed framework suggests that the managers should have: (i) a mindset of ‘making’ money instead of ‘saving’ money; (ii) focus on ‘increasing throughput’ instead of ‘reducing expenses’, through recognition and attention; and (iii) implicit ‘focused’ continuous improvement method to manage business constraints instead of improving processes ‘at random’. Using a simple case study primarily and citing real-life small-business examples (where possible), we demonstrate how the theory of constraints based framework helps small business managers improve profitability by making significantly better decisions in strategic areas like product mix, pricing, new product introduction, outsourcing/purchasing, and investment decisions. We conclude our paper by acknowledging a few shortcomings of our paper and discussing some future research directions.

Exploring the impact of total quality service on bank employees’ organisational commitment

Purpose – The purpose of the present study is to evaluate total quality service (TQS) from employees’ perspective, as they have direct contact with both customers and management. The study is descriptive and exploratory in nature.Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected from 195 frontline employees of a leading Indian private sector bank. The study is confined to that banks branches operating in a northern city of India.Findings – The study reveals that though employees have made serious contributions towards the success of TQS, bank policies do not leave much scope for their autonomy and management lags in its efforts in implementing TQS properly. SEM analysis indicates that TQS has a significant impact on employees’ organizational commitment.Originality/value – TQS is a systematic way of guaranteeing that all activities within an organization happen as per plan and meet the customers’ expectations. TQS aids the service marketers in the task of establishing and maintaining the customer base...

Exploring the Impact of Brand Equity and Customer Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty

This paper examines the impact of brand equity and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty on the basis of information collected from 650 bank customers, selected through systematic sampling. The findings of the study indicate that perceived service quality has a most significant effect on brand trust. Brand equity exerts a positive and direct impact on customer satisfaction. However, only perceived service quality and customer satisfaction predict customer loyalty. Thus, the results imply that bank management has to pay attention towards staff skills, knowledge and attention towards customer needs so that fast and efficient services can be provided to their customers.