Salih Turan Katircioglu

Customer service quality in the Greek Cypriot banking industry

Purpose – To measure the service quality perceptions of Greek Cypriot bank customers and to examine the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth, in the light of changing bank market dynamics due to EU accession.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 260 retail bank customers responded to a Greek translated version of SERVQUAL. After descriptive and factor analysis, multivariate regression analysis was used to estimate the impact of service quality dimensions on overall customer satisfaction and the impact of satisfaction on positive word of mouth.Findings – The SERVQUAL scale proved to be of a three‐dimensional structure in this study. Results revealed that the expectations of bank customers were not met where the largest gap was obtained in the responsiveness‐empathy dimension. Reliability items had the highest effect on customer satisfaction, which in turn had a statistically significant impact on the positive word of mouth.Research limitations/implicatio...

A comparison of service quality in the banking industry: Some evidence from Turkish‐ and Greek‐speaking areas in Cyprus

Purpose – To analyze and compare service quality in the commercial banking sector of a small island economy – Cyprus and to investigate the relationship between overall bank customer satisfaction in the Turkish‐ and Greek‐speaking areas of Cyprus and positive word‐of‐mouth about their banks.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 268 commercial bank customers responded to a Greek and Turkish translated version of the SERVQUAL instrument. After descriptive and factor analysis, multivariate regression was used to estimate the impact of service quality dimensions on overall customer satisfaction and word of mouth.Findings – The responsiveness dimension failed to load and thus the SERVQUAL scale proved to be of a four‐dimensional structure in this study. Research results revealed that the expectations of bank customers in both areas were not met and that the largest gap was found in the empathy dimension. The assurance dimension had the largest influence on customer satisfaction and overall satisfaction of b...

Tourism, trade and growth: the case of Cyprus

Although the relationship between international trade and economic growth has found a wide application area in the literature over the years, this can not be said about tourism and growth or trade and tourism. This study employs the bounds test for cointegration and Granger causality tests to investigate a long-run equilibrium relationship between tourism, trade and real income growth, and the direction of causality among themselves for Cyprus. Results reveal that tourism, trade and real income growth are cointegrated; thus, a long-run equilibrium relationship can be inferred between these three variables. On the other hand, Granger causality test results suggest that real income growth stimulates growth in international trade (both exports and imports) and international tourist arrivals to the island. Furthermore, growth in international trade (both exports and imports) also stimulates an increase in international tourist arrivals to Cyprus. And finally, real import growth stimulate growth in real exports in the case of Cyprus.

International Tourism, Higher Education and Economic Growth: The Case of North Cyprus

This study investigates the long-run equilibrium relationship between international tourism, higher education growth, real income growth and the direction of causality among these variables for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is not recognised by any country other than Turkey. Results reveal that international tourism and higher education are in a long-run equilibrium relationship with real income growth; international tourism and higher education have an inelastic, yet positively significant impact on real income growth in the long-run period. Finally, the results of the present study reveal that both the tourism-led growth and the higher education-led growth hypotheses are confirmed for North Cyprus.

Financial development, trade and growth triangle: the case of India

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the possible co-integration and the direction of causality between financial development, international trade and economic growth in India. Design/methodology/approach - Annual data covering the 1965-2004 period have been used to investigate co-integration and Granger causality tests between financial development, international trade, and growth after employing unit root tests to see if the variables under consideration are stationary. Findings - Results reveal that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between financial development, international trade and real income growth in the case of India. Furthermore, unidirectional causality was investigated that runs from real income to exports and imports, from exports to imports, M2 and domestic credits, from M2 to imports, from imports to domestic credits. Bidirectional causality has also been obtained between real income and M2, and between real income and domestic credits. Finally, no direction of causality has been obtained between M2 and domestic credits. Research limitations/implications - Expanded data can be used for further comparison. Practical implications - This study has shown that the supply-leading and the demand-following hypotheses cannot be inferred for the Indian economy alone themselves. And furthermore, the export-led and the import-led hypotheses again cannot be inferred for the Indian economy based on the sample period, 1965-2004. Originality/value - This study is the first of its kind which investigates the possible co-integration and the direction of causality between the financial development, international trade and economic growth triangle not only in the case of India but also in the relevant literature to the best of ones knowledge.

Research Note: Testing the Tourism-Led Growth Hypothesis for Singapore – An Empirical Investigation from Bounds Test to Cointegration and Granger Causality Tests

This paper empirically investigates the tourism-led growth (TLG) hypothesis in the case of Singapore by employing the bounds test for cointegration, error correction models and Granger causality tests using annual data from 1960 to 2007. The results confirm the existence of a long-term equilibrium relationship between international tourism and economic growth in the case of Singapore; real income growth converges significantly toward its long-term equilibrium level of 51.4% in the TLG model. The major finding of this study is that the TLG hypothesis is confirmed for the Singaporean economy in the long term as a result of conditional Granger causality tests.

The bounds test approach for cointegration and causality between financial development, international trade and economic growth: the case of Cyprus

This study employs the bounds test for co-integration and Granger causality tests to investigate the long-run equilibrium relationship and the direction of causality between financial development, international trade and real income growth for the Cyprus economy. The results of the study reveal that financial development as measured by broad money (M2), international trade and real income growth are cointegrated; thus, a long-run equilibrium relationship can be inferred among these three variables. On the other hand, Granger causality test results suggest that in Cyprus the growth in real income stimulates the growth of international trade (both exports and imports) and the growth of money supply. Furthermore, growth in imports of goods and services also stimulates a growth in exports of goods and services of Cyprus. Although this result contradicts our initial expectations, it indicates the importance of capital inflows in Cyprus that plays a major role in financing the investments mainly in the tourism sector. As a final point, the results of this study reveal that the supply-leading, export-led growth and import-led growth hypotheses are not confirmed by this study whereas the demand-following hypothesis can be justified for the Cypriot economy when M2 measure of money supply is under consideration.

Causality between agriculture and economic growth in a small nation under political isolation: A case from North Cyprus

Purpose – To analyze the impact of agricultural sector on the economy of North Cyprus, which suffers from political problems and drought over the years. Design/methodology/approach – Annual data covering 1975-2002 period has been used to find the direction of causality in Granger sense between agricultural growth and economic growth after employing unit root tests to see if the variables under consideration are stationary. Findings – Results of the present study first suggest that agricultural output growth and economic growth as measured by real gross domestic product growth are stationary at their levels, thus, they are naturally co-integrated. They are in long run equilibrium relationship. And secondly, there is feedback relationship between these variables that indicates bidirectional causation among them in the long run period. Research limitations/implications – A more expanded data can be used for further comparison. Furthermore, a future study can be done for other islands to make comparison across themselves. Practical implications – This study has shown that although North Cyprus suffers from political problems and drought in the agriculture sector, this sector still has an impact on the economy. Thus, effective policies related with this sector should be developed by authorities. Building pipelines from Turkey, which are at the agenda of North Cyprus and Turkish governments over the years should immediately put into action. This will have enormous impact on both sides of the island on the way to a solution in Cyprus problem. Originality/value – This study is the first of its kind which analyzes the relationship between agricultural output and economic growth in a small island which has a closed economy and is politically non-recognized state. Furthermore, it is a rare study made for small islands.

Revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context

This study investigates empirically an extended version of the Environmental Kuznets Curve model that controls for tourism development. We find that international tourist arrivals into Turkey alongside income, squared income and energy consumption, cointegrate with CO2 emissions. Tourist arrivals, growth, and energy consumption exert a positive and significant impact on CO2 emissions in the long-run. Our results provide empirical support to EKC hypothesis showing that at exponential levels of growth, CO2 emissions decline. The findings suggest that despite the environmental degradation stemming from tourism development, policies aimed at environmental protection should not be pursued at the expense of tourism-led growth.

Service quality and university students' satisfaction on the travel agencies

Purpose – There are international students studying in the universities of Northern Cyprus that come from more than 68 countries. Travel agencies are among those firms which are affected the most from these international students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how international students perceive travel agency services by using the SERVQUAL instrument.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 579 university students studying at the universities of Northern Cyprus responded to a revised version of the SERVQUAL instrument. After a descriptive analysis, a multivariate regression was used to estimate the impact of service quality dimensions on overall student satisfaction and positive word of mouth.Findings – Research results reveal that the expectations of university students are not met and that the largest gap was found in the “empathy” dimension. Results also reveal that the service quality perceptions of Turkish students coming from Turkey significantly differ from that of Turkish ...