Francesco Campanella, Luana Serino and Anna Crisci
Customer satisfaction has been traditionally the main goal aimed at by managers. Focusing on the banking industry, the importance of this concept is even greater because of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer satisfaction has been traditionally the main goal aimed at by managers. Focusing on the banking industry, the importance of this concept is even greater because of the increasing focus of banks on mobile services to reach out to a larger set of customers. To investigate user’s behavior in a Fintech context, this study aim to focus on two relevant issues: service quality and perceived risk. For the purpose, the authors integrated a technology quality-based model with a green image perspective to investigate the impact on customer satisfaction in Fintechs users.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data is based on a survey directly taken from a questionnaire survey. The survey is collected by researchers. This research used probability sampling technique with convenience sampling. The data of this study data is derived from an online survey of Italian households performed between August 2020 and December 2020. In accordance to other studies, the questionnaires used Likert scale model that was conducted by measuring five categories of responses. For methodology, the authors analyzed data by structural model equations.
Findings
The authors find that some of quality services factors impact on user satisfaction as well as the trust in Fintech providers. Moreover, the empirical findings highlight that the importance of a green reputation in Fintech providers from the perspective of consumer as it enhances both the trust and the satisfaction in internet banking services offered. It is needed to highlight that the most important thing for a Fintech provider is to secure loyalty and to be sustainable from a green perspective. The authors found that trust and green image give great influence on use intention. Therefore, it is most important for financial providers to develop financial products with trust and e-loyalty in mind.
Research limitations/implications
This study suggests that nowadays Fintech companies should invest more resources in the increasing of green image because it is positively associated with trust and customer’s satisfaction. The authors incentive the financial institutions to promote the sustainable development and green strategies in their planning as concern for the environment and sustainability affects consumers, who increasingly consider certain non-financial attributes in their investments, such as environmental, social and governance criteria. Future research that includes different cultural settings would enhance generalizability and external validity as the respondents all live in Italy.
Originality/value
For the purpose, the authors integrated a technology quality-based model with a green image perspective to investigate the impact on customer satisfaction in Fintechs users. This paper, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first to study consumer satisfaction in Fintech context in this sense. Although existing research has investigated relevant aspects of customer trust, satisfaction, these issues have not been discussed from a green perspective. Apart from that, the main contribution of this paper is its exploration of the influence of green image on loyalty and satisfaction. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, however, no studies have been done on sustainable banking in Italian banking sector, focused on Fintech services. In this paper, the authors attempt to fill this research gap.
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Claudia Arena, Simona Catuogno, Anna Crisci and Valeria Naciti
Different mechanisms allow intellectual capital (IC) to affect performance. This paper aims to analyze the value of relations for the academic performance effect of IC and explore…
Abstract
Purpose
Different mechanisms allow intellectual capital (IC) to affect performance. This paper aims to analyze the value of relations for the academic performance effect of IC and explore how the university’s reliance on digital technologies facilitates the contribution of IC to the overall academic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a model linking elements of IC to academic performance in the form of teaching, research and entrepreneurial activity. The model is centered on relational capital (RC) that is supposed to directly fuel performance and mediate the link between the other two IC dimensions and performance. From a methodological point of view, the authors base the empirical investigation on a sample of Italian public universities and applied structural equation modeling to test the mediation and a group comparison to disentangle the effect of universities’ digitalization.
Findings
The authors find a significant and positive effect of RC on performance. RC fully mediates the relationship between structural capital and academic performance, whereas it only partially mediates the link between human capital and academic performance. The authors also suggest that digital technologies guide the prominence of the relationship in the university’s ability to fulfill teaching, research and entrepreneurship missions through IC.
Originality/value
This study offers a representation of how the relational dimension of IC is the mean through which the stock of knowledge inside IC can be translated into entrepreneurial, education and research achievements and how digital technologies are essential for the exploitation of the performance effect of IC in the digital era.
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Mauro Sciarelli, Mario Tani, Anna Prisco and Francesco Caputo
The paper aims at investigating antecedents and predictors of consumers' buying and consumption processes within the Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs) to enrich current…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims at investigating antecedents and predictors of consumers' buying and consumption processes within the Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs) to enrich current debate about drivers and levers on which act for fostering ethical consumption in food sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB) a theoretical model is proposed for depicting possible antecedents and predictors of consumers' buying and consumption processes in food sector. The validity of the model has been tested via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS for analyzing primary data collected through a structured questionnaire from 354 consumers engaged in SPGs.
Findings
Within the domain of food buying and consumptions through SPGS, results show that consumers' behavior intention (BI) is influenced by consumers' attitude (ATT) and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Moreover, the research also demonstrates that consumers' ATT is influenced by consumers' ethical self-identity (ETH), consumers' willingness to support local economy (SLE), and food safety concern (FSC).
Originality/value
The study contributes to the ongoing debate on sustainable consumerism focusing the attention on SPGs as emerging social organizations inspired by ethical food consumption. Both theoretical development and empirical evidences enrich current knowledge about drivers and levers on which act for fostering ethical consumption in food sector.
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Alei Fan, Han Shen, Laurie Wu, Anna S. Mattila and Anil Bilgihan
Consumers increasingly depend on the internet as the information source to make their hospitality decisions, which highlights the need for more research in online recommendation…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumers increasingly depend on the internet as the information source to make their hospitality decisions, which highlights the need for more research in online recommendation. Due to the globalization, culture and its effects on marketing become an increasingly important subject to investigate. Therefore, this paper aims to offer a cross-cultural investigation of consumers’ different trustworthiness and credibility perceptions when facing online recommendations from different information resources.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses the source-credibility theory to examine consumers’ responses to online recommendations from two sources. Participants were recruited from two equivalent marketing panels in each culture. A 2 (online recommendation source: in-group vs out-group) by 2 (culture: American vs Chinese) between-subjects quasi-experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results demonstrate that culture moderates consumer responses to the two types of online sources. Chinese consumers, due to their more collectivist nature, exhibit higher levels of purchase intent when the recommendation originates from an in-group rather than from an out-group. Such differences are not observed among the more individualist American consumers. Furthermore, trustworthiness plays an important role in influencing Chinese consumers’ perception of recommendation credibility and the consequent purchase intent.
Practical implications
This research provides guidelines to hospitality practitioners when developing their social networking sites and online marketing strategies across different cultures.
Originality/value
The current study conducts an in-depth investigation of cultural differences in consumers’ perceptions of and reactions to online recommendations from other customers with various social distances.