The impact of corporate fairness on the bank‐SME relationship

Fatima Vegholm and Lars Silver

Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, 2008, vol. 16, issue 4, 352-364

Abstract: Purpose - The United Kingdom Financial Services Authority's treating customers fairly initiative has drawn attention to a current trend that involves regulators using regulatory principles to enhance the relationship between financial institutions and customers. The term corporate fairness is introduced to facilitate the understanding of the construction of fairness. The purpose of this study is to investigate corporate fairness as a means of achieving customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach - This study is based on a sample of 359 small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. LISREL, a structural equation modelling technique, is used to analyse the empirical data. Findings - The present study emphasises the importance of treating customers fairly in the financial sector. By being embedded in the strategy and structure of the bank organisation, corporate fairness enables individual bankers to act in a relational manner towards their customers, thereby resulting in higher customer satisfaction. Originality/value - Corporate fairness is a topic usually reserved for consumer research, this study shows the impact of corporate fairness on the SME community. The study shows how corporate fairness is linked to customer satisfaction, and how perceived fairness can be improved.

Keywords: Relationship marketing; Regulation; Banks; Small to medium‐sized enterprises; Customer satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jfrcpp:v:16:y:2008:i:4:p:352-364

DOI: 10.1108/13581980810918413

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance is currently edited by Prof John Ashton

More articles in Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().