Cousins and Strangers: A Harmonious Meeting

Moya’s Cousins and Strangers is a monograph which encapsulates disparate aspects of a particular cultural phenomenon—the position of Spanish immigrants in Argentina. The author uses writings from primary sources such as letters to form the basis of his understanding of this phenomenon, taking an approach to history that seems to present ‘certified’ knowledge in terms of authenticity and verified details.The book covers the historical period from 1850 to 1930, when, in an unprecedented exodus, millions of people migrated from the vastly-overpopulated Europe to Latin America. This paper focuses on a comparative review of Moya’s macro-structural and microsocial approaches, found in chapter one and three respectively.The first chapter is an apt illustration of Moya’s style. He examines emigration from Spain in a macro-structural light, examining the reasons for the movement of millions from one continent to another. In terms of the methodology he has utilized, Moya observes that he does not validate the qualitative method, since he has found that the quantitative one is more likely to present accurate results, and is less vulnerable to the risk of manipulation:[T]his gross discrepancy between my findings and the qualitative evidence once again confirms the potential for deception inherent in qualitative sources and the peril of relying solely on this type of material. It validates the need for quantitative methods in social history. (p. 233)Although Moya’s own book is based on qualitative research through the examination of census records, newspapers, magazines, and personal narratives, therefore, he still recommends that qualitative research cannot be the sole measure of a phenomenon or its attributes. As Moya observes, no study which aims at â€Å"the uncovering of past social realities† (p. 233) can afford to engage merely in the gathering of data through qualitative means.According to him, if the researcher does not discover and implement quantitative means of gathering data, he or she is merely participating in a kind of â€Å"literary criticism—the analysis of texts† (p. 233). This is not to deride literary criticism, but to illustrate a primary difference between literary and historical writing—the demands of the latter imply that the writer or researcher engage in methods of exploration that are focused on ‘real,’ empirical contexts, and not just on opinions on existing documentation, which would be akin to a literary analysis rather than an exposition of freshly discovered facts.Moya begins the first chapter by addressing his central research question directly to the readers: â€Å"Why did [the] Mataronese and 2 million other Spaniards migrate to Argentina between the midnineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth?† (p. 13) He goes on to outline the primary reasons, and quotes data from sources which have previously been negl ected as being of much value, such as an incidental remark made by Argentinean Vice-Consul Carrau, who described the â€Å"push-pull scheme† as the primary reason for the migration (p. 13).According to this method, which Moya describes as â€Å"a useful heuristic device† (p. 13), migration takes place because â€Å"push† factors drive people out of a particular location, while â€Å"pull† factors entice them into venturing into a geographical area which may fulfill the migrating people’s requirements. As Carrau observed, â€Å"the strikes and labor unrest that have driven 5,000 workers into public charity push hundreds across the ocean, attracted by the flourishing economy of the River Plate† (p. 13).However, Moya is a discerning researcher and does not accept easy answers. He points out that there is â€Å"one basic flaw† in the identification of such a reason for emigration:We could find a myriad of places in which labor unrest, fam ine, wars, starvation, and a whole array of â€Å"push† factors never led to emigration and in which fertile, empty lands, flourishing economies, high wages, and other â€Å"pull† factors never enticed immigration. In other words, push and pull conditions have concurred in countless areas and countries of the world from time immemorial to the present, yet mass transoceanic migration occurred only during a particular historical epoch: from the midnineteenth century to the Great Depression of 1930. (p. 13)It is clear from the outset, therefore, that Moya does not wish to apply generalizations to his area of research; nor does he want to give more credibility than is due to the â€Å"push and pull† argument, even if it is true in this case. As the author observes, the same conditions have existed over several cultures in disparate locations and periods in history, but none have led to migration on such a large scale. Consequently, it is clear that Moya’s int ention here is to identify particular rather than universal reasons for the Spanish migration to Argentina. As he declares, â€Å"one could easily compile similar lists for periods and places where no migration took place† (p. 14). Although the question of why migration took place is itself â€Å"simple,† therefore, â€Å"the answer is not† (p. 14).This, however, is not to suggest that Moya debunks the push-and-pull theory in the context of this exodus. He acknowledges that â€Å"As the trend matured, a more balanced approach began to emphasize the complex interplay between the premigration heritage and the host environment, between continuity and change† (p. 4). As he observes, the concept of adaptation of peoples to new cultures, and their subsequent assimilation into the host culture, form â€Å"the a priori position of this study† (p. 4).Although most works on cultural migration focus on the movement itself and on its possible causes, Moya choo ses to go back to an earlier time, covering the three decades prior to the migration, to analyze â€Å"the pre-arrival traits† (p. 4) of the migrant community, thus prioritizing the dynamics of interaction with their new environment that the migrants faced, and the ways in which environmental changes impacted their adaptation to their new host culture.A particularly useful feature of Moya’s text is that he also provides occasional commentary on his methods, and uses such instances to himself outline the possible drawbacks of his approaches. For example, in his chapter on migration, he discusses the validity of the macro-structural approach: â€Å"During the decades when macro- structural conditions obstructed emigration, the microsocial networks became inactive but not inert, the chain became dormant but did not die† (p. 68). In the light of this recognition, Moya bases his next section on the microsocial approach, utilizing it to complement and sometimes counte r the evidence and recommendations suggested by the macro-structural approach.The primary factor which encourages Moya to implement the microsocial approach in his quest to discover why the immigration took place is the fact that there was a socio-historical precedent for such migration: â€Å"Emigration from Matarà ³ to Buenos Aires dated back at least to the middle of the eighteenth century and was originally related to transatlantic trade† (p. 61). At this point, Moya’s microsocial approach takes the text into a hitherto-unexplored area of interpretation, as he takes the argument back full circle to Vice-Consul Carrau, and the manner in which his appointment as an official impacts our quest to discover the reasons behind the migration:Yet the real clue to understanding Mataronese immigration to Argentina lay not in the protocol and formality of that appointment but in the less formal reality it concealed†¦ [I]f one scrutinizes the consulates, odd and unconvent ional consuls appear. Indeed, the Argentine vice-consul at Matarà ³ was neither a diplomat nor an Argentine. Sr. Carrau was a Matarà ³ druggist with personal and commercial overseas relations, married to the daughter of Josep Riera Canals, an americano, or successful returnee who maintained business and family relations with Buenos Aires. (p. 63)Moya goes on to outline other such business and personal connections between Carrau’s succeeding consuls and Buenos Aires as well. He comes to the discovery that â€Å"in provinces that lacked social linkages with Buenos Aires, like Valladolid and Cà ³rdoba, the results in terms of attracting immigrants proved disappointing† (p. 64). Thus, Moya considerably expands the scope of his analysis by including such non-formal reasons for immigration as social precedents and interconnectedness between the act of immigration and intra-city links, which must have provided the incentive for their Spanish â€Å"cousins† to enter areas in Argentina which had established links with immigrant cultures.In his microsocial analysis, Moya also looks into such empirical factors conducive to immigration as the availability of roads and other transport routes that may have facilitated travel. He points out that such factors as the transportation (sometimes illegal) of such refuges in cargo and passenger ships are an important consideration in identifying why the Spanish migrants decided to go to Argentina, rather than any other neighboring location. For example, he observes that from 1840 to 1860, there were only four ship routes from Europe to the River Plate, and only five ports in Spain, out of which only one, Genoa, was the primary point of departure for emigrants (p. 64).Other ports remained inaccessible to immigrants; Moya’s research of passenger lists from the time revealed that Barcelona, for example, had no record, of any vessel carrying more than eight such passengers, barring one exception, which wa s also limited to only sixteen passengers. Also, Barcelona was not a stop on many of the routes. It was only in the 1880s, when â€Å"the use of larger and faster carriers and more frequent ocean crossings enabled steamships from the Genoa route to make stops in Barcelona† (p. 64) that Large-scale migration to Argentina began. Thus, Moya resources empirical causes for the mass migration, which gives us a realistic picture of what actually happened, rather than relying on sociological or ethnological theory to outline the reasons for why the migration took place.Among Moya’s strengths is the fact that despite his target area being a large demographic population and also covering a long historical period, he does not focus excessively on the broader, more generalized aspects of such research, but instead provides detailed information, often in the form of charts and tables (e.g., pp. 16-17) which provide the reader with a quick at-a-glance format in which to assess infor mation. Also, he does not restrict his work to national boundaries by prioritizing either Spain or Argentina as the point of focus, but rather focuses on the migrating population itself. This gives his work an objectivity that transcends issues of cultural and ethic domination.ReferencesMoya, J. C. (1998). Cousins and strangers: Spanish immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850-1930. Berkeley: The University of California Press.

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Critique a Article - Research Paper Example In addition, to make sure that victims take part more in physical exercises to progress their own health. The aim of this study is related to the importance of improving mobility of groups with MS. The author wants to make people with chronic body conditions to change their perceptions about physical activity, which is based on past studies that discouraged them from some activities. The author outlines some disadvantages of physical inactiveness. The researchers used direct and semi-structured interviews by means of open-ended questions in conjunction with prearranged ones. While the researchers did not spell out the type of research approach they used, all indicators show that the study was based upon a phenomenology model because it openly studies structures of insight as experienced by clients who responded. In this study, the people who were interviewed were patients who had just received medical intercession to stop their state of multiple sclerosis, with the most important int ention of the study being the adjustment of their insight to contribute more in physical activity. The author challenges the previous studies that discouraged physical activity among MS victims. The authors offered an equipped explanation to enable the person who reads to be aware of the subject matter being looked into in the research paper. The author draws information from the past publications for example basing their point of view on the outcome of the hypothetical novel physiotherapy intervention also called Blue prescription as a technique of advancing patient involvement in physical activity, the researchers supported their objectives with convincing and pertinent secondary sources numbering 38, pinched from just about the world. Many of the sources that they applied contained up to date information, but a petite number of them were in print more than ten years ago. On

Sub-Problems in Decision Making of Business Management Literature review

Sub-Problems in Decision Making of Business Management - Literature review Example Researchers emphasize on the fact that decision making is simply a rational process or ideology that takes place within any organization. Many studies however, fail to emphasize on the fact that taking a decision involves various stages where formulating a particular decision can take time and effort, and can have multiple variables involved as well. Theorists have developed mathematical models based on averages and probabilities through which alternatives can be evaluated before taking a final decision. These models have been utilized in several industries and in various areas in order to evaluate various alternatives at hand in order to make a decision. In this context, it must be noted that even though these models allow for rational decision making in a scenario where all other variables are constant, environment plays a critical role in how businesses take their decisions. For instance, organizations where dynamism is lacking and munificence is low, it may be noted that decision s may not be as rational as dictated by the mathematical models. ... In this context, this research will particularly emphasize on some problems that are related to decision making within organizations, and evaluate why organizations face these particular problems at hand. In addition to that, the research will aim to identify various ways through which organizations can improve their decision making ability based on the answers ascertained through this research for the hypotheses formulated below. Sub-Problems in Decision Making of Business Management 1. The time and place to use programmed or non-programmed decision making is always a problem in business management. 2. Lack of dynamism affects the decision making and becomes a major problem in business management. 3. Lack of munificence negatively affects the ability of the managers to take risk. Thus affects the decision making in business management. Hypothesis Based on the fact that each organization requires a certain level of decision making at each layer within the hierarchy, following problem s have been identified in general, pertaining to decision making: 1. Mathematical models for decision making are only useful when undertaking rational decision making. 2. Decision making will not be rational if dynamism within an organization is not present. 3. Risk taking within organizations is reduced when munificence is not present within organizations. This leads to lack of rational decision making at each step within the organization. These hypotheses will be tested within the research, after conducting a detailed primary and secondary research, including review of literature and conducting quantitative research as well. Literature Review Decision

Write an article with a right wing and left wing about exclusions and Assignment

Write an article with a right wing and left wing about exclusions and the summer riots - Assignment Example 42% of the students were identified as coming from low income earning families and were eligible for claim the free school meals (FSM), it was also identified that 16% of all the 11-15 students analysed were from high schools as at 2011 January. It was also identified that a proportional that was considerable in number of the 10-17 year that appeared before the courts were categorized under the SEN, the students with needs. The percentage identified was 2two third of the population sampled representing a 66% of students between 10-17 years old. Absence rates were also analysed among the 10-17 year old. The absenteeism rate was high than average as those whose attendance data was available were 9%. The rest lacked attendance data indicating a high level of absenteeism. Statistics on social exclusion were also identified and reported. Incidences were high of the social exclusions among students in the bracket of 10-17 year old. According to the statistics, 36% of the analysed students identified that they had one fixed period social exclusion during the study year of 2009. Another proportion of 6% also identified that it had at least one fixed period of exclusion during 2011. The statistics chosen for the analysis is on free school meals. It is evident that it may be the fault of these students. Another look on it is that students may also be right in rioting. From this point, the various students in these institutions are faced with challenges that the institutions are not able of effectively providing. According to Mrs. Martins a teacher at a local high school â€Å"some of the main issues of concern to the students are the issues to do with unfair treatment of the students, issues culminating from ineffective services by the teachers, poor teaching by the teachers, issues to do with poor services soffered at the various cafeterias†. An aspect like food, which is poorly

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Investigate data representations - Essay Example The above scheme can work fine as long as there are â€Å"unsigned† numbers. A strategy had to be evolved to represent â€Å"signed† numbers with consistent representation of negative as well as positive numbers. Several representation systems exist to represent signed numbers like the sign-and-magnitude, one’s complement, two’s complement, etc. Sign-and-magnitude and one’s complement both use the most significant bit to represent the sign of the number with 0 for positive and 1 for negative sign. An anomaly arises in the representation of the number zero itself. Since the most significant bit denotes the sign, a zero can be both â€Å"negative†, as in 10000000, as well as â€Å"positive†, as in 00000000. This ambiguity has led modern computer systems design to adopt the two’s complement which does not have this ambiguity. Two’s complement represents positive numbers by converting simply from decimal to binary. So, a decimal 4 in 4-bit representation would become 0100. Zero is uniquely represented by 0000. Negative numbers are first complemented and then a 1 is added to the result. A generic formula would be 2N-A+1 where N is the number of bits used and A is the number to be converted. See example of converting decimal -3 to two’s complement below: Arithmetic functions can be purely addition based and no subtraction remains necessary. Subtraction can be performed by adding the two’s complement representations. The resulting number is the two’s representation of final result. The range of uniquely representable numbers in N-bit systems are -2N-1 to +-2N-1-1 (Dandamudi 886). Floating point numbers are represented differently. They are divided into three parts, the sign bits for exponent and mantissa, the exponent and the mantissa. For example, if 205.347 is to be represented, it is first brought to a â€Å"normal form† of 2.05347 x 102 where 205347 is the mantissa and the power of 2 is the

Henry Carey as an economist thinker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Henry Carey as an economist thinker - Essay Example The criteria that a particular society uses to answer these aspects shape the society’s nature and influence the best answers to these questions (Thompson, 2007). There a number of approaches used to manage economic activities of people living in a society. Whatever approach used, it is necessary to integrate or incorporate behavior of all members in the society. The economic thought history is a study of essential attempts to describe, analyze, and explain the relationships in idealized or actual economic system (Thompson, 2007). Time and life of Henry Carey A. A biography of Henry Carey 1793-1879 Henry Carey was the first son of Mathew Carey, who was an Irish freedom rebel. In the year 1817, Henry Carey became a partner in his father’s publishing company and later resigned from the firm to study economic matters. He published his first economic book in the same year, â€Å"Essay on the Rate of Wages†. ... The American Biography Dictionary affirms that Henry Carey â€Å"made the basic departure (from economic theories of British) of stating that the land gets its value from the resources spent on it†, and that employees’ wages increase at a higher rate than capital returns, therefore, attention towards â€Å" a progressive wealth diffusion amongst the poor in a society†. Following the economic and financial depression of the 1837 panic, Carey turned out to a vocal and fierce free trade opponents in the 1840s (Homestead, 2005). His first new economic statement was in his 1845 brochure â€Å"Commercial Associations in English and France† followed by â€Å"Past, Present, and Future† in 1848. Henry’s next edition was â€Å"The Harmony of Interests: Agricultural, Manufacturing & Commercial† in the year 1851, which is famous for its fierce and repeated attacks on economic doctrines of the British. He later turned his thought to the looming cri sis in America’s southern states in his 1853 book, â€Å" The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign† warning against the slave trade in of the British. Henry became one of the highest outstanding supporters of the Republican Party in the 1850s (Homestead, 2005). B. Demand-the reasons that society would desire and pay for the Henry Carey’s economic thoughts Henry Carey’s economic thoughts were of higher significance to the society. His two slogans, â€Å"Protection to American labor† and â€Å"Harmony of Interests† encapsulated his worldview. Henry Carey had a vision to the American society in which small developing and manufacturing towns would prosper across the land (Peskin, 2007). Society demanded his economic thoughts whereby, according to him

To What Extent Have UNHCR's RSD Procedures been an Effective and Fair Essay

To What Extent Have UNHCR's RSD Procedures been an Effective and Fair Tool in the Refugee Decision-making Process - Essay Example The United Nations High Commission on Refugees is reposed with the dual task of both ensuring the protection of refugees and reducing their vulnerabilities, whilst at the same time being charged with the role of refugee decision-maker in Refugee Status Determination (RSD) procedures, when individual States renege on this role. This duality of roles – protector and decision-maker – has been theorized to lead to quantifiable adverse effects on the refugees themselves. This is particularly problematic in light of the particular vulnerabilities that refugees already face, simply by being refugees. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union: Refugees have been the targets of violent attacks and intimidation, largely because they were perceived as â€Å"different† from the communities in which they had temporarily settled. Tensions between refugees and local populations have erupted when refugees were seen as competitors for natural and economic resources. Armed combat ants have been allowed to mingle freely with--and intimidate with seeming impunity--the civilians who sought safety in refugee camps and settlements. And, increasingly, governments have resorted to detention of illegal entrants, including women and children, many of whom are seeking asylum. Given this, it is imperative to craft an international legal framework that ensures an adequate standard of protection for the refugees. Indeed, the trend must be to heighten protections and reduce impediments to the full exercise of their rights. If the legal regime that covers refugee protection and selection results in outcomes that are contrary to the interests of refugees, then indeed it must be subjected to critical examination. II. Statement of Aims This paper intends to conduct an exploratory analysis on whether the existing legal framework that grants the dual mandate of the UNHCR and sets down its RSD procedures has led to inequitable outcomes for the refugees. By â€Å"inequitableâ₠¬ , this paper means either of two things (1) that, as a result of the legal framework, an individual that would otherwise have been granted refugee status under a more liberal contemplation, would be denied such status; (2) an individual granted refugee status would be given less protections than would otherwise have granted under a more liberal contemplation. Is the UNHCR deviating from its palliative protective role, and transforming into a refugee problem solver for the individual states, or even worse, as an enforcement mechanism for donor states’ policies of containment and exclusion? This preliminary proposal aims to analyze in depth the accountability of UNHCR’s RSD practices and the ethical issues arising from its additional role as one of the largest refugee decision-makers in the world. III. Research question and hypothesis This paper is guided by the following research question: To what extent have the UNHCR’s RSD procedures been an effective and fa ir tool in the refugee decision-making process, considering its dual role as a refugee protector and refugee decision-maker? To this end, the following sub-questions are likewise proposed: a. What are the concrete areas of tension between the UNHCR’s role as a refugee protector, and its role as decision-maker? b. What, if any, are the gaps in the RSD procedures, examined vis a vis the mandate of the UNHCR and existing International Law and International Humanitarian Law Conventions? c. Using as basis

Walmart Comparitive Strategy Essay Example for Free

Walmart Comparitive Strategy Essay This paper looks at Wal-Mart Stores as the subject of study. This large United States based organization is recognized as the world’s leading retailer and has extensive global operational influence. Wal-Mart has been the object of much research, both by economists, trade organizations and scholars. This company has evolved from very humble beginnings to establishing itself as an ‘economic power’ in its own right. Wal-Mart opened its first store in 1962, in Rogers, Arkansas, based on its founder, Sam Waltons experience in the retailing sector during the 1950s, and a study he conducted prior to opening his first store. In 1972, the Wal-Mart stock was offered on the New York Stock Exchange which led to significant capitalization and growth. During the 1980s, Wal-Mart experienced rapid growth opening Sam’s Club members-warehouse stores and later Supercentres. A recent corporate press release sums up its current status, Today, 10,185 stores and club locations in 27 countries employ 2.2 million associates, serving more than 176 million customers a year† (Wal-Mart Corporate, 2012, p. 1). Understanding the Wal-Mart business model Wal-Mart’s position as the world’s No. 1 retailer inevitably invites strong competition worldwide. This in turn has strengthened this organization’s resolve to maintain their position by utilizing multiple strategies in order to maintain competitive advantage. One of their strategies has incorporated the ability to form relationships or partnerships not only in the United States, but also within the international environment. In order to implement its overseas representation, Wal-Mart has embarked on an expansion program, seeking to maintain both growth and profitability. Its primary methodology in securing partnerships with large overseas retail operations has been primarily by the acquisition of majority shareholdings. Much research has been conducted regarding the viability of acquisition and potential problems inherent within this corporate growth strategy. Effort is directed within this study to ascertain the long term viability of Wal-Mart’s implementation of modern economic principles. This analysis is conducted regarding opinions derived from researched sources either favoring the implementation of trade and comparative advantage utilizing the acquisition mechanism or perhaps the employment of less opportunistic methods. Moreover, the issue of costs and profit maximization will be evaluated relating to the Wal-Mart model in order to establish strategies that can be utilized in order to achieve optimal efficiency. However, there are conflicting viewpoints regarding the best methodology needed to enable such efficiency. Finally, attention is directed at the consumers’ choice, and how it is directed and influenced by strategies implemented within the Wal-Mart corporate business mod el. Competing viewpoints In evaluating trade and comparative advantage via the acquisition trail, Hayward (2002) suggests that multinationals tend to invest in overseas start-ups rather than acquiring existing overseas operations. His argument is based on the premise that for an organization’s planned entry into a foreign market, expertise derived from a multinational’s existing operational and marketing experience is more relevant to overseas market entry than the benefits derived from acquisition. However, he concedes that expansion by acquisition can be enabled by investing in existing overseas operations which have a similar corporate product and management function, or by acquiring a more diverse though related business model, which will allow for market changes to be factored into any risk analysis. Hayward and other sources are accessed, so as to provide a balanced viewpoint of an organization such as Wal-Mart; regarding its choice of acquisition strategy and its effectiveness in achievi ng growth and profitability. Costs and profit maximization is also looked at by enabling research into previously conducted studies. Wal-Mart has exploited costs and profit strategies by utilizing and capitalizing on its ability to offer products at rock bottom prices due to its enormous buying power and also committing suppliers worldwide contractually to price and cost control agreements. This has enabled this organization to take advantage of the economic environment in the U.S. and elsewhere within countries in which it has operations. This advantage leverages its buying power, allowing it to offer the ‘best deal’ by focusing on product costs and potential higher volume of sales; thereby maximizing its ability to impact global retail markets. Jones and Hill (1988, p. 160) maintain that a transaction requiring cost can be more effectively enabled if facilitated within the organization’s corporate infrastructure or â€Å"internalizing†, rather than by enabling such transactions within the marketplace. This paper looks at how Wal-Mart internalized its ability to control costs by facilitating a diversity of acquisitions within overseas markets. Apposing Jones and Hill’s (1988) findings, Denis, Denis and Sarin (1997, p. 135) point to studies which suggest that the â€Å"cost of diversification outweigh the benefits†. This paper seeks to establish more definitively the viability of costs and profit maximization via the acquisition methodology within the Wal-Mart corporate business model. Further attention will also be directed at ‘consumer choice’ and how it is impacted by costs and profit strategies incorporated within Wal-Mart’s operational function. Key to this organization’s diversification strategy has been its ability to supply and meet consumer expectations worldwide. According to research conducted in 1985, it was noted that consumers’ choice was driven by three variable buying habits (Quigley, 1985). Firstly, the consumer tends to select one choice when looking at a product even when offered many alternatives. Secondly, products on offer to the consumer are endowed with a large range of options and variety. Finally, the issue of price is a consideration that needs to be factored into the consumers’ expectations. Countering Quigley (1985), another source points to evidence suggesting that consumer participation is achieved not only by ‘price information’, but also by providing â€Å"non-price information† (Degeratu, Rangaswamy Wu, 1999, p. 8). Here their hypothesis maintains that allowing the consumer too much choice can compromise the consumer’s long term participation as a loyal customer. This tends to counter Quigley’s point of view, from which in part he suggests that the consumer is motivated by a ‘large range’ or variety of choice. Furthermore, Degeratu et al. (1999) argues that establishing consumers’ personal preferences enable choice to be restricted and issues such as price to be focused on specific product choices. This in turn allows the ability to negate competitors’ influence by diverting the consumers’ attention from a wide choice to a product personalized to include aspects such as price and brand. One of Wal -Mart’s key marketing strategies is to attract the consumer by the offering of ‘rock-bottom’ priced consumables. This paper endeavors to establish what really drives and captures consumer choice, with further attention allocated to further research sources in order to establish why Wal-Mart focus so much marketing attention on product price . Anticipated Evidence This study acknowledges that evidence from research offers numerous validated opinions related to the abovementioned trade and comparative advantage, costs and profit maximization and consumer choice. Based on evidence obtained relating to Wal-Mart’s growth and profitability, effort will be focused on accessing credible information from further sources that validates this organization’s decision to implement acquisition strategies that are both strategically sound and beneficial to both the supplier and consumer alike. Moreover, attention will be directed towards obtaining information and data that promotes Wal-Mart’s costs and profit maximization via strategies including the combining and internalizing of available resources. Customer choice will be further investigated so as to establish how this organization was enabled to achieve marketplace leadership by focusing on primarily on consumers’ expectations of price, whilst factoring in important considerations relating to brand and quality. While directing effort into the sourcing process, recognition will be given to the diversity of sources available, with viewpoints garnered from those sources perhaps not directly connected with economics or the retail industry. Additional Information Due to the significance of Wal-Mart’s dominant position within the international retail industry, consideration will be directed at additional factors that may be relevant to its growth and profitability. One factor that perhaps deserves some further researched evidence relates to overall management of costs, not only directly related to products (for resale), but also concerning the cost control of issues such as money transfer, exchange rate mechanisms and entry into overseas markets that is exposed to risks presented by cultural diversity and local traditions. Accessing these and other (perhaps secondary factors), may indeed shed light on this paper’s primary objective which is to establish how trade and comparative advantage, costs and profit maximization and customer choice impact and influence Wal-Mart, based on the variety of information and opinion sourced. Discussion Overview: Three Economic Strategies. Attention is now directed to ascertaining the importance of establishing factors that influence the economic viability of the Wal-Mart business model; whilst acknowledging its consistent historical growth pattern enabling it to become the world’s leading retailer. As briefly mentioned earlier, this study looked at various factors contributing to its critical competitive advantages, leveraged in part by its ability to set up overseas operations by investing in acquisitions. Utilizing the acquisition methodology of growth has raised concerns by previous research regarding if acquisition is the preferred or most efficient way to facilitate growth objectives on an international scale. Moreover, mentioned was allocated earlier to Hayward’s (2002) claim, in which a multinational’s accumulated operational and marketing track record is more influential to successful overseas entry than by enabling the acquisition of another business operation. Further attention will be given later in this study regarding the viability of international growth via acquisition. This study has also verified the implementation of ‘costs and profit maximization’ by the Wal-Mart management structure; thereby allowing this organization to utilize growing financial resources in order to maintain its dominant position within the international retail marketplace. Such dominance was facilitated in part by leveraging its enormous organizational buying power on a global basis in order to extract the lowest product cost from suppliers; thereby increasing the possibility of a higher profit margin. In turn, creating the lowest possible cost retail product range for resale purposes, has allowed effort to be directed to ‘consumer choice’, as without the vital component of consumer participation, no business can enjoy financial longevity or long term sustainability. Perhaps it is important to understand that within the law of economics, comparative advantage is enabled by one competitor retaining the ability to produce a product and service at a lower cost than other competitors; thereby creating an ‘inequality’ of competitiveness. It may be argued that comparative advantage can be further exploited by acquiring competitors rather than engaging in an environment of conflict. This raises the question whether the investment needed to effect acquisition is more financially viable than by directing financial resources to combating potential competitors. Another consideration propagating the argument towards favoring an acquisition suggests that this corporate strategy enables the utilization of resources from a base of existing suppliers and consumers; whereas starting from scratch in an overseas marketplace requires significant resources being allocated to catching up to existing retailers’ marketplace penetration. Strategy based on the latter option may result not only in ‘over-investment’ or excessive capital expenditure, but also necessitating additional time to be allocated to effecting a market entry strategy. As has already been noted, previous research has varying viewpoints regarding which route is more financially effective and sustainable. Therefore, the thesis of this study will be to establish that acquisition, effective costs and profit maximization and targeted consumer choice are invariably linked and are perhaps the most effective economic way to enable growth and profitability, especially pertaining to a large corporate infrastructure such as Wal-Mart. This idea will be demonstrated utilizing the Wal-Mart operational business model, both from a historical point of view and also from its current operational function. Implementation Viability: Three Economic Strategies. As previously noted, this U.S. organization has exploited these three strategies by utilizing the existing infrastructure, consumer base, experience and local knowledge of the acquired company. This has been achieved whilst capitalizing on its own ability to introduce sophisticated management and operating systems, derived and developed both in the U.S. and via a number of worldwide partnerships enabling the procurement of products at rock-bottom prices. In addition, significant investment into hardware and software technology has enabled this organization access accurate data and information quickly and efficiently. Perhaps one of its greatest business strategies in developing comparative advantages was the planned penetration of overseas markets, which may not have been so exposed to such a high level of expertise as their Western counterparts. This expertise has been derived from exposure to the ongoing development of business systems and comprehensive utilization of human resources. Their expertise also incorporated a company and management culture that encouraged the promotion of talent, including enabling the availability of both in-house and external based training. Furthermore, another strategic development facilitating their competitive advantage was the penetration of the Asian marketplace, an area of the world which had not been impacted so severely as in Western markets since the onset of the global economic recession in 2008. Furthermore, due to Asia’s lesser exposure to debt and systemically faulted credit mechanisms, Wal-Mart was able to exploit its penetration of Asian markets due to a higher consumer demand; thereby leveraging their enormous internal buying power by trading with economies such as China and India, in order to facilitate growth and profitability. Overall its penetration of international markets has enjoyed remarkable success and is endowed with multiple opportunities. This fact is verified by a recent analysis of the Wal-Mart business model, â€Å"Over time, the international segment probably has the greatest opportunity to improve sales and operating margin† (Forbes.com, 2012, p. 1). Their strategy of sourcing cheap products by utilizing their enormous purchasing power has enabled this organization to pass on the benefits directly to the consumer, thus facilitating their ability as a leading international retail competitor to compete effectively against more established overseas retail chains. Therefore, due to a severe competitive environment in the United States, Wal-Mart will no doubt continue to take advantage of overseas markets, which may allow it to further utilize their sophisticated management and monetary control systems within an easier and less competitive operating environment. To date, this organization has implemented this advantage by employing a corporate culture incorporating in part, international expansion and penetration by means of acquisition. Furthermore, Wal-Mart further developed their advantage over competitors by employing sophisticated exchange control mechanisms that reduced their risk exposure to fluctuations of foreign currency. Th ey achieved this in part, by pricing their revenues and costs utilizing a strategy of securing a fixed or more stable exchange rate on which to base their costings and revenue forecasts. Whilst acknowledging their obvious success which was enabled in part by their strategic management planning gaining access into global markets, further study from previous research is now directed to the critical evaluation of alternative overseas market penetration strategies. In addition, focus into the feasibility and effectiveness of costs reduction and profit optimization is also included within this investigation. Inevitably this study will also factor in the enhanced ability of the consumer to enjoy options that allow both choice of product, and increased purchasing power due to rock-bottom product pricing. According to a study conducted into organizational fit and acquisition performance, it is argued that acquisitions are known to â€Å"have a high failure rate—nearly half of all acquisitions are rated as being unsatisfactory by managers of acquiring firms† (Datta, 1991, p. 281). It is also surprising to note that companies and organizations targeted by acquiring companies have an above average chance (over 50%) of experiencing a fall in profitability. According to Datta (1991), challenges posed by the corporate targets of acquisition include implementing and combining the operational functions of both the acquirer and the acquired. This is indeed challenging in overseas markets where cultural differences and corporate practices are perhaps significantly diverse in nature. However, balanced against this argument, Datta (1991) did not constructively conclude that the same profit related challenges are faced by acquiring companies. It can possibly be inferred from Datta’s (1991) study that the benefit of acquisition may be more weighted in favor of the company conducting an acquisition. Assuming that this company assumes a majority control over the acquired company’s infrastructure and operational function including an existing consumer base and marketplace penetration, further suggests that the trade and comparative advantage lies with an incoming organization such as Wal-Mart. Supporting this thesis in part, Dussauge, Garrette Mitchell (2000, p. 100) claim â€Å"that no one business can create all resources needed to prosper and grow†, however they continue to maintain that â€Å"collaboration† (p. 100) between competing companies allows each company to possess and leverage â€Å"complementary resources† (p. 100); thereby enabling the exploitation by both participating companies of opportunities within the marketplace. Dussauge et al. (2000, p. 100) further adds that such collaboration facilitates the ability to ensure â€Å"survival and growth†. However, this paper cautions that based on Datta’s (1991) research, such exploitation may be more beneficial to the incoming acquiring company. Attention is now focused on the economic aspects regarding the maximization of profits and minimizing costs. Wal-Marts exposure to exchange risk is significant due to capital investment into overseas markets from which it is assumed that subsequent returns of investment (ROI) will in part be transferred back to the United States. Furthermore, issues such as incurring debt and ongoing initial overseas expenditure including legal costs are also budgeted necessities that require the enactment of currency control mechanisms. Also assuming the implementation of a larger and more diverse product range made available within the newly acquired overseas marketplace, accumulating procurement expenditure for resale products from overseas suppliers and business ‘partners’ will be to be factored into the ‘costs analysis’. To reduce its risk exposure to fluctuations of foreign currency, Wal-Mart has priced their revenues and costs by securing a fixed or more stable exchange rate on which to base their costings and revenue forecasts. The methodology employed to reduce exchange rate risks was by utilizing interest rate swaps; as a report studying Cash flow instruments points out, â€Å"The Company [Wal-Mart] was party to a cross-currency interest rate swap to hedge the foreign   currency risk of certain foreign-denominated debt. The swap was designated as a cash flow hedge of foreign currency exchange risk† (Wikinvest 2008, p. 1). This factor incorporating the leveraging of exchange rate mechanisms has continually facilitated maximized profitability and minimized costs. However, on a cautionary note, exchange rate mechanisms are by no means guaranteed to remove potential exchange rate losses, but can be seen to perhaps ‘dilute’ or lower the risk of foreign currency and exchange rate losses. Furthermore, due to Wal-Mart’s enormous purchasing power and ability to source the lowest priced products and services from cheaper overseas suppliers, minimal costs are achieved whilst also subsequently allowing the maximization of profits to be realized. Moreover, the benefits attributed by optimizing costs and profits, facilitates passing on to the consumer, both choice and low prices. However, revenue based on price and choice is not necessarily conducive and conclusive to enabling long term consumer loyalty. This was noted earlier in a study conducted by Degeratu et al. (1999), in which they argue that giving a consumer too much choice creates an environment in which competitors can compete on a level footing, whereas by personalizing the marketing away from price and a wider choice negates in part the threat from competitors. Conclusion Based on the aforementioned sourced evidence, this study suggests that enabling trade and comparative advantage is indeed viable by implementing expansion and growth via a strategy of acquisition. Despite evidence some pointing to the high failure rate of acquisitions and the possibility of achieving growth by internalizing expansion, such evidence does not disprove that the proven success already demonstrated by corporate organizations such as Wal-  Mart, cannot be continued to be planned and implemented. Perhaps the primary factor allowing this positive viewpoint of acquisition is regarding the significant time needed to build and develop market share in a new overseas market. According to Singh and Montgomery (1987, p. 378), internal development into a new market can take up to eight years in which to achieve â€Å"accrual of returns†. Further supporting acquisition, Singh and Montgomery (1987, p. 379). maintain that such markets may be â€Å"characterized by substantial barriers to entry†, further justifying Wal-Mart’s strategy of comparative advantage by acquisition. Accepting the relative initial high investment of acquisition, as compared to that of internalized growth, creating mechanisms to allow costs efficiency is of vital necessity in order to create positive cash flow and sustainable growth. These findings have showed that the combination of ‘purchasing power’ and mechanisms lowering the risk of exchange rate losses, have in part led to the success of one of the world’s largest companies. Additionally, acquiring existing overseas operational structures provides a company such as Wal-Mart the opportunity to offer the consumer the ‘best deal’ due to the collaboration, ‘expertise’ and infrastructure of two related corporate entities. However, this study would be remiss by not cautioning against the possibility of future areas of conflict between corporate collaborators, in the event of inequality of opportunity between collaborators as highlighted earlier in this paper by Dassa, (1991, p. 13).

Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality

Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality QUESTIONAIRE ABSTRACT In any business-to-customer (B2C) type ofenvironment, satisfying a customer is the ultimate goal and objective. More often than not, it can be quite an issue. This is perhaps due to the fact that organizations sometimes do not really understand of what actually goes on in a customers mind. As such, this predicament has provided as a challenging task to most business conglomerates that places strong emphasis on customer relations. Although many researches and studies were conducted on the actual working of the customers mind, till today it is a still a mystery. Therefore, this research focused on the measurement of customer satisfaction through delivery of service quality of Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. A quantitative research was used to study the relationship between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction. Assurance has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Reliability has negative relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Tangibles have positive relationship and have significant impact on customer satisfaction. Empathy has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Responsiveness has positive relationship but no significant impact on customer satisfaction. The study highlights implications for marketers in banking industry for improvement in delivery of service quality. CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION Service organizations play an important role for developing countries like Malaysia. Therefore, it must be good quality and competitive organization in maintaining customer satisfaction and further needs to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. At the same time, as we all know that the requirements and higher customer expectations, it is different from the past (Rogerio Zulema, 2002). This is a very great challenge to all sectors. Banking business is now driven with the introduction of new products / services and processes which are facilitated through ongoing technological advancements. In such a scenario the expectations of customers also shift to a higher platform and is usually perceived against the backdrop of the experiences gained while dealing with competitors. The gap in customer expectations many a times results in complaints and the same can be said to be inevitable, as in any service industry. To retain as also increase customer base it is absolutely essential that the bank instills confidence in its customers through satisfactory explanations and resolution of complaints and at the same time use complaints as a feed back mechanism for bringing about improvement in services. The banking sector at present has put a benchmark index that determines the performance of Customer Service in the organization. It is also consistent with the requirements of the Bank that all institutions must be able to respond positively to a more competitive among the financial liberalization and technological revolution by offering an innovative range of products that range and improve the quality of customer service on an ongoing basis. (Tan Sri Dato Dr Zeti Akhtar Azizi, 2005). The banking sector also needs quality personnel and competency. Having employees like them to provide high quality products and services is critical to build consumer confidence and good relationship, drive customer satisfaction and enhance the reputation of previous research studies, (Ndubisi Tam, 2005) has stated bind the customer is as important as when they lose will harm the institution. This will lead to a decline in revenue, increased costs to attract new customers, a bad reputation when the customer is not satisfied the problem will spread to other customers and a decline in employee retention (Colgate Norris, 2001). 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT The trend of world markets has changed noticeably from agricultural to service markets (Asian Development Outlook, 2007). All of the service businesses are trying their best to improve their service quality in order to make customers satisfied with their services. Banks now focus more on the quality standards in order to meet the basic needs and expectations of the customers. Once customers requirements are clearly identified and understood, banks are more likely to anticipate and fulfill their customers needs and wants (Juwaheer Ross, 2003). In the banking sector, the first place of destination by the customer is at the Customer Service Counter (Customer Service). Here, various questions, problems and complaints filed by customers. At the bank, customer service counter is the most important because this is where the Customer Relations Assistant job set to any direction so that customers, whether customers want to continue the operation of the counter, self-service terminals, counters open accounts, loans or financial adviser or directly to managers to make a complaint. Service quality was determined as the subjective comparison that customers make between their expectations about a service and the perception of the way the service has been run. Parasuraman (1985) defined service quality as ;a function of the differences between expectation and performance along ten major dimensions. In later research, Parasuraman (1988) revised and defined the service quality in terms of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. In the banking industry, most researchers are interested in maximizing customer Satisfaction. Hernon Whitwan (2001) defined customer satisfaction as a measure of how the customer perceives service delivery. Liu (2000) stated, for example, that customer satisfaction is a function of service performance relative to the customer expectation. For this reason, it is important to understand how customer expectation is formed in order to identify the factors of service satisfaction. As Reisig Chandek (2001) discussed the fact that different customers have different expectations, based on their knowledge of a product or service. This can be implied that a customer may estimate what the service performance will be or may think what the performance ought to be. If the service performance meets or exceeds customers expectation, the customers will be satisfied. On the other hand, customers are more likely to be dissatisfied if the service performance is less than what they have expected. A greater number of satisfied customers will make the bank business more successful and more profitable. Previous research explored customer satisfaction regarding the service quality of all areas in the bank so that the bank can assess the customer perception. This study identified five factors of service quality by focusing on the Service Counter staff (including Customer Service Counter), and explored the customers expectations and perception levels of these services at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The results of this quantitative assessment of service quality might provide some insights into how customers rate the overall service quality and assessed customers satisfactions at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions (e.g. getting it right the first time), service features (e.g. competitive interest rates), service problems, service recovery and products used. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the bankss products. 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To assess customers expectation and perception level towards service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia; in five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman, 1988). To analyze the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards the service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is the level of customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? What is the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? 1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY Customer satisfaction relied on customer expectation and customer perception towards 5 service quality dimensions of Service Counters of 10 Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The sampling group was 60 customers 6 customers from each bank. Definition of Terms Service quality means the difference between the customers expectation of service and their perceived service. In this study, the assessment standards of Zeithaml, Parasuraman Berry (1990) will be used, which consist of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. SERVQUAL is an instrument for measuring service quality, in terms of the discrepancy between customers expectation regarding service offered and the perception of the service received. Respondents are required to answer questions about both their expectation and their perception. Customer expectation means uncontrollable factors including past experience, personal needs, word of mouth, and external communication about the bank services. Customer perception means customers feelings of pleasure / displeasure or the reaction of the customers in relation to the performance of the bank staff in satisfying / dissatisfying the services. 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study will be as a practical guideline for the bank management to identify weaknessess and rooms for imrovement in their service quality. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where banks compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions, service features, service problems, service recovery and products used. Finds, in particular, that service problems and the banks service recovery ability have a major impact on customer satisfaction and intentions to switch. This study investigates the relationship between perceived performance, satisfaction and behavioural intention, and the extent to which each is associated with actual performance, customers attributions for problems, experience and the level of performance which customers think is possible. Perceived performance and satisfaction are significantly associated with customer standards of the best possible performance, and satisfaction is also associated with the customers attribution of the cause of performance problems. While satisfaction was significantly associated with intention to re-purchase, a significant interaction was found between customer experience and satisfaction. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organizations products. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Previous researchers have demonstrated the importance of increasing understanding of strategies to resolve customer complaints and more to study the behavior of customers, namely quality of life sex Ndubisi, 2005. Study customer behavior through the CM model to take the complaint as an opportunity to provide solutions, research studies and the Vos Huitema, 2008. As the study by Baptista, 2003 in which an organization should attempt to resolve complaints informally, taken orally and should make proper records and the complaint should be resolved as soon as possible so the problem does not persist. They have also emphasized differences in complaints against the Service Counter and self service terminals Vihtkari Snellman, 2003, is the notion that the use of self-service terminals in the bank to reduce customer complaints, but rather a circumstance where there is 40 per cent of users are not satisfied with the self-service. Researchers previously expressed understanding of customer dissatisfaction is the key to successful implementation of TQM and principals as well as the Puga Leal Pereira, 2002. Researchers say previous satisfaction is waiting to be served a major contributor to quality of service satisfaction Sulek Hensley, 2007. Researchers previously expressed satisfaction with the care, satisfaction, trust and satisfaction as a control, each dependent on each other that Beverland, 2005. Previous researchers to state that organizations need to keep employees as customers and keeping customers as employees of Bowers Martin, 2004. Researchers found that the quality of a product is dependent on the existing knowledge in the management of the Yang, 2006. Researchers say there is a strong relationship between the dimensions of service quality, performance and customer satisfaction. Previous studies have identified the benefits that customer retention delivers to an organisation (see Colgate et al., 1996; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Storbacka et al., 1994). For example, the longer a customer stays with an organisation the more utility the customer generates (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). This is an outcome of a number of factors relating to the time the customer spends with the organisation. These include the higher initial costs of introducing and attracting a new customer, increases in both the value and number of purchases, the customers better understanding of the organisation, and positive word-of-mouth promotion. Customer satisfaction has been said one of the most widely used study in marketing. The previous research has tries to identify a number of variables of customer satisfaction. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement, although a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed. Work done by Berry (Bart Allen) and Brodeur between 1990 and 1998 defined ten Quality Values which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Inter-departmental Teamwork, Front line Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an integrated model. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customers expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction gap which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the confirmation/disconfirmation theory of combining the gap described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance divided by expectation of performance. The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a study with a set of statements using a Likert scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured. Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. In the net promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-mouth. Companies calculate their Net Promoter Score by subtracting their % Detractors from their % Promoters. The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model. SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer) to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience. J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates marketing research consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards. One of the newest and most innovative customer satisfaction measurement methodologies is called Gustometria. Gustometria is real time measurement of customer and employee satisfaction. Customers are invited to answer a short survey by touching the gustometer screen with their fingers. The responses are collected immediately by the Gustometria servers which tabulate the results in real time. Management can then log into their private website and use the sophisticated business intelligence reports which are built in to the Gustometria system. The rewards to firms that establish a loyal customer base have been well documented (Armstrong and Symonds, 1991; Heskett, 1994; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). In general, increased loyalty leads to lower costs of servicing the firms customers, reduced marketing expenditures, increased business from the existing customer base and greater profits. These rewards are particularly true in the retail banking sector. By increasing loyalty, a retail bank: reduces its servicing costs (i.e. accounts do not have to be opened or closed, and credit ratings do not have to be established; gains knowledge of the financial affairs and needs of its customers (thereby allowing effective and efficient targeting); and has an opportunity to cross-sell existing and new products and services. In one case, a retail bank that increased its customer retention rates by 5 per cent increased its profits by 85 per cent (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Improving customer satisfaction, and thereby retention rates, can come from a variety of activities available to the firm. The existing evidence suggests that major gains in customer satisfaction are likely to come from improvements in: Service quality; Service features; and Customer complaint handling. Not surprisingly, there are strong linkages between service quality dimensions (e.g. courteous service providers) and overall customer satisfaction (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). However, there has been considerable debate as to the basic dimensions of service quality (see Brown et al., 1993 and Cronin and Taylor, 1992, for reviews), the measurement of these dimensions (Brown et al., 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1993; Smith, 1995; Teas, 1993), and the components of customer satisfaction (Hausknecht, 1990; Yi, 1990). Surprisingly, little empirical research has examined the importance of service quality dimensions in determining customer satisfaction. CHAPTER 3: THEORICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 THEORICAL FRAMEWORK Independent Variables Dependent Variable SOURCES OF DISSATISFACTION Some empirical studies of service satisfaction suggest that â€Å"the human interaction component of service delivery is essential to the determination of satisfaction and dissatisfaction† (Bitner, 1990). According to Anderson and Sullivan (1993), when consumers perceived service quality performance falls short of their expectation, they become dissatisfied. Lewis and Spyrakopoulos (2001), in their research conducted on UK retail banking, categorized the causes of dissatisfaction in banking sector into five groups i.e. 1) Banking Procedures: Bureaucracy and slow banking, and Failure to keep customers fully aware of their banking situation. 2) Mistakes (i.e. wrong statement) 3) Employee behavior and training: Employees ignorant of certain banking procedures and Employees unwilling or slow to help the customer 4) Functional or technical failures: Long and/or unorganized queues ATMs out of order Limited network or branches Incomprehensible statements of accounts, terms of loans, conversions etc. 5) Action or omission of the bank that are against the sense of fair trade. Yanamandram and White (2004), in their research mentioned nine factors as main reasons ofdissatisfaction. These are lack of branch locations, high interest rates on loans etc, low interest rates on savings, long waiting periods, number of accounts fees, high account fees, poor counter fees, poor counter service, e-banking confusing, poor telephone banking service and others. Furthermore Johnston (1995), in his research demonstrated that, for personal customer of banks, the main sources of satisfaction are attentiveness, responsiveness, care and friendliness whereas the main sources of dissatisfaction are lack of integrity, reliability, responsiveness, availability and functionality. Further he argued that, all the reasons of dissatisfaction are not necessarily the other face of the sources of satisfaction though responsiveness is key component in providing satisfaction and the lack of it is a major source of dissatisfaction. Gronroos, C. (1984), cited in Panther and Farquhar (2004), argued service industry is much prone to entail greater dissatisfaction than products because both technical and functional aspects have an impact on consumer evaluation of the services. In financial services, self-service technologies (SSTs) become more wining tool to deal with customers resulting in customer dissatisfaction. To illustrate banks have adopted internet banking as service delivery tool, with a view to providing better and lowering costs, and sometimes new services to their customers. Further, they explained that presently as a regular practice banks start offering self-service technologies without having carefully studied what the true outcomes will be when customers interact with technology without a human component in the service encounter. SSTs interact with customer in a pre-designed way, rather than understanding individual customers need. Bitner (1990), found several satisfactions and dissatisfaction drivers applying criticalincident techniques. They identified key actions such as employee response to customer needs and requests, failure of service recovery action, lack of prompt and spontaneous employee actions result in both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Day and Bodur (1977) argued in their research that in most cases dissatisfaction is directly linked with quality of suppliers performance. In their research most frequently mentioned reason for dissatisfaction was, â€Å"The service was rendered in a careless, unprofessional manner.† Some researchers observe dissatisfaction drivers are determined at the time when customers directly interact with a service. Some aspects of a service may not be persuasive for customer satisfaction but can lead to strong dissatisfaction when they are under performed. On the other hand, some aspects of service lead to satisfaction if delivered properly, but may not necessarily emerge dissatisfaction if absent (Srijumpa , 2007). Furthermore, Bolfing (1989), argued that â€Å"Heterogeneity and intangible nature of services itself frequently produced situation in which customers needs are misjudged or mishandled resulting in customers dissatisfaction†. That is the nature of services itself is also a source of dissatisfaction. IMPROVEMENT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS Gummesson (1999), finds three different options that a customer can choose between when he or she feels dissatisfied with something that involves their present supplier where the first one is to exit the customers leave for a competitor, or stop buying the goods or services temporarily or permanently. This option is also pointed out by Brandt (2003), who states that if a customer is not satisfied with the product or the salesperson, he or she simply does not purchase from the company again. The second choice is called voice the customers speak their mind and demand correction, and the third option is loyalty the customers remain loyal for lack of alternative suppliers or prohibitive switching costs, inertia, ideological reasons and others, at least within limits. All these options are used by customers according to Gummesson, who continues that the feeling behind them, however, is largely a black box to suppliers. Recovery is more than settling a claim, it is the restoration and strengthening of a long-term relationship and the course of action must be constructive, not just a mechanical routine. If the recovery is successful, continues Gummesson (1999) strengthened by Brandt (2003), then a well resolved customer complaint can create a solid relationship, sometimes better than before the incident. Another aspect that can be turned into something positive according to Arnerup and Edvardsson (1992) is that although many companies consider a customer complaint as something negative, they should instead use it as a possibility to learn more about the customers needs, improve the conditions to satisfy them and strengthen the relationship with them. Nyer (2000) states that customers who were encouraged to complain reported great increase in satisfaction. The author continues that the indirect benefits occurs when an unhappy customer complains, which leads the employee to respond in a way that makes the customer less dissatisfied in the future, and therefore benefits the company as well. Research has shown that excellent complaint management and service recovery can significantly influence customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Furthermore the majority of highly satisfying experiences were the result of something that went wrong and the organization making the effort to compensate the customer: â€Å"The recovery of failures can provide a major opportunity for organizations to create very satisfied customers†. The critical issue is that it is not necessarily the failure itself that leads to customer dissatisfaction; many customers accept that things can go wrong; instead, it is more likely to be the organizations response (or lack of response) to a failure that causes satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Kahn (1995, p. 97) has similar opinions, when emphasizing that it is beneficial to companies to encourage their customer to perform complaints when they are upset or dissatisfied, since these customers can become even more loyal and satisfied customers in the future. Halstead and Page (reported in Johnston, 2001) also find that complaint handling processes shows a clear relationship with loyalty and repurchases intentions. Furthermore, customers who have been successfully recovered not only remain loyal, but can become advocates for the organization, and as such be a source of referral business because word of mouth can be very persuasive in terms of influencing customers to use an organization and its services claims Spreng et al (reviewed in Johnston, 2001). Brandt (2003) follows the same track, describing that customers who experiences a good service recovery will spread more goodwill than even your otherwise best loyal customers do. Soderlund (1999), claims that even though a customer has shown dissatisfaction and directed complaints towards the company, he or she does not necessarily has to be â€Å"lost† to the company, a pleasing reaction and action can turn the annoyance to satisfaction. In many cases, a good recovery can turn upset customers into even more loyal customers and strengthen relationships. Customer retention has been shown to have a direct impact on revenue and profitability states Loveman (reported in Johnston, 2001). Loyal customers tend to buy more, and are willing to pay premium prices, and the company needs to spend less money on marketing activities, all of which increase revenue and profitability according to Johnston (2001). Companies need to understand that even though it is possible to retain dissatisfied customers, it can be difficult since not all customer complain to the company, out of 25 per cent dissatisfied customer, only 5 per cent finds making the effort of complaining worth. While according to Kotler (2003) and out of these 5 per cent, half of the customers report a satisfactory resolution. On average, continues the author, a dissatisfied customer gripes to 11 other persons whereas the satisfied customer only tells three other people, this is also commented by Soderlund, (1997) who finds that satisfied Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality QUESTIONAIRE ABSTRACT In any business-to-customer (B2C) type ofenvironment, satisfying a customer is the ultimate goal and objective. More often than not, it can be quite an issue. This is perhaps due to the fact that organizations sometimes do not really understand of what actually goes on in a customers mind. As such, this predicament has provided as a challenging task to most business conglomerates that places strong emphasis on customer relations. Although many researches and studies were conducted on the actual working of the customers mind, till today it is a still a mystery. Therefore, this research focused on the measurement of customer satisfaction through delivery of service quality of Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. A quantitative research was used to study the relationship between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction. Assurance has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Reliability has negative relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Tangibles have positive relationship and have significant impact on customer satisfaction. Empathy has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Responsiveness has positive relationship but no significant impact on customer satisfaction. The study highlights implications for marketers in banking industry for improvement in delivery of service quality. CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION Service organizations play an important role for developing countries like Malaysia. Therefore, it must be good quality and competitive organization in maintaining customer satisfaction and further needs to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. At the same time, as we all know that the requirements and higher customer expectations, it is different from the past (Rogerio Zulema, 2002). This is a very great challenge to all sectors. Banking business is now driven with the introduction of new products / services and processes which are facilitated through ongoing technological advancements. In such a scenario the expectations of customers also shift to a higher platform and is usually perceived against the backdrop of the experiences gained while dealing with competitors. The gap in customer expectations many a times results in complaints and the same can be said to be inevitable, as in any service industry. To retain as also increase customer base it is absolutely essential that the bank instills confidence in its customers through satisfactory explanations and resolution of complaints and at the same time use complaints as a feed back mechanism for bringing about improvement in services. The banking sector at present has put a benchmark index that determines the performance of Customer Service in the organization. It is also consistent with the requirements of the Bank that all institutions must be able to respond positively to a more competitive among the financial liberalization and technological revolution by offering an innovative range of products that range and improve the quality of customer service on an ongoing basis. (Tan Sri Dato Dr Zeti Akhtar Azizi, 2005). The banking sector also needs quality personnel and competency. Having employees like them to provide high quality products and services is critical to build consumer confidence and good relationship, drive customer satisfaction and enhance the reputation of previous research studies, (Ndubisi Tam, 2005) has stated bind the customer is as important as when they lose will harm the institution. This will lead to a decline in revenue, increased costs to attract new customers, a bad reputation when the customer is not satisfied the problem will spread to other customers and a decline in employee retention (Colgate Norris, 2001). 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT The trend of world markets has changed noticeably from agricultural to service markets (Asian Development Outlook, 2007). All of the service businesses are trying their best to improve their service quality in order to make customers satisfied with their services. Banks now focus more on the quality standards in order to meet the basic needs and expectations of the customers. Once customers requirements are clearly identified and understood, banks are more likely to anticipate and fulfill their customers needs and wants (Juwaheer Ross, 2003). In the banking sector, the first place of destination by the customer is at the Customer Service Counter (Customer Service). Here, various questions, problems and complaints filed by customers. At the bank, customer service counter is the most important because this is where the Customer Relations Assistant job set to any direction so that customers, whether customers want to continue the operation of the counter, self-service terminals, counters open accounts, loans or financial adviser or directly to managers to make a complaint. Service quality was determined as the subjective comparison that customers make between their expectations about a service and the perception of the way the service has been run. Parasuraman (1985) defined service quality as ;a function of the differences between expectation and performance along ten major dimensions. In later research, Parasuraman (1988) revised and defined the service quality in terms of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. In the banking industry, most researchers are interested in maximizing customer Satisfaction. Hernon Whitwan (2001) defined customer satisfaction as a measure of how the customer perceives service delivery. Liu (2000) stated, for example, that customer satisfaction is a function of service performance relative to the customer expectation. For this reason, it is important to understand how customer expectation is formed in order to identify the factors of service satisfaction. As Reisig Chandek (2001) discussed the fact that different customers have different expectations, based on their knowledge of a product or service. This can be implied that a customer may estimate what the service performance will be or may think what the performance ought to be. If the service performance meets or exceeds customers expectation, the customers will be satisfied. On the other hand, customers are more likely to be dissatisfied if the service performance is less than what they have expected. A greater number of satisfied customers will make the bank business more successful and more profitable. Previous research explored customer satisfaction regarding the service quality of all areas in the bank so that the bank can assess the customer perception. This study identified five factors of service quality by focusing on the Service Counter staff (including Customer Service Counter), and explored the customers expectations and perception levels of these services at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The results of this quantitative assessment of service quality might provide some insights into how customers rate the overall service quality and assessed customers satisfactions at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions (e.g. getting it right the first time), service features (e.g. competitive interest rates), service problems, service recovery and products used. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the bankss products. 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To assess customers expectation and perception level towards service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia; in five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman, 1988). To analyze the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards the service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is the level of customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? What is the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? 1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY Customer satisfaction relied on customer expectation and customer perception towards 5 service quality dimensions of Service Counters of 10 Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The sampling group was 60 customers 6 customers from each bank. Definition of Terms Service quality means the difference between the customers expectation of service and their perceived service. In this study, the assessment standards of Zeithaml, Parasuraman Berry (1990) will be used, which consist of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. SERVQUAL is an instrument for measuring service quality, in terms of the discrepancy between customers expectation regarding service offered and the perception of the service received. Respondents are required to answer questions about both their expectation and their perception. Customer expectation means uncontrollable factors including past experience, personal needs, word of mouth, and external communication about the bank services. Customer perception means customers feelings of pleasure / displeasure or the reaction of the customers in relation to the performance of the bank staff in satisfying / dissatisfying the services. 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study will be as a practical guideline for the bank management to identify weaknessess and rooms for imrovement in their service quality. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where banks compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions, service features, service problems, service recovery and products used. Finds, in particular, that service problems and the banks service recovery ability have a major impact on customer satisfaction and intentions to switch. This study investigates the relationship between perceived performance, satisfaction and behavioural intention, and the extent to which each is associated with actual performance, customers attributions for problems, experience and the level of performance which customers think is possible. Perceived performance and satisfaction are significantly associated with customer standards of the best possible performance, and satisfaction is also associated with the customers attribution of the cause of performance problems. While satisfaction was significantly associated with intention to re-purchase, a significant interaction was found between customer experience and satisfaction. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organizations products. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Previous researchers have demonstrated the importance of increasing understanding of strategies to resolve customer complaints and more to study the behavior of customers, namely quality of life sex Ndubisi, 2005. Study customer behavior through the CM model to take the complaint as an opportunity to provide solutions, research studies and the Vos Huitema, 2008. As the study by Baptista, 2003 in which an organization should attempt to resolve complaints informally, taken orally and should make proper records and the complaint should be resolved as soon as possible so the problem does not persist. They have also emphasized differences in complaints against the Service Counter and self service terminals Vihtkari Snellman, 2003, is the notion that the use of self-service terminals in the bank to reduce customer complaints, but rather a circumstance where there is 40 per cent of users are not satisfied with the self-service. Researchers previously expressed understanding of customer dissatisfaction is the key to successful implementation of TQM and principals as well as the Puga Leal Pereira, 2002. Researchers say previous satisfaction is waiting to be served a major contributor to quality of service satisfaction Sulek Hensley, 2007. Researchers previously expressed satisfaction with the care, satisfaction, trust and satisfaction as a control, each dependent on each other that Beverland, 2005. Previous researchers to state that organizations need to keep employees as customers and keeping customers as employees of Bowers Martin, 2004. Researchers found that the quality of a product is dependent on the existing knowledge in the management of the Yang, 2006. Researchers say there is a strong relationship between the dimensions of service quality, performance and customer satisfaction. Previous studies have identified the benefits that customer retention delivers to an organisation (see Colgate et al., 1996; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Storbacka et al., 1994). For example, the longer a customer stays with an organisation the more utility the customer generates (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). This is an outcome of a number of factors relating to the time the customer spends with the organisation. These include the higher initial costs of introducing and attracting a new customer, increases in both the value and number of purchases, the customers better understanding of the organisation, and positive word-of-mouth promotion. Customer satisfaction has been said one of the most widely used study in marketing. The previous research has tries to identify a number of variables of customer satisfaction. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement, although a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed. Work done by Berry (Bart Allen) and Brodeur between 1990 and 1998 defined ten Quality Values which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Inter-departmental Teamwork, Front line Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an integrated model. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customers expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction gap which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the confirmation/disconfirmation theory of combining the gap described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance divided by expectation of performance. The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a study with a set of statements using a Likert scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured. Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. In the net promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-mouth. Companies calculate their Net Promoter Score by subtracting their % Detractors from their % Promoters. The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model. SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer) to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience. J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates marketing research consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards. One of the newest and most innovative customer satisfaction measurement methodologies is called Gustometria. Gustometria is real time measurement of customer and employee satisfaction. Customers are invited to answer a short survey by touching the gustometer screen with their fingers. The responses are collected immediately by the Gustometria servers which tabulate the results in real time. Management can then log into their private website and use the sophisticated business intelligence reports which are built in to the Gustometria system. The rewards to firms that establish a loyal customer base have been well documented (Armstrong and Symonds, 1991; Heskett, 1994; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). In general, increased loyalty leads to lower costs of servicing the firms customers, reduced marketing expenditures, increased business from the existing customer base and greater profits. These rewards are particularly true in the retail banking sector. By increasing loyalty, a retail bank: reduces its servicing costs (i.e. accounts do not have to be opened or closed, and credit ratings do not have to be established; gains knowledge of the financial affairs and needs of its customers (thereby allowing effective and efficient targeting); and has an opportunity to cross-sell existing and new products and services. In one case, a retail bank that increased its customer retention rates by 5 per cent increased its profits by 85 per cent (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Improving customer satisfaction, and thereby retention rates, can come from a variety of activities available to the firm. The existing evidence suggests that major gains in customer satisfaction are likely to come from improvements in: Service quality; Service features; and Customer complaint handling. Not surprisingly, there are strong linkages between service quality dimensions (e.g. courteous service providers) and overall customer satisfaction (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). However, there has been considerable debate as to the basic dimensions of service quality (see Brown et al., 1993 and Cronin and Taylor, 1992, for reviews), the measurement of these dimensions (Brown et al., 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1993; Smith, 1995; Teas, 1993), and the components of customer satisfaction (Hausknecht, 1990; Yi, 1990). Surprisingly, little empirical research has examined the importance of service quality dimensions in determining customer satisfaction. CHAPTER 3: THEORICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 THEORICAL FRAMEWORK Independent Variables Dependent Variable SOURCES OF DISSATISFACTION Some empirical studies of service satisfaction suggest that â€Å"the human interaction component of service delivery is essential to the determination of satisfaction and dissatisfaction† (Bitner, 1990). According to Anderson and Sullivan (1993), when consumers perceived service quality performance falls short of their expectation, they become dissatisfied. Lewis and Spyrakopoulos (2001), in their research conducted on UK retail banking, categorized the causes of dissatisfaction in banking sector into five groups i.e. 1) Banking Procedures: Bureaucracy and slow banking, and Failure to keep customers fully aware of their banking situation. 2) Mistakes (i.e. wrong statement) 3) Employee behavior and training: Employees ignorant of certain banking procedures and Employees unwilling or slow to help the customer 4) Functional or technical failures: Long and/or unorganized queues ATMs out of order Limited network or branches Incomprehensible statements of accounts, terms of loans, conversions etc. 5) Action or omission of the bank that are against the sense of fair trade. Yanamandram and White (2004), in their research mentioned nine factors as main reasons ofdissatisfaction. These are lack of branch locations, high interest rates on loans etc, low interest rates on savings, long waiting periods, number of accounts fees, high account fees, poor counter fees, poor counter service, e-banking confusing, poor telephone banking service and others. Furthermore Johnston (1995), in his research demonstrated that, for personal customer of banks, the main sources of satisfaction are attentiveness, responsiveness, care and friendliness whereas the main sources of dissatisfaction are lack of integrity, reliability, responsiveness, availability and functionality. Further he argued that, all the reasons of dissatisfaction are not necessarily the other face of the sources of satisfaction though responsiveness is key component in providing satisfaction and the lack of it is a major source of dissatisfaction. Gronroos, C. (1984), cited in Panther and Farquhar (2004), argued service industry is much prone to entail greater dissatisfaction than products because both technical and functional aspects have an impact on consumer evaluation of the services. In financial services, self-service technologies (SSTs) become more wining tool to deal with customers resulting in customer dissatisfaction. To illustrate banks have adopted internet banking as service delivery tool, with a view to providing better and lowering costs, and sometimes new services to their customers. Further, they explained that presently as a regular practice banks start offering self-service technologies without having carefully studied what the true outcomes will be when customers interact with technology without a human component in the service encounter. SSTs interact with customer in a pre-designed way, rather than understanding individual customers need. Bitner (1990), found several satisfactions and dissatisfaction drivers applying criticalincident techniques. They identified key actions such as employee response to customer needs and requests, failure of service recovery action, lack of prompt and spontaneous employee actions result in both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Day and Bodur (1977) argued in their research that in most cases dissatisfaction is directly linked with quality of suppliers performance. In their research most frequently mentioned reason for dissatisfaction was, â€Å"The service was rendered in a careless, unprofessional manner.† Some researchers observe dissatisfaction drivers are determined at the time when customers directly interact with a service. Some aspects of a service may not be persuasive for customer satisfaction but can lead to strong dissatisfaction when they are under performed. On the other hand, some aspects of service lead to satisfaction if delivered properly, but may not necessarily emerge dissatisfaction if absent (Srijumpa , 2007). Furthermore, Bolfing (1989), argued that â€Å"Heterogeneity and intangible nature of services itself frequently produced situation in which customers needs are misjudged or mishandled resulting in customers dissatisfaction†. That is the nature of services itself is also a source of dissatisfaction. IMPROVEMENT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS Gummesson (1999), finds three different options that a customer can choose between when he or she feels dissatisfied with something that involves their present supplier where the first one is to exit the customers leave for a competitor, or stop buying the goods or services temporarily or permanently. This option is also pointed out by Brandt (2003), who states that if a customer is not satisfied with the product or the salesperson, he or she simply does not purchase from the company again. The second choice is called voice the customers speak their mind and demand correction, and the third option is loyalty the customers remain loyal for lack of alternative suppliers or prohibitive switching costs, inertia, ideological reasons and others, at least within limits. All these options are used by customers according to Gummesson, who continues that the feeling behind them, however, is largely a black box to suppliers. Recovery is more than settling a claim, it is the restoration and strengthening of a long-term relationship and the course of action must be constructive, not just a mechanical routine. If the recovery is successful, continues Gummesson (1999) strengthened by Brandt (2003), then a well resolved customer complaint can create a solid relationship, sometimes better than before the incident. Another aspect that can be turned into something positive according to Arnerup and Edvardsson (1992) is that although many companies consider a customer complaint as something negative, they should instead use it as a possibility to learn more about the customers needs, improve the conditions to satisfy them and strengthen the relationship with them. Nyer (2000) states that customers who were encouraged to complain reported great increase in satisfaction. The author continues that the indirect benefits occurs when an unhappy customer complains, which leads the employee to respond in a way that makes the customer less dissatisfied in the future, and therefore benefits the company as well. Research has shown that excellent complaint management and service recovery can significantly influence customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Furthermore the majority of highly satisfying experiences were the result of something that went wrong and the organization making the effort to compensate the customer: â€Å"The recovery of failures can provide a major opportunity for organizations to create very satisfied customers†. The critical issue is that it is not necessarily the failure itself that leads to customer dissatisfaction; many customers accept that things can go wrong; instead, it is more likely to be the organizations response (or lack of response) to a failure that causes satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Kahn (1995, p. 97) has similar opinions, when emphasizing that it is beneficial to companies to encourage their customer to perform complaints when they are upset or dissatisfied, since these customers can become even more loyal and satisfied customers in the future. Halstead and Page (reported in Johnston, 2001) also find that complaint handling processes shows a clear relationship with loyalty and repurchases intentions. Furthermore, customers who have been successfully recovered not only remain loyal, but can become advocates for the organization, and as such be a source of referral business because word of mouth can be very persuasive in terms of influencing customers to use an organization and its services claims Spreng et al (reviewed in Johnston, 2001). Brandt (2003) follows the same track, describing that customers who experiences a good service recovery will spread more goodwill than even your otherwise best loyal customers do. Soderlund (1999), claims that even though a customer has shown dissatisfaction and directed complaints towards the company, he or she does not necessarily has to be â€Å"lost† to the company, a pleasing reaction and action can turn the annoyance to satisfaction. In many cases, a good recovery can turn upset customers into even more loyal customers and strengthen relationships. Customer retention has been shown to have a direct impact on revenue and profitability states Loveman (reported in Johnston, 2001). Loyal customers tend to buy more, and are willing to pay premium prices, and the company needs to spend less money on marketing activities, all of which increase revenue and profitability according to Johnston (2001). Companies need to understand that even though it is possible to retain dissatisfied customers, it can be difficult since not all customer complain to the company, out of 25 per cent dissatisfied customer, only 5 per cent finds making the effort of complaining worth. While according to Kotler (2003) and out of these 5 per cent, half of the customers report a satisfactory resolution. On average, continues the author, a dissatisfied customer gripes to 11 other persons whereas the satisfied customer only tells three other people, this is also commented by Soderlund, (1997) who finds that satisfied