banking in Australia, it is not without its limitations. The most notable limitation is that the customer sample size was only 68 out of 5,662 successfully delivered invitations (1.2%). The main reason for this is that there was no enticement for customers to complete the survey other than if they wished to vent an unresolved grievance they may have had about the bank. Further to this, the Bank was reluctant to follow up customer responses by sending reminders via email due to sensitivities around contacting customers for non- bank related matters. This may have also potentially contributed to the low response rate. A sample of this size may also present bias issues that could have an affect on the reliability of the results. Future researchers may wish to offer an incentive such as a prize or small gift in return for the completion of the survey.
It is also noted that a degree of bias may also be present within the customer sample given that the majority of respondents were older males between the ages of 58–77 (42.6%). However, the results are still deemed significant as they give an insight into this group’s views as to this topic. These views will be of importance to the Bank as it will have a large number of customers within this bracket who may be considered value accounts, not just in business-banking but perhaps also in private banking in which wealthier customers (many of which will be within this demographic) are managed.
Further, the fact that the survey was delivered by the Bank to its relationship managers (employees of the Bank), and some of the data being self-report, it could be argued that the survey may have been responded to positively by the relationship managers and with a degree of bias. However, this can be expected when surveying employees from any organisation and the results are not deemed to be affected to the detriment of this study. A suggestion for future studies may be that the survey is delivered completely independently of the subject organisation in order to give the perception of complete
anonymity, however this may result in reduced response rates if the subject organisation’s support is not explicit. Also, the self-report data, that is performance scores can be directly sourced from the relationship managers’ line managers in order to avoid potential bias in future research.
Due to the differences in scales used for both samples, cross tabulations were unable to be performed. Future studies in this area may uncover further interesting results from an analysis of the data using cross tabulations.
The fact that this research was a case study of one major Australian bank, means that this study is limited in scope to other Australian banks. However, the findings may be of interest to other financial institutions and international banks.
Another limitation of this study is that due to the lack of extant literature on CCoV only one measure for this construct was utilised. Therefore factor or reliability analysis was not appropriate. Further research needs to be conducted on this concept as a primary focus in order to better understand it, as it is a factor that promotes relationship stickiness and reciprocity.
It is also recommended that future researchers look at a longitudinal study over the course of five to ten years and employ a mix of quantitative as well as qualitative data collection methods as quantitative data is limited in the sense that once it is received, clarification of the responses are not generally provided. However, if the quantitative survey questionnaire can be followed up with a qualitative interview in order to clarify any interesting points, this will provide for a more robust data set and analysis. Customer focus groups are another mechanism by which future research can attain maximum clarification of survey responses.
It is also important that future research captures and categorises an even representation of customers of varying relational tenure in order to allow for the accurate comparison of their respective responses. This way, customers can be clearly categorised in terms of the stages within the relationship life cycle and as such future research will further assist in the understanding of customer behaviour, propensities and expectations within these stages and their respective correlations to customer loyalty. This should be conducted in conjunction with Jap’s and Ganesan’s (2000) measures of the relationship phases (i.e.
Ideally, future research of this nature should be in conjunction with the case organisation as a joint study so as to have dedicated resources and buy-in from senior management and subsequently the employees taking the survey. While this research enjoyed a 47 per cent (149 out of 319) response rate from the relationship manager sample and the support of the head of business-banking at the time, the study could have benefited from having the relationship managers undertake an emotional intelligence test such as the Mayer– Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) or Myers–Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) which were not utilised in this study due to their length and the fear of survey drop-outs and non-completion as a result.
Furthermore, future research on relationship marketing in business-banking from an intercultural context would be very fitting given Australian banks are branching out into overseas markets (in particular Asia) and thus would be of great interest and value. Understanding the dynamics of the factors contributing to effective relationship management (as described throughout this thesis) from an intercultural relations perspective would arguably lead to more effective intercultural/inter-country business relationships.
Finally, banks are seemingly moving towards more of a business development/sales focused model whereby the relationship manager will not be as accessible to their existing client base due to having to spend most of their time on new business
acquisition. This will see a new relationship point for existing customers being a middle office service team that will act as the relationship point and first point of call for customers and their day-to-day banking needs. As such, future research will be integral to understanding the effectiveness of these phone-based relationships and the effect a phone-based relationship has on banking relationship longevity, as these scenarios will become more prevalent throughout the industry. Further, future research may wish to test the correlation between heightened levels of sales pressures on bankers and the subsequent effects on ethics (ethical decision making on behalf of the banker as opposed to the quick sales win) and the flow on effect on relationship longevity in banking.