Development, Validity and Reliability of Perceived Service Quality in Retail Banking and its Relationship With Perceived Value and Customer Satisfaction

Microfinance is often hailed both as a tool for fighting poverty and as a tool for post-conflict reconciliation. This paper explores the use of microfinance in post-civil war Bosnia and Herzegovina, assessing its results in terms of both goals. As it combined high unemployment with a highly educated population in an institutionally open context, Bosnia and Herzegovina provides a crucial test of the effect of microfinance. If unambiguous signs of success cannot be found in a case with such favorable conditions, this would raise serious questions about the potential benefits of microfinance. The paper draws together evidence from a series of independent reviews of microfinance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to assess its impact in terms of economic performance, the economic system, social welfare and post-conflict integration. Based on this case study, microfinance appears a better tool for dealing with poverty than with social integration or institution building.perceived quality, perceived value, satisfaction, retail banking services

Upravljanje markama slovenskih izvoznih poduzeća

This paper describes the characteristics of brand management in the context of the companies in Slovenia that are intensively engaged in the internationalization of their business operations. Using a sample of the 200 largest export companies in Slovenia, it explores the impact of internationalized business operations on the marketing mix component strategies to identify the most frequent internal and external hindrances to the internationalization that exert influence on the companies’ most important brands. The paper also analyzes the importance of long-term experience and knowledge of the market in the consolidation of brand effectiveness and the companies’ reputation and ascertains whether the companies with a higher level of internationalization employ a larger number of less tangible brand performance criteria than those with a lower level of internationalization.U radu se opisuju neke od karakteristika upravljanja markom na primjeru slovenskih poduzeća koja intenzivno internacionaliziraju svoje poslovanje. Na uzorku od 200 najvećih slovenskih izvoznih poduzeća autori istražuju utjecaj internacionalizacije poslovanja na strategije elemenata marketinškog miksa te pokušavaju otkriti najčešće unutarnje i vanjske prepreke internacionalizaciji koje utječu na najvažnije marke poduzeća. Autori također analiziraju važnost dugogodišnjeg iskustva i znanja o tržištu u jačanju učinkovitosti marke i ugleda poduzeća. Isto tako, žele utvrditi koriste li poduzeća s višim stupnjem internacionalizacije poslovanja veći broj manje opipljivih kriterija za procjenu uspješnosti marke u odnosu na ona s manjim stupnjem internacionalizacije

Wechselbeziehungen zwischen perzipierter Qualität, perzipiertem Wert, Image und der Zufriedenheit mit dem Hotelservice: Ein Vergleich zwischen Hotelgästen aus Slowenien und Italien

In the present paper, first the conceptual model of perceived value concept as a mediating variable in tourist perceptions of hotel services is presented and afterwards tested with structural equation modelling. The study reveals that: (a) the relationship between perceived hotel quality and perceived value is strong and positive; (b) the relationship between hotel quality and guest satisfaction is not direct, but rather indirect through the perceived value; (c) hotel image is significantly positively related to perceived value and perceived hotel quality; and (d) perceived value strongly impacts hotel guest satisfaction. Further, invariance analysis shows that no significant differences exist in relationships among perceived quality, image, perceived value and satisfaction between tourists from Slovenia and tourists from Italy.U ovom se radu prvo predstavlja konceptualni model percipirane vrijednosti kao posredničke varijable u percepcijama hotelskih usluga od turistâ, a potom ga se testira modeliranjem strukturnim jednadžbama. Studija otkriva: (a) da je odnos između percipirane kvalitete hotela i percipirane vrijednosti snažan i pozitivan, (b) da odnos između kvalitete hotela i zadovoljstva gosta nije izravan nego neizravan (percipiranom vrijednošću), (c) da je imidž hotela značajno pozitivno povezan s percipiranom vrijednosti i percipiranom kvalitetom hotela te (d) da percipirana vrijednost snažno utječe na zadovoljstvo hotelskoga gosta. Nadalje, analiza invarijance pokazuje da nema značajnih razlika u odnosima između percipirane kvalitete, imidža, percipirane vrijednosti i zadovoljstva između turistâ iz Slovenije i turistâ iz Italije.Die Verfasser präsentieren in ihrer Arbeit zunächst das konzeptuelle Modell perzipierter Werte als eine vermittelnde Variable bei der Wahrnehmung von Hotelserviceleistungen auf Seiten ausländischer Touristen, um es sodann anhand von Strukturgleichungen zu modellieren und zu testen. Dabei zeigte sich Folgendes: a) Es herrscht ein starker und positiver Bezug zwischen der perzipierten Qualität eines Hotels und dem perzipiertem Wert; b) der Bezug zwischen der Qualität eines Hotels und der Zufriedenheit des Hotelgastes besteht nicht unmittelbar, sondern entsteht über den perzipierten Wert; c) das Image eines Hotels steht in einem wesentlich positiven Zusammenhang mit dem perzipierten Wert und der perzipierten Qualität eines Hotels; d) die Zufriedenheit des Hotelgastes wird stark durch den perzipierten Wert beeinflusst. Eine Invarianzanalyse zeigt des Weiteren, dass es im Hinblick auf die untersuchten Phänomene keine nennenswerten Unterschiede zwischen slowenischen und italienischen Touristen gibt

Antecedents and outcomes of perceived service value: evidence from Slovenia

Perceived value is considered one of the most influential measures of customer satisfaction and is of growing interest to scholars and marketing managers. This paper aims to test a model of perceived value antecedents and consequences in the retail banking industry in the former socialist economy in central Europe. This environment should be of interest to researchers since the majority of perceived value studies have been implemented in developed economies, especially the U.S and even in these countries with an exception of U.S.A. only few researches have dealt with more complex models, with perceived value of banking services as a central concept. However, thus far, no such studies are yet implemented in former socialist economies of Europe. The study also extends extant research by incorporating reputation as an antecedent to perceived value and as an important resource of company competitive sustainable advantage. Content validity of the instrument was assessed by conducting interviews with experts in the field, and face validity was assessed by means of pre-tests with members of the target population (focus groups). In addition, viewpoints related to construct validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity and nomological validity were assessed with exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Data for empirical research is collected from 700 retail banking customers in Slovenia. A structural model with four reflective constructs is evaluated to test the hypothesized relationships. Results indicate the importance of perceived value as a mediating variable in the quality – satisfaction relationship. However, our results show that reputation influences perceived value, only indirectly, via perceived service quality