Surrogates of Relationship Marketing and Bank Customer Retention: A Study of University Lecturers in Southeast Nigeria

The influx of banks in university campuses across Nigeria has motivated the need to unearth the most potent dimension(s), tool(s), or driver(s) of relationship marketing that significantly influence lecturers who are bank customers to retain patronage with a bank operating within a campus. The study was guided by a research schema which was the basis for the formulation of five conceptual hypotheses. Five relationship marketing tools – communication, commitment, trust, promise fulfillment, and social bonding – where all explored to determine their predictive power on a bank customer retention. A structured questionnaire was designed on a five-point like scale. Data collected were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC). Statistical support was found for all the dimension of relationship marketing as predictors of bank customer retention. However, commitment, trust, and promise fulfillment are the strongest or most potent predictors of bank customer retention, while communication and social bonding are weak predictors of bank customer retention of lecturers within university campuses. Hence, this study posits the Commitment-Trust-Promise Fulfilment Model of Relationship Marketing, thereby challenging Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing. Key recommendations, with their concomitant managerial implications, include: first, banks operating within university campuses should make adequate budgetary provision for the purpose of executing a sound relationship marketing programme for its bank customers who are university lecturers; second, training and retraining on a constant basis in the area of relationship marketing (with strong focus on commitment, trust, and promise fulfillment) can be conducted for the marketing staff of banks operating within the university campuses

Understanding And Explaining The Underpinnings of Creative Accounting in Nigeria: The Cadbury Evidence

The rapid decline in public and investors’ confidence in the management of public quoted companies as a result of reported widespread incidence of ‘widow dressing’, ‘aggressive accounting’or ‘creative accounting’has triggered the need to explore the rationale for such practice. Using Cadbury Nig Plc as a case in point, it is posited in this paper that favorable stock prices tend to give the impression of stability and sustained improvement which in turn, propel to embark on creative accounting in the bid to attract and retain the confidence of shareholders. Arguably, these reasons are offset or nullified by the dangers creative accounting can pose to companies and indeed, the economy. The findings and recommendations of this paper have implications for investors, directors, and policy-makers in Nigeri

Analysis of the Influence of Gender on the Choice of Bank in Southeast Nigeria

This study sought to empirically identify and rank the important factors considered by southeast male and female bank customers in bank selection in Nigeria. A sample size of 368 bank customers was drawn from Enugu and Onitsha, major commercial cities in southeast Nigeria. Major findings of this study are the six principal factors: a feeling of security, speedy and efficient service, financial benefit, convenient location, availability of ATM, marketing promotion and people influence. Statistical differences between the two genders were found for four factors. This study recommends that banks operating in the southeast should treat male and female genders as distinct market segments when crafting marketing strategies aimed at attracting them and emphasis should be on those factors that the potential bank customer considers most important. This study concludes that time is ripe for banks in southeast Nigeria to start treating male and female genders as distinct market segments

Assessment of Post Environmental Disaster on The Marketing Activities of Small Scale Enterprises in South-South Nigeria

In organizational sciences, existing organi zation literature holds that enterprises should match oral ign their marketing practices and strategies with opportunities and threats caused by the environment in which they operate. But this alignment does not necessarily take place in all cases. Organizational sc ience provides the idea that environmental variables may only marginally affect marketing practices. This study attempts to find out how small scale businesses adapted or responded in the post fire di saster situation. The study addresses a gap in literature about the influence of environmental discontinuities (or disaster) on the marketing mix of small scale enterprises (SSEs). 300 responde nts (small bus iness owners) who we re victims of a major fire disaster in Calabar Watt Market were sampled. A five point Iikert scale was used to generate primary data from responde nts. The data analysis cons isted of descriptive analysis and multiple regressions. Four models were exam ined. Findings reveal among other things that organizations (small scale business) realized that the environment changed, and aligned their marketing strategies/practices. Product and place variables were seen as more effective post disaster recovery strategies than price and promotion variables. It is therefore recommended that marketing strategy should be adopted as a tool for post disaster recovery for SSEs

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) AND PERFORMANCE OF FAST-FOOD SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

The impact of TQM on the fast-food SME sector in Nigeria is empirically underreported in the mainstream TQM and SME literature, and little is known as to which TQM principle is the strongest predictor of SME performance in the fast-food context. This twin problem triggered this investigation. Based on purposively selected managers' and supervisors' self-assessment of performance, the objective of the study is twofold: (1) To find out the nature of relatwnship between TQM and performance of SMEs in Southeast Nigeria fast-food sector, and (2) to find out those TQM principles that most critically propel successful performance of SMEs in the fast-food sector in Southeast Nigeria. To address this twin objective, the study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. Primary data were collected via a structured five-point Likert scale questwnnaire from a sample size of forty six SME mqnagers and supervisors of twenty-three fast food SMEs in Nnewi, Onitsha, and Awka. Consistent with previous studies, Multiple Regression Analysis was employed to conduct the relevant analysis. The study revealed a very strong posit ive correlation between TQM and SMEs performance and that the f ive examined TQM principles are statistically significant as predictors of SME performance in the fast-food context. Importantly, the study also revealed that customer focus is strongest predictor of SME performance in the fast-food context. The research er made two pungent recommendations: (1) that managers of fast-food SMEs should continue to implement the tenets of TQM as this seem to be the precondition for competiveness and success, and (2) managers of fast-foods in Southeast Nigeria should place stronger emphasis on customer focus (both internal and external customers) and that internal customer focus must precede external customer focus, which can be developed into strategic core competenc

Determinants of bank selection by university undergrads in south east Nigeria: empirical evidence

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and ranks factors that influence bank selection by undergrads in South East Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – Totally, 300 undergrads were sampled from two universities. Five-point Likert-type question containing 49 bank selection items was designed to collect primary data. Cronbach’s a was used to test the reliability of the instrument while factor analysis with principal component extraction was used to identify the underlying factors. Findings – Six principal factors were identified and ranked in order of importance. These factors are: bank’s financial stability, available and functional ATMs, professional bank staff, family and friends influence, proximity of bank branch to university campus, and internal and external aesthetics of bank. Practical implications – This study provides insight on the factors that influence the selection of a bank in the emerging and growing undergrads segment of bank market in Nigeria, which has obvious management and theory implications. Originality/value – Reports bank selection criteria from apparently under-researched and under-reported undergrad segment in a typical sub-Saharan African context