Abstract
Business uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought financial and banking industries under stress. This study examines brand loyalty (BL) in the Thai banking industry by integrating community relationship management (CoRM) (4Cs model), relationship marketing orientation (RMO), customer engagement (CE), and brand trust (BT). It analyzes how a Thai commercial bank used four success factors to create new client acquisition, business efficiency, long-term relationships, and BL. We use quantitative data and structural equation modeling (SEM) to identify variables influencing the BL of 1650 customers of a Thai commercial bank. We found CoRM and RMO's key success factors indirectly affected BL by mediating CE and BT. These results may improve sustained performance effectiveness in the banking industry now and in the future.
1. Introduction
One of the most significant market-driven revolutions in the financial and banking sector is financial technology providing a more varied environment for unique financial services. “Fintech startups, technology developers, governments, financial customers, and traditional financial institutions are elements that contribute to an innovative financial industry, which is facing significant changes in traditional financial services” (Sardianou et al., 2021, p. 1784; Lee and Shin, 2018). Over two billion people in emerging economies have been limited to traditional banking services, and blockchain entrepreneurs are starting to address this issue with new solutions for value exchange (Frizzo-Barker et al., 2020; Larios-Hern´ andez, 2017).
6.3. Limitations and further research
The sole use of quantitative data is a limitation of the study. Additional limitations relate to the industry (banking), region (Thailand), and sample size (females, aged 18–29, and the service sector proportion). Thus, the results may not be applicable to other industries and countries. Future studies should utilize qualitative data to examine associations among CoRM, RMO, CE, BT, and BL and extend their exploration to dissimilar industries and other countries, with a more balanced sample and model.
