Springer Science and Business Media LLC

The purpose of the study is to examine the determining factors which influence empowerment amongst life insurance agents in the Indian context. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted amongst 409 life insurance agents. Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to identify and validate dimensions and antecedents of employee empowerment. Later, using multivariate multiple regression analysis, the relative importance of these factors in influencing psychological empowerment is empirically tested. The results of analysis indicate that rewards work as an important antecedent for building psychological empowerment, followed by self-efficacy and self-esteem. Even though access to information is reported as a significant antecedent, it was found to be the least important one in determining psychological empowerment. Insights generated in this paper provide guidelines in understanding critical antecedents of psychological empowerment amongst life insurance agents and also suggest implications for better managerial practice.

The research project intends to find out the differences in the quality of the services rendered by the national banks of Turkey as perceived by the bank customers. This paper is an academically held field research conducted in May 2000 in the city of Eskişehir Turkey, covering 1340 respondents who are regular bank customers, that is, who carry out banking transactions more than once in a month. These banks are all well-known, nation-wide financial institutions publicly or privately owned and are classified under three main groups depending on their ownership style and their size. Respondents are selected systematically from different age groups, income groups, and occupations reflecting both sexes. A questionnaire form included ten close-end multiple-choice questions (excluding demographic questions) is designed for the research purpose

Many financial services firms are offering the Internet as a self-service technology (SST), for online stock trading, in an effort to increase effciency and give customers greater access. It is important to understand how this technology will influence customer satisfaction. This paper reports results of exploratory research to identify sources of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the service encounter in Thai stockbrokerage firms. Results show that customers and service providers determine sources of customer dis/satisfaction differently, depending on whether the service encounter is technology-based or interpersonal. Different customer profiles give rise to segmentation in response to the use of Internet technology in this industry.

Universities’ Resources of financial support are the most important challanges that enhance its reputation in marketing the academic services in the frame of investment in education and real estate assets and reduce expenses in profitable projects' implementation. This study sheds light on marketing universities’ services its role in providing financial resources in the Northern Border University. Method was analytical descriptive approach, on a randomly selected sample of (632) respondents from the academic and administrative staff. Findings revealed that only training and educational courses contribute significantly to the financial resources of the university. Meanwhile, consultation services, scientific research, conferences, and seminars have no impact on the university’s financial resources. Study suggested several recommendations to further studies shall give more attentions to these services based on developing university plans and policy.

This paper presents a critical review of published findings pertaining to the physical proximity between employees and customers in various sales and service settings. Following an overview of this stream of research, reflections are then offered on how the concepts of personal space and physical proximity may have changed in terms of their financial and well-being-related effects as a function of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the risk of infection in interpersonal interactions, and despite the affiliative aspects associated with physical proximity, recent recipes for success—as advocated by academics—may eventually have a negative impact on multiple crucial metrics in a post-pandemic world, such that employees’ physical proximity to customers may soon come with a wide array of costly consequences. The article concludes with a set of future research directions.

This article examines the process of termination in a business relationship between insurance brokers and their corporate clients in the UK. In previous studies, it has been widely recognised that a business relationship goes through different stages and, arguably, its ending emerges mostly at the last stage of the process. In this paper we argue that, due to the nature of the cyclical process in this business, termination can take place at any time or stage through the whole relationship development process. Significant points are identified where the relationship is most vulnerable. The results reflect a survey of insurance broker's clients and follow-up in-depth interviews with senior insurance brokers.

The present research examines the relationship between internal branding and employees’ behavioral performance and proposes a research model that includes employees’ perceived brand authenticity and work engagement as sequential mediators to explain the examined relationships. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 3.0 statistical software is used to validate the proposed research model. The results of a self-administered online survey distributed to 95 frontline employees in a Kuwaiti bank confirm the positive direct effect of internal branding on employees’ behavioral performance. Interestingly, mixed results are obtained regarding the mediating effects of work engagement and brand authenticity. Overall, the results indicate that employees’ perceived brand authenticity is the missing link for internal branding and its effects on employees’ work engagement and behavioral performance. The findings provide important theoretical and practical implications for researchers and practitioners on the use of internal branding to promote the brand promise to frontline employees and support employees' brand-building behaviors.