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Market structure, consumer banking, and optimal level of service quality
Author(s) -
Jackson William E.,
Nandakumar Purushottaman,
Roth Aleda V.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
review of financial economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.347
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1873-5924
pISSN - 1058-3300
DOI - 10.1016/s1058-3300(03)00006-5
Subject(s) - business , quality (philosophy) , competitor analysis , service quality , marketing , service (business) , imitation , market structure , industrial organization , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology
In this article, we use a very simple game theoretic model to investigate the influence of differing market structures, or competitive conditions, on a bank's decision to increase the level of quality of the retail, or consumer, services that it markets. The results from our model suggest that the optional level of a bank's service quality depends critically on the competitive structure of the market in which the bank operates, the degree of demand interaction between banks, and the ease of imitation of competitors' service quality innovations. We find that banks in low demand interaction markets will adopt different strategies, inducing each bank to develop its own “unique” brand of quality. It is not necessarily the case that the leading banks will lead in quality improvements. This may partially explain why some of the largest banks do not have the highest levels of consumer service quality.