PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of Web 2.0 and social media in relationship marketing (RM) in banking. The aim is to understand why some banks resist the Web 2.0 trend, how this is aligned with their RM approaches and what the alternative paths for advancing customer relations could be. The paper focuses on the practices of banks in the less‐researched yet dynamically evolving South East European (SEE) region.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study approach was employed for this study. In total, three case studies were constructed, describing practices and RM approaches of retail banks in SEE. Data used for the construct of case studies were collected through in‐depth interviews with top management, documentation and banks’ official web sites.FindingsPrimary reasons for refraining from social media included: low customer demand for such form of interaction with banks; concerns over safety of Web 2.0 for banking; and lack of alignment with current RM strategies. While social media were not discarded for the future, they were deemed more appropriate for smaller or younger banks seeking innovative ways to capture market share.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies requirements for the adoption of social media in bank marketing and offers insights on possible alternative RM strategies that combine electronic channels with a personal approach to banking.Originality/valueCase studies offer insights on marketing practices of banks in the SEE region. The paper unveils challenges banks encounter in their RM efforts and their vision of the future of RM in a contemporary online setting.

Purpose – In this paper the authors present a study that uses Twitter to identify critical elements of customer service in the airline industry. The goal of the study was to uncover customer opinions about services by monitoring and analyzing public Twitter commentaries. The purpose of this paper is to identify elements of customer service that provide positive experiences to customers as well as to identify service processed and features that require further improvements. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed the approach of sentiment analysis as part of the netnography study. The authors processed 67,953 publicly shared tweets to identify customer sentiments about services of four airline companies. Sentiment analysis was conducted using the lexicon approach and vector-space model for assessing the polarity of Twitter posts. Findings – By analyzing Twitter posts for their sentiment polarity the authors were able to identify areas of customer service that caused customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction as well as delight. Positive sentiments were linked mostly to online and mobile check-in services, favorable prices, and flight experiences. Negative sentiments revealed problems with usability of companies’ web sites, flight delays and lost luggage. Evidence of delightful experiences was recorded among services provided in airport lounges. Originality/value – Paper demonstrates how sentiment analysis of Twitter feeds can be used in research on customer service experiences, as an alternative to Kano and SERVQUAL models.

Copyright and moral rights to this thesis/research project are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Any use of the thesis/research project for private study or research must be properly acknowledged with reference to the work's full bibliographic details.This thesis/research project may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from it, or its content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s).If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address:eprints@mdx.ac.ukThe item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. AbstractPurpose-The economic crisis has become a global phenomenon, although in Europe it mostly affected the Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe. In times of economic stress, counterfeit products increase their market share. In this context this paper aims to explore, and attempt to explain, consumer perspectives on the purchasing of counterfeit brands. Originality/value-This study extends the body of knowledge of purchasing behavior on nondeceptive counterfeit products by offering empirical findings from Greece, a country facing a severe economic crisis. To our knowledge this is the first study that explores counterfeit buying behaviour during an economic crisis period. Methodology-The

Recognising the potential contribution of recent technological advances, the relationship marketing (RM) literature places an emphasis on two‐way communication as a key ingredient to enhancing relationships. The paper explores these factors in the context of the UK financial services sector, focusing on the emerging phenomenon of e‐banking and specifically the adoption of electronic relationship marketing (e‐RM). Through the use of an interpretative, multi‐case research approach, it seeks to reflect senior managers’ understanding of e‐RM. Preliminary findings indicate a broad acceptance that relationships are becoming increasingly important in terms of encouraging loyalty amongst customers. Nevertheless, managers appear to be uncomfortable with their ability to establish and nurture e‐banking relationships. The use of e‐RM to create a relationship dialogue is not happening on any significant scale and presents several strategic and tactical difficulties, particularly over channel decisions. Managers seem acutely aware of the utility of electronic media networks to lower costs, but do not know how to best approach e‐customers, maintain a customer dialogue, or know whether this is what clients desire.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of qualitative research in marketing and the challenges faced by researchers in justifying the need and the quality of interpretive research. The paper reviews the fluctuating trends in employing qualitative research to build marketing theories, and touches on the subject of paradigm shift in research approaches in marketing. It further reviews main rhetorical and practical challenges researchers face in qualitative inquiry in marketing. Design/methodology/approach -This is a conceptual paper discussing the role of qualitative research in marketing discipline and its challenges. Findings -One of the main topics discussed in this paper is understanding the nature of qualitative research and its inherent weaknesses and how to overcome them. Some of the challenges highlighted in the paper include: contextually embedded findings, vague standards for data analysis, presentation of voluminous amount of qualitative data and theoretical criteria for judging the quality of studies. Insights from real-life experiences in conducing qualitative research in bank marketing reveal practical issues such as participant recruitment and engagement, ethical soundness, triangulation, and perpetual assurance of research quality. Originality/value -The paper provides personal commentaries on the experiences of a researcher in conducting purely qualitative academic study in marketing. It offers insights into practical difficulties encountered when performing qualitative studies and offers a glimpse into solutions and alternatives incorporated by the researcher, which could be of use to aspiring marketing researchers.

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This qualitative study explores ethical luxury in Taiwan, a country that represents a significant demographic in the luxury market. The study utilized the ZMET technique and focus groups. A total of 28 heavy users of luxury brands were interviewed. Results indicate that luxury brands are chiefly defined by such constructs as price, quality and aesthetical attributes, whereas ethicality is centrally demarcated by human wellbeing, the environment and animal welfare, amongst other elements. The fusion of these two concepts implies several encouraging outlooks and certain deterring factors. Results denote that there is potential for ethical luxury's inception in the Taiwanese market, but with considerable forethought in the process. This study extends the body of knowledge in how consumers perceive the prospect of ethical luxury, especially from a non-western perspective.

In the past decades, marketing has been revolutionized by digital sources, which provide marketers with rich information on potential consumers. Consequently, this article explores the evolving opportunities that online communities present to marketers in collecting consumer insights. It advances Southeast Europe’s marketing researchers’ understanding of netnography by introducing them to its concept, procedures, and implications. This study triangulates the data through utilizing seven one-to-one in-depth interviews with fashion designers, employing two focus groups with fashion consumers who actively congregate in online communities, and through conducting netnography on a fashion-related online community. This article demonstrates netnography practices, and experiences with the goal of having fashion designers and marketers understand its potential as an efficient method for providing effective qualitative market intelligence. It shows that netnography is a relatively easy, cost-effective and time-efficient approach, and it supports brand development through achieving a better understanding of consumer perceptions. Overall, netnography has great potential as a marketing research tool. Online fashion community members’ views support it as most of them prefer to participate in netnographic research. Nevertheless, the majority of fashion designers in Southeast Europe are not fully aware of the method and its exact procedures and, hence, avoid using it.