Salesperson ethics behavior as antecedent of Islamic banking customer loyalty

Abstract

Purpose The development of the banking industry is encouraging increasingly fierce competition. In the face of banking competition, Islamic banks need to build customer loyalty by paying attention to ethical aspects. Ethics has an essential role in forming and preserve relationships between companies and customers in the long term. The measurement model of salesperson ethical behavior in this study was built using the Islamic-based marketing concept. This study aims to test empirical models of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior in increasing customer loyalty of Islamic banks through the aspect of customer trust. Design/methodology/approach Research data were obtained from 165 Islamic bank customers in the Central Java, Indonesia, using the purposive sampling method. Data analysis in this study uses structural equation modeling. Findings The study shows that the Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior has a positive effect on customer trust in a salesperson, customers’ trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in a salesperson has positively and significantly influenced customer trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in Islamic banks has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty. Practical implications This study’s results are expected to be used to reference maintenance salesperson in Islamic banking to behave based on Islamic principles. Islamic marketing principles need to be applied through salespersons behaving realistically (al-Waqi’iyyah) and humanistic concepts (insaniyyah). The application of Islamic ethics can limit and avoid deviant behavior from salespeople that is detrimental to consumers and organizations. The behavior of salespeople based on Islamic ethics will build consumer trust in both organizations and salesperson so that it has implications for consumer loyalty. Originality/value This paper provides new findings to understand Islamic banking consumer loyalty that focuses on Islamic ethical salesperson behavior point of view. This paper also presents a new measurement of research variables from an Islamic perspective in examining the role of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior toward banking customer loyalty. This study takes the object of research in Islamic banking that has different characteristics from conventional financial institutions.

Antecedents of customer loyalty in Islamic banking: evidence from Tanzania

“…The result is also supported by Zeithaml and Bitner (2003), who state that the quality of the relationship between the customer and the service provider is a key element in the formation of customer loyalty. Furthermore, the result is consistent with the findings of prior research in various service industries (Liu et al, 2011;Rahman and Ramli, 2016) and in Islamic banking (Wijaya et al, 2021) that confirmed the influence of relationship quality on customer loyalty.…”

“…The results imply that customer loyalty to an Islamic bank is associated with relationship quality, service quality and customer satisfaction. These results are in line with previous studies, which have reported positive and significant relationships between these variables (Amin et al, 2011;Aydin and Ozer, 2005;Caruana, 2002;Wijaya et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2019).…”

“…Prior research has found a positive and significant link between relationship quality and customer loyalty in various service industries (Liu et al, 2011;Rahman and Ramli, 2016). In the context of Islamic banking, Wijaya et al (2021) proved the influence of relationship quality on Islamic banking customer loyalty. In addition, relationship quality has also been found to be a mediator variable in several studies (Crosby et al, 1990;Lin and Ding, 2006).…”

“…Prior research has found a positive and significant link between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty across a range of services (Aydin and Ozer, 2005; Bel as and Gabcov a, 2016), including Islamic banking (Amin et al, 2011;Wijaya et al, 2021). Other studies have reported a mediating role of customer satisfaction between service quality and customer loyalty in Islamic banking (Wijaya et al, 2021) and in other service industries (Caruana, 2002;Darmawan et al, 2017). Based on these empirical studies, customer satisfaction is expected to exert a positive influence on customer loyalty in an Islamic banking context.…”

“…Comparing the differences in the contributions of the customer loyalty antecedents. Previous research has shown a positive and significant relationship between relationship quality, service quality, customer satisfaction and switching barriers on customer loyalty in a variety of service industries (Caruana, 2002;Liu et al, 2011;Rahman and Ramli, 2016), and in Islamic banking (Amin et al, 2011;Asnawi et al, 2019;Wijaya et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2019). However, the influence of these antecedents on customer loyalty has not been examined together and compared in a single study.…”