Customer satisfaction in the banking industry: a comparative study of Ghana and Spain

La satisfacció és una preocupació crucial pels clients i per les organitzacions, incloent els bancs. L'estudi examina la satisfacció global dels clients dels bancs a Ghana i Espanya. Així s'analitzen aspectes com la relació entre satisfacció global i les dimensions de qualitat dels serveis bancari, així com les pròpies dimensions principals de la qualitat d'aquests serveis. Finalment, les percepcions sobre aquestes dimensions son comparades entre els bancs de Ghana i Espanya. S'han analitzat els clients de 819 bancs de Ghana i Espanya, els resultats van mostrar que els clients espanyols estaven més descontents respecte les dimensions tangibles i empatia metre que els clients de Ghana puntuaven pitjar la dimensió conveniència. En general, els clients de Ghana estaven força més descontents amb els serveis bancaris que els d'Espanya. La fiabilitat, l'empatia i la conveniència son els predictors de satisfacció global en Ghana, mentres que la fiabilitat és la única dimensió que explica la satisfacció global a Espanya.

Local model predictive control for navigation of a wheeled mobile robot using monocular information

Aquesta tesi està inspirada en els agents naturals per tal de planificar de manera dinàmica la navegació d'un robot diferencial de dues rodes. Les dades dels sistemes de percepció són integrades dins una graella d'ocupació de l'entorn local del robot. La planificació de les trajectòries es fa considerant la configuració desitjada del robot, així com els vértexs més significatius dels obstacles més propers. En el seguiment de les trajectòries s'utilitzen tècniques locals de control predictiu basades en el model, amb horitzons de predicció inferiors a un segon. La metodologia emprada és validada mitjançant nombrosos experiments.

''Cashless'' transactions : perceptions of money in mobile payments

A limited number of ‘cashless transaction’ studies addressed the issue that the mode of payment affects perceptions of money and purchase behaviour, the majority of the research is in the area of the credit card payment mode. Credit card based research has shown that when a credit card based payment is used, the volume, value and type of products purchased increase. Whether this is due to the credit element or to the ‘cashless or mobile’ element of the transaction is not known. The notion that the tangibility of cash influences perceptions of money is not novel, but it is untested. This discussion paper suggests that under conditions of cash, there is awareness (conscious/unconscious) that a possession of value transferred and this perception may well have a direct impact on people’s perception of money and their spending behaviour.

SME’s Alliance Dynamics in the Mobile Marketing Industry

This paper presents a case study of the two similar sized, new, technology-based firms acting as alliance partners in the Mobile commerce industry. The analysis describes how the alliance dynamics in our case study relate to seminal research in the field of business alliance formation. Contrary to the established predictions we find that the negative influence on alliance performance described as a consequence of the dissolved routinized alliance pattern by seminal authors is not present. At the same time, the case study shows that internalization of complementary assets does not by necessity result in dissolution of the business alliance as argued from a resource and competence based perspective.

Mobile Internet : perspectives from the Stakeholders

Mobile internet represents a major new trend in communication technologies use and consumption, but few evidence exists that confirms claims of novelty and social change in association with this technology use. This paper characterizes the use of mobile internet in a southern European country and associated patterns of use, focusing both on users’ profiles, forms of access, motivations to use and most popular activities undertaken via this technology, from a diffusion of innovations and social adoption of technologies perspectives, and tries to compare mobile it with fixed access to the internet in order to validate possible transformations that point to new social configurations. We seek to understand the way stakeholders perceive and characterize the European context of mobile internet. The depicted study involved a qualitative stage consisting of a set of interviews with mobile communications industry representatives and market research community in the country. These interviews were analysed in Nvivo, leading to the following eleven main categories that are explored throughout the paper: smartphones in Europe, mobile internet in Europe, users profiles, obstacles to the spread, forms of access, forms of use, motivations to use mobile internet, limitations of smartphones, apps, digital divide VS digital union and predictions for the future, as well as several subcategories forming a tree categorization. According to the data collected, mobile phones’ sales are decreasing in Europe and worldwide but on the other hand smartphones are having an exponential growth which leads to the democratization of internet access via mobile devices. As a consequence of this, it is believed that mobile internet access will soon exceed the fixed one. Mobile internet users are multiplatform, they exploit all the possibilities of mobility and they are spending less time on computers. The main obstacles to the spread of mobile internet are the high prices of price plans and there is still a lack of information and knowledge regarding the service. Mobile internet users are developing new online surfing behaviours based on apps and less in browsers and social networks represent a very high share of internet traffic through mobile phones. With mobility, “dead time” is turning into useful time and users are more likely to be available to try new services and analyze products. Innovative services concerning geolocation, consumerism, share and relationships are growing and it is necessary to highlight that mobile internet allows calling and texting, which can turn telecommunications companies into the role of Dump Pipes. This exploratory design raises questions in relation with mobile internet access and its social consequences, and provides interesting indicative research results relevant for future research in this area.

What kind of European Banking Union? Bruegel Policy Contribution [2012/12?]June 25, 2012

This paper discusses the creation of a European Banking Union. First, we discuss questions of design. We highlight seven fundamental choices that decision makers will need to make: Which EU countries should participate in the banking union? To which categories of banks should it apply? Which institution should be tasked with supervision? Which one should deal with resolution? How centralised should the deposit insurance system be? What kind of fiscal backing would be required? What governance framework and political institutions would be needed? In terms of geographical scope, we see the coverage of the banking union of the euro area as necessary and of additional countries as desirable, even though this would entail important additional economic difficulties. The system should ideally cover all banks within the countries included, in order to prevent major competitive and distributional distortions. Supervisory authority should be granted either to both the ECB and a new agency, or to a new agency alone. National supervisors, acting under the authority of the European supervisor, would be tasked with the supervision of smaller banks in accordance with the subsidiarity principle. A European resolution authority should be established, with the possibility of drawing on ESM resources. A fully centralized deposit insurance system would eventually be desirable, but a system of partial reinsurance may also be envisaged at least in a first phase. A banking union would require at least implicit European fiscal backing, with significant political authority and legitimacy. Thus, banking union cannot be considered entirely separately from fiscal union and political union. The most difficult challenge of creating a European banking union lies with the short-term steps towards its eventual implementation. Many banks in the euro area, and especially in the crisis countries, are currently under stress and the move towards banking union almost certainly has significant distributional implications. Yet it is precisely because banks are under such stress that early and concrete action is needed. An overarching principle for such action is to minimize the cost to the tax payers. The first step should be to create a European supervisor that will anchor the development of the future banking union. In parallel, a capability to quickly assess the true capital position of the system’s most important banks should be created, for which we suggest establishing a temporary European Banking Sector Task Force working together with the European supervisor and other authorities. Ideally, problems identified by this process should be resolved by national authorities; in case fiscal capacities would prove insufficient, the European level would take over in the country concerned with some national financial participation, or in an even less likely adverse scenario, in all participating countries at once. This approach would require the passing of emergency legislation in the concerned countries that would give the Task Force the required access to information and, if necessary, further intervention rights. Thus, the principle of fiscal responsibility of respective member states for legacy costs would be preserved to the maximum extent possible, and at the same time, market participants and the public would be reassured that adequate tools are in place to address any eventuality.

Banking Union in the Eurozone and the European Union. CEPS Commentary, 12 June 2012

In this new CEPS Commentary, Jacopo Carmassi, Carmine Di Noia and Stefano Micossi present a rationale and detailed outline for the creation of a banking union in Europe. They argue that it is essential to clearly distinguish between what is needed to address a ‘systemic’ confidence crisis hitting the banking system – which is mainly or solely a eurozone problem – and ‘fair weather’ arrangements to prevent individual bank crises and, when they occur, to manage them in an orderly fashion so as to minimise systemic spillovers and the cost to taxpayers, which is of concern for the entire European Union.

Banking Union in three steps. CEPS Commentary, 12 June 2012

As the banking crisis in the eurozone becomes even more acute, CEPS Chief Executive Karel Lannoo exhorts the EU to not lose further precious time in creating a fully functional bank union, which would entail three main steps: creating a single supervisory authority, a common deposit protection and a harmonised bank resolution and liquidation system.

An incomplete step toward a banking union. CEPS Commentary, 5 July 2012

In this Commentary, Daniel Gros applauds the decision taken by Europe’s leaders at the eurozone summit at the end of June to transfer responsibility for banking supervision in the eurozone to the European Central Bank. It represents explicit recognition of the important fact that problems might originate at the national level, but, owing to monetary union, they can quickly threaten the stability of the entire eurozone banking system. In his view, the next small, incremental step, although one not yet officially acknowledged, will necessarily be the creation of a common bank rescue fund.

The roadmap to banking union: a call for consistency. CEPS Commentary, 30 August 2012

The proposal to move to a full banking union in the eurozone means a radical regime shift for the EU, since the European Central Bank will supervise the eurozone banks and effectively end ‘home country rule’. But how this is implemented raises a number of questions and needs close monitoring, explains CEPS CEO Karel Lannoo in this new Commentary.

Banking Union: A Federal Model for the European Union with Prompt Corrective Action. CEPS Policy Brief No. 282, 18 September 2012

The European Commission has published its proposals for the transfer of supervisory responsibilities to the European Central Bank (ECB),1 under Article 127(6) of the TFEU, providing a comprehensive and courageous ‘first step’ towards a European banking Union, the other steps being European deposit insurance and resolution procedures. However, on a number of issues the Commission’s chosen path raises questions that should be brought out in the open and fully recognized before final deliberation by the Council.