The combined environmental effects of technological change, increasing competition, new legislation and increasingly demanding consumers have created pressure within the financial services industry for change. One outcome has been a proliferation of new products in the marketplace. This research explores new product development within one subset of this industry -- building societies. By combining the new product development, service marketing and financial services literature, a foundation has been developed for an empirical study into the development practices and the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful new products. The determinants of success and failure for new product development have been examined utilizing a comparative methodology, and subsequently a discriminant model has been developed that successfully classifies successful and unsuccessful new products. By determining how new products are actually developed, the findings support previous claims that intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability do have an effect on the development process. Further, the level of sophistication of the development activities is lower than in previously reported research. Notable variations from the development process for tangible new products are the inclusion of system design, system testing and personnel training stages. The majority of societies have been found to lack strategic integration of the development process, to apply different measures of success and to prefer qualitative market research techniques over quantitative approaches. As well, considerable variation exists in the organizational approaches used to manage the process, although organizational related variables were found to have a strong impact upon the predictability of a successful outcome for a new product.

In developing countries, especially in Bangladesh, poor people are excluded from the formal financial sector credit services through the collateral requirement to receive a loan. Informal financial sector sources, especially moneylenders, are exploitative in nature. Therefore, poor people do not receive the minimum amount of capital, which is required to start any income generating activity, from either of the financial sector sources. The Grameen Bank initiated the microcredit programme in Bangladesh around 1976, to alleviate the poverty of poor households through providing them with the minimum amount of capital as credit without collateral and exploitation. The present study evaluates the impact of microcredit on the poverty of borrowing households. Both quasi-experimental as well as non-experimental designs have been formulated to achieve the objective. The survey-design covers one group of households (programme households), which have already received more than one loan, and another group of households (comparison households), which have just joined the programme. This study goes beyond earlier studies by developing a comprehensive framework, which covers income, consumption, assets, basic-needs, living standards, entitlement, poverty, and poverty risk of households, for assessing the impact of microcredit on the poverty of borrowing households. This study uses both subjective as well as objective measures of poverty for determining the poverty status of households. The present study compares income, consumption, basic-needs, some proxies for living standards, poverty, and poverty risk of programme households with those of comparison households to assess impacts of microcredit. On the basis of the results obtained, the study argues that microcredit increases income, consumption, expenditure, and assets of borrowing households. Through increasing income and assets, microcredit enhances entitlement of borrowing households. Microcredit also improves fulfilment of basic-needs and living standards of borrowing households. Finally, this study argues that microcredit reduces poverty risk and alleviates poverty of borrowing households significantly.

Services marketing is a relatively new concept for the banking industry. Intense competition has forced banks to take greater interest in consumer banking. The focus of consumer banking is the provision of retail bank services which meet individual customers needs. Therefore, bankers need better ways to explore and understand the consumers market and needs. Banks need to understand the attitudes which affect consumers evaluation of bank services. This thesis is concerned with assessing the attitudes and marketing practices of Saudi banks and the consumers attitude towards these banks. A conflict exists between the two parties. Interest is prohibited by Islamic law, however, commercial banks operate on the basis of interest. The views of the bankers and consumers were analysed through questionnaires administered in Jeddah in the summer of 1988. Issues raised include attitude, concept, and marketing approach, usage of and satisfaction with bank services, attitude towards banks and bank interest as well as views on Islamic banking. While it is shown bankers grasp the concept and practise of marketing, consumers show reluctance and strong negative attitudes to dealing with banks due to the religious factor. It seems Islamic banking is an attractive alternative banking system for Saudi Arabia.

The existing British partnership literature is notoriously polarised. Two main streams of research have emerged. Early empirical work focused upon trade union representative capacity outcomes, in other words does partnership represent a threat or opportunity to the beleaguered trade union movement. Many of the conclusions have been negative, suggesting that partnership is a dangerous strategy for trade unions. More recent empirical work has focused upon the extent to which partnership offers mutual gains outcomes to employers, trade unions and employees. While much of the research has been pessimistic, various typologies of partnership have emerged, suggesting a variety of possible outcomes. However, despite the abundance of literature, three particular limitations are noteworthy. Firstly, few studies consider how partnership plays out in different contexts. Secondly, little attention has been given to understanding more about the process of partnership. Thirdly, there are limitations to the way outcomes have been assessed. Crude use of labour outcomes, such as job losses or pay levels may tell us nothing about the quality of employment relations. Accordingly, the study has five main objectives. Firstly, partnership is explored in a variety of organisational contexts. Secondly, particular attention is paid to what partnership means to organisational actors. Thirdly, the study focuses upon two indicators of partnership process: the nature of relationships between actors, and the way issues are handled and decisions are made. Indeed, it is argued that one cannot fully understand the outcomes without exploring both process and context. Fourthly, outcomes for management, unions and employees are explored, as well as wider societal goals. Finally, the study considers some of the main challenges to partnership in the UK. Given the nature of the research questions, qualitative methods were thought to be most appropriate. In particular, a case study research design was employed focusing on three organisations in the thriving financial service sector, thus offering a very different context to traditional IR - and partnership – research in manufacturing and public services. The study also offers insights into partnership in both union and non-union firms. The bulk of the data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with a range of managers, representatives and employees in each organisation, as well as interviews with trade union officials. This was supplemented by documentary analysis and non-participant observation. Thus, the thesis makes several important contributions. Firstly, it offers fresh empirical evidence into partnership working in the UK, drawn from a variety of contexts within the internationally important financial service sector. Since the outcomes of partnership are difficult to measure the study also considers issues of process which are overlooked in the existing research. Actor relationships and bargaining explored in relation to models of integrative and distributive bargaining as proposed by Walton and McKersie (1965). Decision making processes are also explored by developing the analytical framework proposed by Budd (2004), which has not been widely employed in British industrial relations research. The thesis therefore offers a different way of evaluating the outcomes of partnership for various stakeholders, and avoids conflating union attitudes with employee opinions. In this way, the research transcends the recent advocates/critics stalemate in the literature.

This case study explored the lessons arising from the implementation of the Insurance Preparedness Project. This was a pilot project funded by the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority as part of a strategy for transforming the insurance industry and to establish a model for learnership implementation.Financial services industry.

<p>This study was on the anticipated impact of GATS on the financial services industry in Africa. The paper examined the possible positive and negative impact of the GATS agreement on the financial services industry in the African countries. The research focused on the banking sector and the insurance sector as the main financial sectors under investigation.</p>

<p>The objective of this research was to draw a relationship between legal and institutional frameworks in a country, and the competitiveness of that country as a destination for investment either as real investment or portfolio investment for infrastructure development.</p>

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Giessen, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [377]-399).

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-43).

This dissertation examines the impact of advertising self-disclosures (present versus absent) and advertising message appeals (hard sell versus soft sell) which is moderated by innate personal traits within the context of financial services advertising. In particular this study investigates the impact of self-regulatory focus (i.e. innate personal traits) on self-disclosures and advertising message appeal with regards to cognitive (knowledge), affective (attribute evaluation) and conative (buying intention) responses of retail investors. The industry concerns private retirement schemes (PRS). The theoretical framework is based on Higgins (2012) regulatory focus theory on chronic personal disposition inherent in an individual (i.e. prevention/promotion), and how this disposition might mitigate with self-disclosures and message appeal contained in advertisements in terms knowledge, attribute evaluation (i.e. attitude) and buying intention. ANOVA results from a between subjects experiment indicated that the individual regulatory orientation interacts with the effects of advertising self-disclosures and message appeals. Specifically, when exposed to hard sell advertisements with self- disclosures (soft sell advertisements with self-disclosures) perceived knowledge, attribute evaluation and buying intention towards the PRS is favorable to prevention oriented investors (promotion oriented investors). In addition the effect is greater on prevention subjects in comparison to promotion subjects. This study proposes theoretical, managerial, public policy implications and future research directions.