Customer loyalty as a concept is a critical strategic option in today’s competitive environment. It is no surprise therefore that managers and researchers have increased their study and understanding of the concept as a strategic marketing imperative over the past decades to capture market share and improve profitability. Indeed the theoretical perspective is that competitive pricing as well as company image and reputation contribute to customer satisfaction and that service quality along a number of pathways drives customer loyalty and profitability thus: service quality--> customer satisfaction--> customer loyalty --> market share --> profitability. A few empirical studies have found these linkages to be true. However these factors differ in importance based on the cultural setting. We investigate (1) whether these relationships exist and (2) which of these factor(s) is/are important in motivating consumer loyalty from the perspectives of retail banking customers in Ghana. The study draws on customer behaviour and attitude premised on the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF models originated by Parasuraman et al., (1988), Cronin and Taylor (1992), and Brady and Cronin (2001) respectively as well as other researches based on the literature on customer satisfaction and loyalty. We used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches in our study and have drawn from both primary and secondary sources of data. We made use of a 7 point likert scale to develop indexes for the main constructs measured in this study and applied correlation, chi square (χ2) and regression analyses to evaluate the hypothesised relationships. Further we qualitatively analysed aspects of the data hinging on explanatory aspects of our research. The results among other things reveal that whilst service quality (especially empathy and reliability) and bank image and reputation are important instigators of customer satisfaction and loyalty, competitive pricing showed a weak linear relationship with customer satisfaction and loyalty (r < 0.5). On the other hand, increased market share was found to influence banks’ profitability. Finally we discuss the management implications of the study in terms of customer retention and profitability strategies for the banks in Ghana. We emphasise that management strategies that are service quality conscious, use person-organisation fit approaches to recruitment and effectively communicate strategies could help institutionalise a culture that is customer relation centred, help banks survive the competition, retain their customers and in the long run increase their profitability.

With the intense competition and increasing globalization in the financial markets, bank management must develop customer-oriented strategies in order to compete successfully in the competitive retail banking environment. The longer a bank can retain a customer, the greater revenue and cost savings from that customer. However, customers are also more prone to changing their banking behaviour when they can purchase nearly identical financial products provided by the retail banks. In order to stay competitive, bank managers need to understand the factors that influence and determine consumer’s bank switching behaviour. With China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), their financial services market was liberalized and deregulated. As a result, customers have a greater choice between domestic and foreign banks. Furthermore, the emergence of the internet allows customers to access financial products without limitation, and increases the Chinese retail banks’ ability to prevent customers’ switching banks. This study identifies and analyses the factors that influence bank customers’ switching behaviour in the Chinese retail banking industry. The findings reveal that Price, Reputation, Service Quality, Effective Advertising, Involuntary Switching, Distance, and Switching Costs have an impact on customers’ bank switching behaviour. The results also reveal that the Young Age and High Income Groups are more likely to switch banks. In general, the results of this research allow service marketers and practitioners to develop and implement services marketing strategies to decrease customer defection rates, and in turn, increase bank profits. Furthermore, this research provides useful information for future researchers who study switching-behaviour in the banking industry.

Despite that the Swedish banking sector consists of many different actors, which provides more options for consumers in their choice of bank, the four major banks, Nordea, Swedbank, Handelsbanken and SEB, have a superior position in the banking sector. Although previous research shows that consumers lose confidence in the four major banks, there is still low consumer mobility in the banking sector. A change of bank is often described as a complicated process that takes a lot of time, which discourages consumers from implementing the change. This is a qualitative study of how bank customers experienced the change of bank. The purpose of this study is to gain a further understanding of how bank customers experience a bank change and what switching costs they experienced. The study is conducted with a deductive approach where previous research forms the basis for the interview questions used to collect data. A compilation of three well-known and widely used references about switching costs has formed the basis for the interviews questions. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with respondents who have changed banks in the past year. After the interviews have been presented, these are analyzed and the results of the study show that the respondents have experienced the change of bank as smoothly. The study concludes with a discussion about how customer mobility in the Swedish banking sector may increase. / Trots att den svenska banksektorn består av många olika aktörer vilket ger flera alternativ för konsumenterna i deras val av bank har de fyra storbankerna, Nordea, Swedbank, Handelsbanken och SEB, en överlägsen position inom banksektorn. Fastän undersökningar visar att konsumenterna tappar förtroende för storbankerna är det fortsatt låg bytesintensitet inom banksektorn. Ett byte av bank beskrivs ofta som en krånglig process som tar lång tid vilket avskräcker konsumenterna att genomföra bytet. Detta är en kvalitativ studie om hur bankkunder som genomfört ett bankbyte upplevt det. Syftet med denna studie är att få en mer djupgående förståelse för hur svenska bankkunder upplever ett bankbyte och vilka byteskostnader som upplevts vid bytet av bank. Studien utförs med ett deduktivt tillvägagångssätt där tidigare forskning utgör grunden för intervjufrågorna som används för att samla in data. En sammanställning av tre välkända och allmänt använda referenser om byteskostnader har utgjort grunden för intervjufrågorna. Tio semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med respondenter som har bytt bank under det senaste året. Efter att intervjuerna presenteras analyseras empirin och studiens resultat visar att bankkunderna har upplevt bankbytet som smidigt. Studien avslutas med en diskussion angående hur kundrörligheten inom banksektorn kan tänkas öka.

Since long the energy policy has been escaping the concept of the common European policies or has been only partially influenced through the harmonisation of other common policies. If energy sector was considered an exclusive competence of every State Member (or as a part of its national security), nowadays, it has made a big step forward. At present, we talk about the establishment of a competitive internal energy market. The energy policy became part of the Community law only after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty when the sector was granted a separate chapter and henceforth decided upon through a co-decisional procedure. The energy markets were subsequently given a new liberalisation impetus by the approval of the 3rd energy package (July 2009). My thesis focuses entirely on the natural gas sector and its crucial amendment to the network sector regulations. The core subject of the Directive 2009/73/EC concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas is the ownership unbundling regime which stipulates the separation of production and sale operations from their transmission networks. This separation from the former vertically integrated utilities is supposed to guarantee an equal and non-discriminatory access to the transmission networks. Even though the ownership unbundling regime...