CERTIFICACIÓN DE LOS TRABAJOS SEGÚN EL MODELO DE CALIDAD

Research seeks to explore and uncover how RM approach is accommodated in retail banking the context of the era of Web 2.0 communications and social media, and to investigate how the role of social media is constructed in the banking industry in the SEE region. As stated earlier, literature indicated the need for research which addresses the relatedness of these concepts, while the paucity of insights on RM and social media marketing for the banking sector in the SEE region posed as an interesting context for this research. Thus, the key goal of this research is to obtain in- depth understanding of the factors that construct the position of social media in the domain of RM in retail banking, within the reality of financial services industry in the SEE region. Research also aims to explore, identify, understand, describe and conceptualize the constructs pertaining to the question on the role of social media in RM in the retail banking sector.

Considering the exploratory nature of inquiry, research inclines towards the philosophy of interpretivism as the path to follow in the search for knowledge. The rationale behind this choice lies in the ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions of interpretivist philosophy that highly correlate to the questions and particularities of this research (Carson et al, 2001; Lincoln and Guba, 1985).

First of all, it is postulated that the reality of the role of social media in marketing for the retail banking sector is constructed in the set of perspectives belonging to two distinct relevant entities: banking organizations and their customers in the retail sector. Therefore, research seeks insights into multiple realities and perspectives that shape the complex constructs related to the role of social media in the customer-bank relations in the retail setting. According to Carson et al (2001) and Creswell (2003), this reasoning tightly corresponds to the interpretivist ontology and epistemology, which suggest that the reality is multifaceted rather than singular, and that phenomena are contextually embedded in the understandings, perceptions and opinions of people and entities that compose the researched field. Research assumes that each entity (i.e. customers and banks) has different outlooks on the role of Web 2.0 communications in banking and its future implications, and that by exploring their

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parallel realities, research is able to arrive to comprehensive and wholesome insights on the phenomena of social media marketing and relationship marketing.

Assumptions about the epistemological premises of the research are reflected in the values guiding this research, in the relationships between the researcher and the subject, in the language implemented by the researcher, and in the nature of theory and technical methodology pursued by this research (Barker et al, 2001; Black, 2006; Carson et al, 2001; Lincoln and Guba, 1985). Interpretive approach is relevant for this research as it permits:

(1) to obtain in-depth understanding of the relatively novel phenomenon of social media in bank marketing and to attend to the particularities of its contextual manifestations;

(2) to extract the value from the versatility of perspectives of several interest groups that co-construct the reality of the phenomenon, namely banks and consumers;

(3) to obtain richness and holism of insights, and

(4) to explore lived experiences, processes, perceptions, and assumptions in the new area of research (Hakim, 1994; Miles and Huberman, 1994).

Additionally, interpretivism is considered especially suitable in the quest for knowledge on the marketing concepts that are yet to be defined in different contexts, or where there is a research paucity regarding the construct of phenomenon in particular industries and regions (Barker et al, 2001; Carson et al, 2001). Such is the case of the phenomenon of social media in the context of RM and in the reality of retail banking in SEE region. As argued by Weick (1989), research in rapidly evolving marketing phenomena demands “imaginative” approach to theory building. The inductive stance of the interpretivist philosophy posed as fertile soil for new theorizations to be conceived.

Research aims to discover previously unknown variables pertaining to the use of social media in banking, to provide in-depth understanding of the underlying factors shaping the phenomenon, and to describe the particularities of the social media phenomenon in relationship marketing in the context of the retail banking sector in the SEE region. Therefore, it takes exploratory and interpretive stance when seeking the answers on the subject of interest (Creswell, 2006).

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Following its exploratory aspirations, research was conducted under the qualitative approach (Carson et al, 2001). According to Vaismoradi et al (2013): “A

belief in multiple realities, a commitment to identifying an approach to in-depth understanding of the phenomena, a commitment to participants’ viewpoints, conducting inquiries with the minimum disruption to the natural context of the phenomenon, and reporting findings in a literary style rich in participant commentaries are the main characteristics of qualitative methodologies” (p. 398).

Qualitative methodology and the interpretive stance allow approaching the phenomenon of social media in banking with respect for researcher’s pursuit for genuine, original and in-depth understanding of the underlying concepts (Carson et al., 2001; Hanson and Grimmer, 2007). As noted by Gummesson (2005), in marketing

“data are mostly hard to find, hard to define, and they are incomplete” (p. 311), and

the answers do not always lay in pursuit of growing volumes of data, but rather in their exploratory and descriptive powers.

With this in mind, the qualitative research approach was considered especially suitable for this research, as it allowed “deeper understanding of phenomena” and “to

produce insight rather than measure, to explore rather than pin-down” the themes,

constructs and theorizations that comprise the concept of social media in banking (Carson et al, 2001; Hanson and Grimmer, 2007; Miles and Huberman, 1994). Furthermore, the qualitative research approach was especially suitable for this study considering its ability to enable the “exploration of experiences” and to contribute to the “development of meaning” (Hanson and Grimmer, 2007, p. 65). Qualitative research is “a conscious search for meaning and understanding” (Gummesson, 2005, p. 311) and a quest for in-depth comprehension and awareness of the problems and phenomena (De Ruyter and Scholl, 1998). It is essentially of “diagnostic

exploratory” character. The unrestricted inquisitiveness towards the unfamiliar is

what rendered the choice of the qualitative approach fitted for this research, as it permits to contribute to the development of new conceptualizations pertaining to the relatively novel phenomenon in marketing such as the social media (De Ruyter and Scholl, 1998, p. 8).

The choice of the qualitative approach was supported by the evidence from the relevant past studies, which incorporated inductive and evocative methods for identifying previously unknown concepts in the RM practice in the context of

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financial services industry and online marketing (Argyriou et al., 2005; Durkin et al, 2007; Heinonen, 2006; Hughes et al., 2007; Hurley et al, 2014; Kapoulas et al., 2002; O’Loughlin et al., 2004; Walsh et al., 2004). Common rationale for employing the qualitative methodology in these studies included the desire to explore phenomena of RM, e-banking and online communications in depth and to enable constructive reflection on the particularities of different contexts (Kapoulas et al, 2002; Kapoulas et al, 2004; Lahteenmaki and Natti, 2013; O’Loughlin et al, 2004; Stone, 2009).

Qualitative approach is considered to be desirable in the field of RM, especially when exploring the customer perspective on the relationships with financial institutions in different geographic contexts (Brun et al, 2014; Kapoulas et al, 2004; Varey, 2003). This is tightly corresponding to the interests of the present research, which wishes to explore how the phenomenon of social media is accommodated in the RM in the context of the banking industry in the SEE region. Moreover, as highlighted by Brun et al (2014): “Given the scant theoretical understanding of e-

relationship marketing, we consider a qualitative introspective approach appropriate.[...]The approach is relevant for examining human behavior and whenever the researcher’s aim is to uncover new variables and relationships” (p. 49).