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Determinants of
Determinants of banks selection banks selection
in USA, Taiwan and Ghana
Charles Blankson
Department of Marketing and Logistics, College of Business Administration, 469
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
Julian Ming-Sung Cheng Received April 2007
Revised July 2007
Department of Business Administration, National Central University, Taiwan, Accepted August 2007
Chung-Li City, Taiwan, and
Nancy Spears
Department of Marketing and Logistics, College of Business Administration,
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA

Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate bank choice/selection criteria in a range of cultural
and country economic scenarios. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to understand
international consumers’ selection criteria of banks using the USA, Taiwan, and Ghana as illustrations.
Design/methodology/approach – Following a literature review, the paper adopts the classical
multi-step scale development process which demanded that thorough attention be paid to every step of
the process. The study employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the reliability
of the results.
Findings – The study reveals three key dimensions/factors/strategies that are consistent across all
three economies. The paper concludes that open and liberalized business climate appear to explain
consumers’ decisions.
Research limitations/implications – This research is based on the college student cohort and
thus the results do not represent the public. This poses generalizability questions without further
replications and validations. This study did not examine whether there were consumers’ switching
behaviors involving banks.
Practical implications – Insights derived from this study will provide bank managers and
advertising executives with the building blocks for understanding consumers’ choice criteria of banks
in industrialized, newly industrialized and liberalized developing economies.
Originality/value – A comprehensive validated scale measuring international consumers’ selection
of banks is proposed. In view of the scarce stream of empirical studies dealing with consumers’
selection of banks in liberalized developing nations, this research comes at an opportune time, as
several governments in these economies are encouraging bank savings, channeling college students’
loans through bank accounts and proactively attracting global banks to establish branches in their
countries. This study complements the extant literature dealing with consumers’ selection of banks.
Finally, a cross-national and cross-cultural dataset of consumers’ choice criteria of banks have been
put forward that would enhance further appreciation of the subject of banks selection in varying
economies.
Keywords Banks, Selection, National cultures, United States of America, Taiwan, Ghana
Paper type Research paper
International Journal of Bank
Marketing
Vol. 25 No. 7, 2007
The authors would like to thank the anonymous IJBM reviewers and the editor for their pp. 469-489
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
thoughtful comments and suggestions. They are indebted to the students who participated in the 0265-2323
focus group interviews and those who took part in the main survey in USA, Taiwan, and Ghana. DOI 10.1108/02652320710832621
IJBM Introduction
25,7 The banking industry has been characterized by increasing competition since the early
1980s. This has been the result of a number of interrelated factors such as competition
and deregulation that have revolutionized the distribution of many financial services.
In other words, an increased competition resulting from a decade of deregulation of the
financial services industry has meant that banks find themselves faced with the task of
470 differentiating their organizations and their offerings as a means of attracting
customers.
The importance for this study is embedded on the premise that due to the changing
international market environment, the adoption of information technology throughout
the world and the dawn of the phenomenon of “global village” (Levitt, 1983),
understanding and adapting to customer motivation, attitudes and their ultimate
selection decisions for offerings such as banks are not an option but an absolute
necessity (Kotler, 2000). To this end, the subject of factors impinging on consumers’
selection for banks in other countries is an important research task (Devlin, 2002).
Specifically the measurement of international consumers’ selection criteria of banks
constitutes substantive academic and practical investigation that merits empirical
research (Levitt, 1983; Keillor and Hult, 1999; Burnham et al., 2003; Rogers et al., 2005).
Following review of the literature, what appears to be missing in the marketing
literature is the lack of comprehensive validated scale measuring international
consumers’ selection of banks from industrialized, newly industrialized and developing
countries perspective. The latter is evidenced in a recent study that claims that the
management of switching cost that stems from issues about choice criteria is an
important “battle to improve customer retention” in the banking industry (Burnham
et al., 2003).
Therefore, to enhance our understanding of bank selection in a range of cultural and
country economic scenarios, the present research aims to examine the factors that
underlie consumers’ selection of bank offerings in industrialized (such as USA),
newly-industrialized (such as Taiwan) and liberalized developing (such as Ghana)
market environments. Pursuant to the central aim/purpose of the research, the
objectives of this investigation are to:
.
generate a pool of items/statements which consumers in these economies employ
in their evaluation and selection of banks;
.
synthesize and reduce these items/statements into key determining factors
explaining consumers’ selection of banks across these three countries;
.
assess the reliability and validity measurements of the models; and
.
draw holistic conclusions describing consumer buying selection criteria of banks
in open and liberalized economic environments.

Cultural differences and economic developments in cross-national marketing

In view of the fact that businesses in varying country markets adjust to the cultural
settings and the level of economic developments of the host market(s), it is assumed
that there are differences in marketing practices of firms in industrialized, newly
industrialized and developing economies. To this end, it is equally expected that to a
degree, variations in different cultural settings such as “individualism”, “collectivism”
and “feminine” and “masculine” influence consumers’ selection/decision criteria of
banks. Notwithstanding, in changing and inter-related international markets, “. . . a Determinants of
common failing of marketing/business planning is to plan in isolation, looking inward, banks selection
when everything seems great because there is no context and nothing to compare it
with . . . ” (Chapman, 2007, p. 50). Since marketers are expected to be more receptive to
cultural differences and appreciate the diversities in levels of economic development of
countries and the fact that culture and level of country economic development have
fundamental influences on marketing practices in international marketing, it is 471
asserted that understanding how consumers make buying decisions in culturally
different and varied country economic development stages is an opportune research
task (Bearden et al., 2006). This exploratory study, therefore, adds to the body of
literature on bank selection by developing a scale identifying the factors influencing
consumers’ selection of banks and then testing the resultant factors in three culturally
and economically distinct study settings (i.e. industrialized (USA), newly industrialized
(Taiwan) and liberalized developing (Ghana) economies).
The importance of culture and differences in cross-national consumer attitudes and
buying behaviors has long been on the agendas of marketing scholars (O’Keefe and
O’Keefe, 1997; Buttery and Leung, 1998; Paswan and Ganesh, 2005; Bearden et al.,
2006; Cui et al., 2006). In addition, despite the well-documented activities and interest in
cross-national marketing studies (e.g., Singhapakdi et al., 1999; Kilbourne et al., 2004;
Lee et al., 2005) and the fact that consumers’ buying behavior for financial services
offerings and selection of banks has long intrigued the minds of marketing scholars
and practitioners (see Tengel, 1995; Mathews, 1997; Babakus et al., 2004), it appears
that integrated cross-cultural and cross-national empirical studies aimed at providing
insights into consumers’ selection of banks in the context of an industrialized,
newly-industrialized and liberalized developing countries have received meager
attention by marketing scholars. This is important because, irrespective of whether a
global or other approach to international marketing is pursued, it is prudent to assume
that ignoring the subtle aspects of the host country’s culture and lack of appreciation of
the differences in levels of economic developments can be catalyst to failure (van
Mesdag, 2000) and hence, the need for this research.
Cultural differences are unique, defining characteristics that distinguish countries
with varying economic fabrics (Cui et al., 2006). As a result, it is inferred that
consumers in industrialized, newly industrialized and liberalized developing countries
employ different and embedded cultural dimensions in the selection of service offerings
such as banks. Thus the research question (RQ) posed in this study is: “How do
consumers from a range of cultures and economies evaluate and make bank selection
decisions?”. Even though little attention has been paid to consumers’ selection of banks
in liberalized developing countries (Owusu-Frimpong, 1999), much has been published
on the subject matter in industrialized (Anderson et al., 1976; Riggall, 1979; Laroche
et al., 1986; Devlin and Gerrard, 2004), newly industrialized (Ta and Har, 2000; Chen,
2003) and advanced developing economies (Akinci et al., 2004). However, while
contributions of previous studies on bank selection in several international markets are
plausible, as noted by Koku (2005), absent in the discourse is an integrated approach
that examines consumers in a range of varying cultures and country economic
development settings. This is noteworthy in that, although several countries around
the world embrace free market economies (invariably, to an extent), several of these
countries are also very different in terms of marketing practices and are, at various
IJBM stages/levels of economic development (Koku, 2005). Furthermore, the literature review
25,7 shows that notwithstanding the interest and activities and importance attached to the
study of factors underpinning consumers’ selection of banks in various economies
(Dupuy and Kehoe, 1976; Martenson, 1985; Javalgi et al., 1989; Owusu-Frimpong, 1999;
Ta and Har, 2000; Devlin, 2002), authors have mostly dwelt on solo countries or two
economically similar settings to the exclusion of an integrated study aimed at
472 identifying the differences in cross-cultural and varying country economic regions.

Background to the study

A review of the literature reveals that much has been written about bank selection
decision (see Anderson et al. 1976; Martenson, 1985; Laroche et al. 1986; Devlin, 2002).
Anderson et al.’s (1976) study for example revealed five key selection criteria: friends’
recommendations; reputation of the bank; availability of credit, friendliness of staff and
service charges on accounts. The authors’ study was, however, criticized by Dupuy
and Kehoe (1976) who claimed that the authors’ work was inconsistent with previous
research that identified location (i.e. convenience) as an important factor in bank
selection. Dupuy and Kehoe’s (1976) findings were later upheld by Calantone and
Sawyer (1978) and Riggall (1979) who confirmed convenience as important in the
choice of banks. Anderson et al. (1976) findings have however been corroborated by
Chua (1981) and Martenson (1985) and recently by Ta and Har (2000), who conclude
that recommendation by parents and friends, i.e. peers, was the most important
criterion. Other studies indicate that quality of the service is the most important factor
in bank selection decisions (see Laroche et al., 1986; Ying and Chua, 1989). The
literature also reports of pricing as a factor in bank selection decision (Javalgi et al.,
1989; Khazeh and Decker, 1992).
Thus, the dawn of the “global village” with its associated transfer of foreign
investment from industrialized economies to newly industrialized and to liberalized
developing nations (Debrah, 2002; Kuada, 2002; Mmieh and Owusu-Frempong, 2004)
and the consequent recognition and practice of Western-oriented marketing strategies
in newly-industrialized and liberalized developing economies (Kuada and Buatsi, 2005)
highlights the need for a deeper appreciation and understanding of the differences in
cultural environments that may impinge on consumers’ decision criteria about
offerings such as the selection of banks (Cui et al., 2006). Culture has been defined in
multiple ways. According to Engel et al. (1995, p. 144), culture consists of “the values,
ideas, attitudes, and other meaningful symbols that help individuals communicate,
interpret, and evaluate as members of society”. Culture is also viewed as the patterns of
beliefs and values that are present in practices, behaviors, and various artifacts that
distinguish the members of one group or category of people from another (Hofstede,
1980) (see also Tables I and II). Culture operates at both the national culture and the
organizational culture levels. Given the underlying differences between cultures
throughout the world, understanding and appreciating the similarities and differences
of cultures in the context of international marketing is necessary (Cui et al., 2006).
This study is embedded on the premise that, understanding and adapting to global
consumer buying behavior and motivation, and their ultimate selection decisions for
offerings are not an option but an absolute necessity (Kotler, 2000) for both local and
global-bound companies. Thus firms most likely to succeed in global/international
markets are those that can identify and match the differences or similarities between
 Newly-industrialized – Liberalized developing
Determinants of
Cultural orientations Industrialized – USA Taiwan – Ghana banks selection
Human nature Basically good and Good Mixed
orientation: changeable
good-mixed-evil
Man and nature Domination Harmony Harmony
orientation:
473
domination-harmony-
subjugation
Time orientation: Future Past Circular, past and
past-present-future present
Personal-activity Doing Being Being
orientation:
being-being-in- Table I.
becoming-doing Comparison of USA,
Relational orientation: Individual Hierarchical Collateral Taiwan and Ghana
individual-collateral- cultural orientations
hierarchical based on Kluckhohn and
Strodtbeck’s theory of
Source: Adapted from Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) cultural orientations

Newly-industrialized – Liberalized developing

Cultural dimensions Industrialized – USA Taiwan – Ghana

Power distance Tolerance Respect Respect

Individualism- Individualism Collectivism Collectivism
collectivism
Table II.
Uncertainty avoidance Low High Moderate
Comparison of USA,
Feminine-masculine Slight tilt in favor of Slight tilt in favor of Slight tilt in favor of
Taiwan and Ghana
aggressive goal passive goal behavior passive goal behavior
cultural orientations
behavior or masculinity or femininity or femininity
based on Hofstede’s
Source: Adapted from Hofstede (1980) cultural dimensions

countries as the basis for their marketing and positioning strategies (Sheth, 1992;
Keillor and Hult, 1999; Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2004). To this end, it is asserted
that the subject of factors impinging upon consumers’ selection of banks – a subject
that has been highlighted as one of the important marketing strategies needed in the
changing financial (e.g. banking) environment (Laroche et al., 1986; Devlin and
Gerrard, 2004; Aldlaigan and Buttle, 2005), is an opportune research task.
Moreover, not only are multinational and local subsidiaries of firms embedded in
different national cultures, but they are also characterized by organizational cultures to
the extent that two diverse organizational cultures can lead to differences in
expectations and mismatch in marketing deliberations (Harvey and Griffith, 2002) and
which will, in turn, affect consumers’ buying decisions. For example, time orientation
which derives from national culture is believed to permeate all aspects of consumers’
life to the extent that decisions about value of time, how to use time, how to evaluate
the past, the present, the future (see Table I) and appreciation of events in terms of
IJBM succession and duration (Spears et al., 2001) are important in consumers’ selection
25,7 criteria of banks.

Methodology, analysis and results

The development of a scale measuring consumers’ selection of banks in three cultural
and economic settings
474 To recap, it is the purpose of this study to understand international consumers’
selection criteria of banks using the USA, Taiwan and Ghana as illustrations. In order
to achieve the research aim, the classical multi-step process which demanded that
thorough, i.e. the systematic methodical adherence to, attention be paid to every step of
the process (Churchill, 1979; DeVellis, 1991; Spector, 1992) has been adopted. The
classical multi-item measurement approach is employed in this study in view of the
popularity of the latter (see among others Parasuraman et al., 1988; Hansen, 2004).
Each of the steps involved in the development of the scale is described below.
The sample. Similar to Spears et al. (2001) and Cunningham et al. (2006), the sample
used in this study is the college student cohort. Although there has been concern
regarding the use of students as surrogate consumers and also about the validity and
generalizability of student samples, college students were deemed appropriate for this
study (see Spears et al., 2001; Cunningham et al., 2006), for students are actual
customers of banks and conversant with bank products (Yoo et al., 2000). Moreover,
our focus group discussions and observation of the study settings showed that college
students were consumers who had experience with (i.e. owned bank accounts) banks
(see also, Yoo et al., 2000). As noted by Bearden et al. (2006), although students differ
from non-student adults, they do represent homogenous groups across the three
distinct cultures/countries as recommended by Hofstede (1980, 1994) and thus
minimize variance in terms of age, education, and other potential confounds.
It is important to note that as far back as 1982, Lewis’ (1982a) research revealed that
there are difficulties in attracting the youth population (e.g. college students) and to the
extent that bank advertising and promotions has little effect on college students’
selection criteria of offerings. Moreover, despite the importance of the college student
cohort to marketers (Yoo et al., 2000; Gallagher et al., 2001) and specifically, to the
banking industry (Worthington, 1992; Thwaites and Vere, 1995), little attention has
been devoted to an integrated cross-national study of factors influencing college
students’ selection of banks.
Initial item generation and selection. In order to elicit consumers’ vocabulary
regarding descriptions of their decisions and subsequent selection of banks, focus
group sessions were conducted in classrooms in the USA before pre-testing the results
in USA and then in Ghana. This is in line with Spears et al. (2001). In our review of
liberalized developing countries, Ghana was, conveniently selected, because of the
country’s recent successful macro economic liberalization that has culminated in
overseas investments, growth of local small businesses, stability of the local currency
(Appiah-Adu and Blankson, 1998) and, in broad terms, similarity in official language,
i.e. English language, with the USA – the original setting of the scale development.
This enhanced conceptual consistency.
In total a convenience sample of 20 (i.e. two groups of ten) undergraduate and 20 (i.e.
two groups of ten) graduate business students agreed to participate in the discussion
and followed good practices prescribed by Kirk and Miller (1986), Wolcott (1990) and
Feldman (1995). The participants were asked to freely talk, discuss and then list the Determinants of
words, descriptions, statements and their reasons for selecting their own banks or banks selection
when recommending them (see Dickinson and Wilby, 1997). This phase was important
as it provided an element of theory generation and helped to establish the level of
consumer vocabulary. Analysis of the focus group sessions was via inductive
reasoning (see also Brady and Cronin, 2001) and resulted in 60 statements. The list of
60 statements generated from the focus group sessions was examined in order to 475
identify and delete duplicate/overlapping statements (Loos, 1995). Using inductive
reasoning (see Brady and Cronin, 2001), this process resulted in the retention of only
those statements/items, which were viewed as potential discriminators, i.e. sensitive,
across the focus group participants’ perceptions (see Parasuraman et al., 1988). This
resulted in 22 statements/items that were formulated into a questionnaire and,
consistent with Spears et al. (2001), pre-tested among a convenience sample of 40
undergraduate and 14 MBA students from a large public Midwestern University in
USA and among 20 undergraduate, ten MBA and ten Masters in Public Administration
(MPA) students in Ghana.
Second phase of item generation and decisions. The 22 statements obtained from the
focus group sessions comprised the measures incorporated into a survey carried out in
classrooms using a non-probability convenience sample of 600 (USA), 500 (Taiwan)
and 300 (Ghana) college students. The measurement instrument was concurrently
administered in these countries between December 2004 and May 2005. Consistent
with Bearden et al. (2006), these countries were selected to represent a diversity of
national cultures and stages in economic developments. In addition, the countries vary
widely in their positions on the Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s (1961) and Hofstede’s
(1980) cultural orientations as shown in Tables I and II, respectively. For example,
while the USA is “masculine”, both Taiwan and Ghana are “feminine”. In the case of
“uncertainty avoidance” culture, the USA is regarded as “low” while Taiwan and
Ghana are viewed as “high” and “moderate”, respectively (Hofstede, 1980) (see Table II).
On the other hand, using Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s (1961) cultural orientations
theory, when it comes to “relational orientation: individual-collateral-hierarchical”
culture, the USA is “individualistic”, Taiwan is “hierarchical” and Ghana is “collateral”
(see Table I). Accordingly, it is envisaged that there are several differences between
these three countries’ business cultures warranting a cross-cultural and cross-national
exploratory study.
In the USA, students were attending three large universities; two were located in the
Midwest and one was located on the East coast. In Ghana, data were collected from
students attending the largest university in Accra, the capital of Ghana while in
Taiwan, data collection involved students attending a large national university close to
Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.
Apart from very minor exceptions such as US English spelling (e.g., center, labor,
color, etc.) into UK English spelling (centre, labour, colour, etc.), there was no need for
translation of the original English version of the questionnaire in Ghana since the
English language (UK English version) is the official language and it is widely spoken
by the general population. It is important to note that English language is the language
of instruction in schools and universities in Ghana. However, in the case of Taiwan,
consistent with Bagozzi et al. (2000) and Netemeyer et al. (2004), the back-translation
procedure was employed. First, a bilingual professional translator in Taipei was hired,
IJBM who translated the questionnaire into Chinese (Mandarin). Second, a different bilingual
25,7 person translated the Chinese version back into English (see Bagozzi et al., 2000). In all
the three countries and for each statement, the participants were requested to indicate
the degree to which the statement was relevant in determining their reasons for
selecting/choosing their own banks.
The 22 statements were measured on a seven-point Likert scale where 1 indicated
476 not important at all and 7 very important and conformed to the Dillman’s (1978) Total
Design Method. Instructions for completion of the survey stated that: “Please consider
each descriptor(s)/statement(s) in the center of the page in terms of how you believe
that each statement fits or is important with your perceptions of retail banks when
evaluating or considering the selection of your bank”. A total of 600 questionnaires
distributed to students in the USA resulted in of 338 usable responses yielding a 56
percent response rate. As for Taiwan, out of the 500 questionnaires, 269 usable
questionnaires were obtained giving a 54 percent response rate. In Ghana, 116 usable
responses were obtained out of 300 for 39 percent response rate (see also, Kwak et al.,
2004: 252 undergraduate business students in the USA and 232 journalism students in
South Korea). Although the data collection was undertaken concurrently in all three
countries, due to the recognized differences in culture and economic developments in
each country, it was decided to analyze the data for each country and then compare
them to identify the similarities and differences (see also Bagozzi et al., 2000; Spears
et al., 2001; Kwak et al., 2004) in consumers’ bank selection criteria.

Results
Exploratory analysis
In line with good practices suggested by Parasuraman et al. (1988), Tull and Hawkins
(1994), Churchill (1995), and Fabrigar et al. (1999), exploration of the underlying
structure of the data was carried out through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the
stepwise process suggested by Hair et al. (1998) was followed. Initial visual assessment
of the descriptive statistics (Table III) and correlation matrices for the three countries
indicated considerable degree of inter-factor correlation.
Furthermore, the Bartlett test of Sphericity in USA: (Approx. Chi-square ¼ 2834:884;
df ¼ 231; sig. 0.000), Taiwan: (Approx. Chi-square ¼ 2827:944; df ¼ 231; sig. 0.000) and
Ghana: (Approx. Chi-square ¼ 2068:832; df ¼ 231; sig. 0.000) and the
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of Sampling Adequacy index (value of 0.881: USA;
0.878: Taiwan and 0.866: Ghana) confirmed the appropriateness of the data for EFA.
Principal component analysis was selected to reduce the number of factors where the
eigenvalue greater than 1 and a cumulative percentage of variance explained being
greater than 50 percent were the criteria used in determining the number of factors. Based
on these criteria, five factors, each, were extracted in all three countries. A satisfactory 59
per cent of the variance was recorded for USA, 62 per cent in Taiwan and 62 per cent in
Ghana. In addition, the communality column in the three countries provides further
evidence of the overall significance of the solution extracted for the study settings.
Following the decision relating to the internal reliability (i.e. Cronbach coefficient á)
and in line with Hair et al. (1998), the factors were re-specified. This was undertaken to
reduce the number of factors. The cut-off value adopted was 0.7 and the acceptable
benchmark level of item-to-total correlation was set above 0.3 (Parasuraman et al.,
1988). The internal reliability of the revised structure was tested and the results
 USA (n ¼ 335) Taiwan (n ¼ 269) Ghana (n ¼ 116)
Variable Mean SD t Mean SD t Mean SD t

Adequate number of locations in the area 4.4119 0.96208 83.934 4.0867 0.91027 77.761 3.7511 1.38239 40.703
Security 4.5075 0.97841 84.321 4.6800 0.66765 121.411 4.6756 0.86941 80.668
Convenience 4.4418 0.91987 88.380 4.3733 0.78486 96.512 4.4978 0.92642 72.825
Gives student checking account 3.9642 1.32409 54.797 2.6367 1.09330 41.771 3.2267 1.46604 33.014
Advise from parents and friends 3.0149 1.48740 37.100 3.1467 1.03379 52.721 1.9111 1.10644 25.909
Used by my family for years 3.1761 1.61265 36.048 3.3067 1.06288 53.885 1.7378 1.05545 24.697
Reputation of the organization 4.1284 1.05462 71.648 4.5733 0.68277 116.016 4.1511 1.17424 53.027
Close to my home 4.3463 1.02926 77.288 4.3567 0.82769 91.169 3.1689 1.29142 36.807
Good customer service 4.4836 0.92481 88.735 4.4633 0.74195 104.195 4.7378 0.75454 94.186
Convenient location 4.4836 0.92481 88.735 4.4733 0.74687 103.740 4.3244 0.99847 64.966
Quick service 4.3970 0.91919 87.554 4.4667 0.69076 112.000 4.7289 0.76316 92.946
Consistency 4.0627 1.18837 62.573 4.0800 0.89233 79.194 4.3467 0.98869 65.946
Recommendation by my parents 3.2119 1.50643 39.025 3.2367 1.01526 55.218 1.9067 1.09185 26.194
Good service provision 4.0000 1.13728 64.374 4.3667 0.72154 104.821 4.5244 0.89671 75.684
Friendly staff 4.3313 1.02107 77.641 4.2067 0.79123 92.087 4.2622 0.98545 64.877
Competence 4.3433 1.10188 72.145 4.1100 0.84079 84.667 4.5467 0.82851 82.316
Free checking account 4.4060 1.12243 71.846 3.6733 1.11539 57.042 3.8000 1.23563 46.130
Free accounts for students 4.0537 1.36798 54.237 4.1200 0.98429 72.499 3.3378 1.53868 32.539
Accessibility to my money 4.5672 0.95754 87.300 4.5467 0.71381 110.325 4.6311 0.90233 76.986
Most popular in my area 2.6716 1.41409 34.580 3.1000 1.16384 46.135 2.3111 1.16921 29.650
Proximity 3.7970 1.29970 53.472 4.1133 0.89620 79.497 3.6756 1.22350 45.062
Gives additional capital 3.4209 1.45558 43.016 3.1967 1.11751 49.546 3.7156 1.32926 41.928
Note: Based on a Likert scale where 1 indicated not important at all and 7 very important

Descriptive statistics
banks selection

Table III.
477
Determinants of
IJBM provide evidence as to the robustness of the structure since all factors exceeded the
25,7 adopted criteria (see Table IV). The reliability coefficients for the 18 items is high, at
0.861 (USA), 0.850 (Taiwan) and 0.796 (17 items for Ghana). In addition, the identified
item-total correlations are acceptable with each item above the cut-off point of 0.3.
Further reliability tests in the form of split half of the 18 items for:
.
USA (Guttman Split-half Coefficient ¼ 0:740, Equal-Length Spearman-
478 Brown ¼ 0:748, á 0.833 for part 1 (nine items) and á 0.763 for part 2 (nine items)),
.
Taiwan: (Guttman Split-half Coefficient ¼ 0:721, Equal-Length Spearman-
Brown ¼ 0:724, á 0.860 for part 1 (nine items) and a
¼ 0:672 for part 2 (nine
items)); and
.
Ghana: (Guttman Split-half Coefficient ¼ 0:385, Equal-Length Spearman-
Brown ¼ 0:388, á 0.891 for part 1 (nine items) and á 0.637 for part 2 (eight
items) underpinning the determinant factors influencing consumers’ selection of
banks were moderately acceptable with most sample parts over or close to the
cut-off point of 0.7 and which is acceptable in exploratory research (Hair et al.,
1998).

Following examination of the EFA results and analysis of the reliability and
conceptual coherency of the identified factors (see Table IV), it is suggested that for
each country, the factors placed in Table V, tentatively, represent potentially robust
determinant factors underpinning consumers’ selection of banks. Individual factors
were named using an item or description judged to have strong conceptual relation
with the rest of the items.

Confirmatory analysis
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was assessed via the LISREL 8.50 structural
equation model to estimate parameters that will aid in assessing the reliability of the
data set. This was done to enhance the researchers’ explanatory ability. Overall (see
Table VI), the models provide a good fit to the data for USA (x 2 ¼ 387:92; df ¼ 129;
p-value ¼ 0:000; GFI ¼ 0:890; RMSEA ¼ 0:078; AGFI ¼ 0:850; NFI ¼ 0:830;
NNFI ¼ 0:850; CFI ¼ 0:870; IFI ¼ 0:880) and Ghana ( x 2 ¼ 271:98; df ¼ 116;
p-value ¼ 0:000; GFI ¼ 0:880; RMSEA ¼ 0:077; AGFI ¼ 0:840; NFI ¼ 0:870;
NNFI ¼ 0:910; CFI ¼ 0:920; IFI; 0.920) and hence, the structure is supported.
However, as shown in Table VI, the structure is weakly supported in the case of
Taiwan where, with the exception of a few cases, the indices appear to be poor/weak fit
( x 2 ¼ 852:09; df ¼ 129; p-value ¼ 0:000; GFI ¼ 0:760; RMSEA ¼ 0:137;
AGFI ¼ 0:680; NFI ¼ 0:690; NNFI ¼ 0:670; CFI ¼ 0:720; IFI ¼ 0:730).

Validity
Prior to the assessment of validity, dimensionality was tested by reviewing the loading
of each item following EFA. Each item had a significant loading on the intended factor
and no significant loading on any other factor was found. This indicated that the scales
were unidimensional (Langerak, 2003). In addition, the reliability of each purified
unidimensional scale was explored with the assessment of the reliability coefficient
and the item-to-total correlation. In all three countries, the reliability surpassed or was
very close to the threshold value of 0.7 (see Table IV). Convergent validity was first
investigated through EFA where the extracted latent factors can be seen as a set of
 USA Taiwan Ghana
Construct/items ITC a Construct/items ITC a Construct/items ITC a

Factor 1: convenience Factor 1: competence Factor 1: competence

Convenient location 0.707 0.815 Friendly staff 0.681 0.860 Good customer service 0.813 0.900
Close to home 0.601 Competence 0.612 Quick service 0.800
Adequate number of locations in 0.569 Good service provision 0.702 Good service provision 0.683
the area Consistency 0.681 Competence 0.682
Quick service 0.556 Quick service 0.691 Friendly staff 0.598
Convenience 0.511 Good customer service 0.561 Accessibility to my money 0.589
Security 0.448 Security 0.590
Reputation of the organization 0.502 Factor 2: convenience Convenient location 0.613
Factor 2: competence Convenient location 0.632 0.782 Consistency 0.583
Competence 0.637 0.804 Close to home 0.577 Convenience 0.592
Friendly staff 0.696 Adequate number of locations in 0.483 Reputation of the organization 0.566
Accessibility to my money 0.572 the area
Good service provision 0.613 Security 0.464
Proximity 0.466 Convenience 0.552 Factor 2: recommendation by peers
Reputation of organization 0.428 Recommendation by parents 0.654 0.773
Factor 3: recommendation by peers Proximity 0.458 Advise from parents and friends 0.616
Recommendation by parents 0.632 0.703 Factor 3: recommendation by peers Used by my family for years 0.556
Advise from parents and friends 0.510 Advise from parents and friends 0.720 0.816 Factor 3: free banking/no bank
Used by my family for years 0.432 Recommendation by parents 0.674 charges
Used by my family for years 0.614 Free accounts for students 0.547 0.679
Factor 4: free banking/no bank Gives student checking account 0.486
charges Free checking account 0.457
Free accounts for students 0.684 0.693 Factor 4: free banking/no bank
Free checking account 0.422 charges
Gives student checking account 0.449 Free checking account 0.671 0.800
Free accounts for students 0.671
Note: ITC denotes item-total correlation

Revised structure
banks selection

479

Table IV.
Determinants of
IJBM common underlying dimensions of the research construct. Second, convergent validity
25,7 was examined via the absolute fit, incremental fit and parsimonious fit indices for USA
and Ghana (Table VI) and appears to be satisfactory. Although it is acknowledged that
in both cases, the results are below the recommended 0.90 level. As noted earlier, in the
case of the fit indices for Taiwan, the findings were below the recommended threshold
(see Table VI). However, as stated by Langerak (2003), indices have a tendency to
480 underestimate fit in small sample. Therefore, while the weaknesses in the measures for
Taiwan is acknowledged, the overall measurement for USA, Taiwan and Ghana
(industrialized, newly industrialized and liberalized developing, respectively) reveals
the fact that the items loaded significantly, albeit, in the case of Taiwan, weak, on their
respective latent constructs (Gerbing and Anderson, 1992).
As for content validity, the measures developed in this study were derived from an
exhaustive step-by-step approach that commenced with a thorough examination of the
relevant literature, followed with the generation of statements/items, and underwent
detailed evaluations by academics with expertise in methodology and in the study
setting thus providing the confirmation for content validity. Furthermore, during the
refinements of the questionnaires, discussion with an expert in the banking industry
and the pre-test subjects indicated that the content of the factors was well represented
by the measurement items/statements employed. It is important to note that, although
the judgment of content validity is subjective, the procedures used in this research are

Newly industrialized: Liberalized

Industrialized: USA Taiwan developing: Ghana

Factor 1 Convenience Factor 1 Competence Factor 1 Competence

Factor 2 Competence Factor 2 Convenience Factor 2 Recommendation
Table V. by peers
Determinant factors Factor 3 Recommendation Factor 3 Recommendation by Factor 3 Free banking (no
influencing consumers’ by peers peers bank charges)
selection of banks Factor 4 Free banking (no Factor 4 Free banking (no bank
identified from Table 4 bank charges) charges)

Fit measures USA Taiwan Ghana

Absolute-fit measures
x2 387.92 852.09 271.98
df 129 129 116
p 0.000 0.000 0.000
GFI 0.890 0.760 0.880
RMSEA 0.078 0.137 0.077
Table VI. Incremental-fit measures
Results of goodness-of-fit AGFI 0.850 0.680 0.840
measures for first-order NFI 0.830 0.690 0.870
model concerning NNFI 0.850 0.670 0.910
determinants of Parsimonious-fit measures
consumers’ selection of CFI 0.870 0.720 0.920
banks IFI 0.880 0.730 0.920
consistent with good practice in the literature (see DeVellis, 1991; Churchill, 1995). With Determinants of
regard to predictive validity, apart from the evidence of considerable degree of banks selection
inter-statement coherence and internal reliability (see Tables III and IV), comments on
a draft of the paper from an expert in the industry attest to the stability of this scale in
terms of predictive validity.

Discussion 481
The purpose of the research was to complement our insight of bank selection criteria in
varying cultural and country economic scenario. A scale was developed and then
tested in USA, Taiwan and Ghana. Four identical dimensions/factors supported by
items ranging from three to seven were identified for USA and Taiwan. On the other
hand, three factors with items ranging from three to eleven and similar to those
indicated for USA and Taiwan were recorded for Ghana. In the ensuing section, the
four factors are discussed. It is important to mention that although the results provide
overall descriptions of the four factors for the study settings, with the exception of
“Recommendation by peers” and “Free banking/no bank charges”, there are few cases
where specific items have not been consistent among the three study settings (see for
example, “Competence” in Table IV). Moreover, in the case of Ghana, Factor 1 has 11
items reflecting items overlapping in “Competence” and “Convenience”. Consequently,
it is fair to assert that in the case of liberalized developing economy, “Convenience” is a
latent factor embedded with “Competence”. In order to simplify presentation of the
results, and for brevity, due to limitations of journal space, it was decided to present
only the overall revised factor structure for the three study settings and is placed in
Table IV. The full results of the EFA are available upon request from the first named
author.
Convenience criterion comprises seven sub-criterions in USA and Taiwan. As for
Ghana, this factor is asserted to be a latent factor and conceptually, intertwined in the
factor named “Competence” (see Table IV). Convenience is perceived to represent the
importance of proximity and location of the bank.
Competence is perceived by consumers in all the research settings to represent
issues concerning frustration-free service, security and easy access to money etc. This
is represented in the three countries.
Recommendation by peers is evident in the three study settings and is associated
with the importance of peer advice or peer pressure in decisions about bank selection.
Free banking/no banking charges is perceived to be related to the benefits of no
bank charges (i.e. free banking).
On the basis of the conceptual coherence surrounding the constructs, reliability
measures and validity, albeit, weak for Taiwan, it is considered that this instrument is
a prelude towards a robust operationalization tool capable of generalization across
industrialized, newly industrialized and liberalized developing countries. In view of the
widely published discussion of Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s (1961) and Hofstede’s
(1980, 1994) cultural orientations, following Spears et al. (2001), it was decided to
concentrate on time orientation culture in the discussion and as one of the important
and overarching facet capable of explaining consumers’ selection criteria of offerings
such as banks. The latter is dealt with in Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961). Thus in the
ensuing section, the results obtained for USA, Taiwan and Ghana are subjected to
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s (1961) time orientation theory. This is followed by
IJBM conclusions and managerial and theoretical contributions. Finally, limitations and
25,7 future research directions are noted.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s time orientation theory and determinants of banks selection
For the USA, the most crystallized factor in bank selection was convenience. As shown
in Table I, the USA exhibits time orientation toward the future (Kluckhohn and
482 Strodtbeck, 1961) and has its roots in the Christian notion that combines past and
future into a process that started with the origins of the World and took off into the
future (Spears et al., 2001). It is derived from a linear view of time, with the past leading
to the present, and the present invariably leading to the future. These segments of time
are viewed as separate and hence, tend to impinge on how individuals (consumers)
dispense and use time in each of the segments. Thus, time is regarded as valuable and
often equated with value such as money (Spears et al., 2001). Alongside a future
orientation, the USA is characterized by a doing mentality, individualism, and a
tendency toward aggressive goal behaviors. It is thus interesting that the items that
comprise the convenience factor in this investigation deal primarily with speed of
service and physical proximity. This makes sense considering the prevalent notion
that time can be wasted and that each segment must be efficiently managed by the
individual. Thus, time and distance factors are of prime importance in this culture.
Comparatively, convenience is not as strongly crystallized in Taiwan as it is in the
USA, and quick service does not load on the convenience factor. Competence is a better
defined factor in Taiwan than convenience. In Taiwan, quick service is viewed as
consistent with a bank-focused competence characterized by good service as opposed
to consumer-focused convenience, whereas, in the USA, quick service is understood as
part of convenience for the customer. This finding is understandable given that
Taiwan, like the mainland China, has historically maintained a past orientation (see
Table I) where tradition is important, accompanied by a belief that no new thing will
occur in the present or the future that has not already happened (Kluckhohn and
Strodtbeck, 1961). Tradition explains present existence, and these patterns are highly
respected. However, while a past time orientation is the core of the life of Taiwanese,
they also demonstrate a past, present and future pattern of linearity (Alverston, 1994).
Spears et al. (2001) found that the Chinese are not as concerned as the USA about being
accountable for how time is spent. This is consistent with the Ghanaian’s view of time.
To the Ghanaian, competence is a more crystallized factor than in the USA or
Taiwan. In Ghana, competence implies good service and convenience and is a much
more comprehensive factor compared to the USA or Taiwan. For the Ghanaian, time is
simply a composition of events which have occurred, those which are taking place now
and those which are inevitable or immediately to occur (Mbiti, 1990). The future is
virtually absent because events that lie in it have yet to take place, they have not been
realized and cannot constitute time. Thus actual time is what is present and what is
past (see Table I). According to Mbiti (1990), such time orientation dominates the
Ghanaian’s understanding of the individual, the community, and the universe.
Notwithstanding the latter assertion, this two-dimensional view has been questioned
by Onwubiko (1991), who argues that while Ghanaians and for that matter, Africans,
may not have a clear appreciation of the future it does not mean that they cannot
conceive of the future or plan for the future. Moreover, time within the Ghanaian
cultural context is also socialized. Therefore the use of “socialized time” does not
sacrifice social duties and human relations in the name of clock-time punctuality. It is Determinants of
therefore reasonable to find that a bank-focused competence includes convenience. banks selection
That is, convenience does not supersede good, competent service but exists alongside
it.
Interestingly, the consistency item loads on competence in Taiwan and Ghana but is
not a part of competence or convenience in the USA. One potential explanation is that
these two cultures rely on the past to understand the present and future, and thus 483
consistency between these time periods is important. Recommendation by peers is
more strongly defined in Taiwan and Ghana than in the USA. This is not surprising
considering that Taiwan and Ghana are collective cultures that rely on hierarchical and
collateral relational structures, respectively, while the USA is an individualistic culture
and relies on an individual orientation when making decisions (see Tables I and II).

Conclusion
The aim of this study was to identify the determinant factors influencing consumers’
selection of banks in three varied cultural settings of industrialization. The results
show similarities in consumers’ selection of banks in the three study settings, i.e.
industrialized open market economy, newly industrialized open market economy and
liberalized developing open market economy (Douglas and Nijssen, 2003). Such finding
highlights aspect of consistency in consumers’ selection of banks in open and
liberalized market countries, irrespective of the cultural differences and level of
economic development. More specifically, it is fair to assert that there are similarities
between bank selection in the three culturally distinct and levels of economic
development. What appears to unite these selection criteria in these economies is their
countries’ subscription and pursuit of open and liberalized business climate. This is
because the nature of the Taiwanese business environment (newly industrialized) is
characterized by aggressive competition and growing consumer sophistication (Chen,
2003) while the Ghanaian business climate (liberalized developing) is typified by
democratic governance, a growing middle class and expatriate community and
amenable business climate following the government’s adoption of liberalized and
open market policies since 1983 (Appiah-Adu and Blankson, 1998). In the case of
liberalized developing countries such as Ghana, the opening up of the economies has
ushered in many competitors both from the domestic arena and from several
industrialized and newly industrialized countries (Okoroafo and Russow, 1993; Kuada
and Buatsi, 2005) competing for market share. The findings have some contributions
for practice and theory.

Managerial contributions
This research serves as an insight for managers who are involved in the banking sector
and interested in any of the three distinct economic settings. Bank managers and
advertising executives may assess the constructs and adapt them as the basis for
relationship marketing, advertising, sales efforts and other marketing communication
tactics by pursuing the following two sets of tactics:
(1) Attitude change: bank managers and advertising executives may direct efforts
aimed at altering or re-positioning consumer beliefs or perceptions of the bank
and it’s product offerings using the strategies put forward in this research.
IJBM (2) Brand change: here, bank managers and advertising executives may
25,7 realistically or symbolically modify the bank’s positioning strategies and
tactics to reflect the constructs identified in this study.

Bank managers could pursue all or any of the four sets of constructs (see Table V)
identified for industrialized and newly industrialized economies while the three
484 constructs may be employed in liberalized developing countries as benchmarks in their
current and/or future marketing deliberations. Bank managers and advertising
executives in liberalized developing economies may also include “convenience” as an
important construct (see Tables IV and V) in their marketing strategies and tactics. In
view of the scarce stream of empirical studies dealing with consumers’ selection of
banks in liberalized developing nations, this research comes at an opportune time as
several governments in these economies are encouraging bank savings, channeling
college students’ loans through bank accounts and proactively attracting global banks
to establish branches in their countries (see for example, Dadzie et al. (1989, 2003) in the
case of Ghana).
Theoretical contributions
In terms of theoretical contributions, to an extent, this paper concludes that in
established open markets (e.g., USA and Taiwan) and liberalized developing markets
(e.g., Ghana), there appears to be no differences in consumers’ decisions regarding the
selection of banks. This is important for global banks from industrialized countries
who are interested in entering newly-industrialized economies and vice versa as well as
banks from the former and the latter wanting to understand the choice criteria of
consumers in liberalized developing nations (Kuada and Buatsi, 2005) who may be
puzzled with consumers’ selection criteria of banks in these economies (Levitt, 1983;
Okoroafo and Russow, 1993; O’Donnell and Jeong, 2000).
This research also complements Thwaites and Vere’s (1995) typology of “free
banking”, “fast and efficient service” and “proximity of branch to college” which
appear to fit with “free banking/no bank charges”, “competence” and “convenience”,
respectively, identified in this research. In addition, “convenience” in this study is
evident in Dupuy and Kehoe’s (1976) work while “recommendation by peers” fits with
Anderson et al.’s (1976), Chua’s (1981), Lewis’ (1982b) and Martenson’s (1985) finding of
“recommendation by parents or friends”. Other studies (see Laroche et al., 1986; Ying
and Chua, 1989) found that “quality of the service” is most important factor in bank
selection decision. It is inferred that this is conceptually consistent with “competence”
found in this study. Hence, to some degree, nomological validity is assured. It is
inferred that this research complements the extant literature (Laroche et al., 1986;
Dupuy and Kehoe, 1976; Devlin, 2002) dealing with consumers’ selection of banks.
Moreover, a cross-national and cross-cultural dataset of consumers’ selection criteria of
banks have been put forward that would enhance further appreciation of the subject of
banks selection in varying economies.

Limitations and future research directions

It is acknowledged that this research is clearly based on the college student consumer
cohort and thus the results do not represent the general public. This poses
generalizability questions without further replications and validations. This study did
not examine whether there were consumers’ switching behaviors involving banks.
While this was beyond the scope of this paper, future research could explore the Determinants of
existence of this segment and the factors leading customers (e.g. students) to shift to banks selection
competitors and those who actually switch to other competing banks. It is inferred that,
although our attempt is consistent with the literature, we acknowledge the lack of true
experimental control over the identified factors. Nevertheless, the focus of this study
has been the development of determinant factors underpinning consumers’ selection of
banks in three varied global economic and national cultural settings. 485

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Corresponding author
Charles Blankson can be contacted at: BlanksoC@unt.edu

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