Thesis-1991-Speed.pdf (13.8 MB)
Marketing, strategy and performance in the UK retail financial services industry
thesis
posted on 2010-11-29, 12:25 authored by Richard J. SpeedThis thesis seeks to examine the marketing practices,
strategies and organisational characteristics of companies
in the UK retail financial services industry. The research
utilises both quantitative and qualitative methods, seeking
to determine what, if any, differences in approach exist
between companies of different types or with different
levels of performance. Three methods are used to evaluate
performance; self assessment, peer assessment and expert
assessment.
Data was gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire as
the basis for interviews with managers. Quantitative analysis utilised contingency table analysis and
discriminant analysis to test for differences between
different groups of companies. Account was taken of
problems due to small sample size. The Delphi technique, a
form of anonymous polling of experts over several rounds
with feedback between rounds, was used to construct the
expert assessment based measure of performance.
Companies with better performance were found to have a
different strategy from those with poor performance. Better
performing companies were found to have products better at
meeting customer needs than those of competitors, and to
charge more for them. Better performing companies were
found to be faster at new product development and to show a
balance in their strategy between finance and market
performance based factors. Companies of different types
were also found to differ in their marketing approaches.
A high level of consistency was found between the various
measures of performance used. The measures were highly
correlated and the sets of variables found to be related to
performance level measured by different means had
considerable overlap.
History
School
- Business and Economics
Department
- Business
Publisher
© Richard John SpeedPublication date
1991Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.EThOS Persistent ID
uk.bl.ethos.357549Language
- en