Using hierarchical information integration to examine customer preferences in banking

Abstract

The process of choosing a bank has been studied for several decades through different approaches. This paper presents a bank choice analysis designed to assess the usefulness of the hierarchical information integration method which involves measuring individual preferences. The substantive conclusions of this study are that, on average, respondents prefer the extended loyalty programs, the continuous information flow from the bank, the off‐site ATMs, the maximum five‐minutes waiting time in the branches and a simple application for all the accounts the bank offers. In terms of higher‐order decision constructs, delivery channels and customer relations have the strongest influence on the respondents’ preferences. The results suggest that hierarchical information integration may be a potentially useful method for bank managers to study complex decision‐making problems such as bank choice.