Salesperson ethics behavior as antecedent of Islamic banking customer loyalty

Abstract

Purpose

The development of the banking industry is encouraging increasingly fierce competition. In the face of banking competition, Islamic banks need to build customer loyalty by paying attention to ethical aspects. Ethics has an essential role in forming and preserve relationships between companies and customers in the long term. The measurement model of salesperson ethical behavior in this study was built using the Islamic-based marketing concept. This study aims to test empirical models of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior in increasing customer loyalty of Islamic banks through the aspect of customer trust.

Design/methodology/approach

Research data were obtained from 165 Islamic bank customers in the Central Java, Indonesia, using the purposive sampling method. Data analysis in this study uses structural equation modeling.

Findings

The study shows that the Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior has a positive effect on customer trust in a salesperson, customers’ trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in a salesperson has positively and significantly influenced customer trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in Islamic banks has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty.

Practical implications

This study’s results are expected to be used to reference maintenance salesperson in Islamic banking to behave based on Islamic principles. Islamic marketing principles need to be applied through salespersons behaving realistically (al-Waqi’iyyah) and humanistic concepts (insaniyyah). The application of Islamic ethics can limit and avoid deviant behavior from salespeople that is detrimental to consumers and organizations. The behavior of salespeople based on Islamic ethics will build consumer trust in both organizations and salesperson so that it has implications for consumer loyalty.

Originality/value

This paper provides new findings to understand Islamic banking consumer loyalty that focuses on Islamic ethical salesperson behavior point of view. This paper also presents a new measurement of research variables from an Islamic perspective in examining the role of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior toward banking customer loyalty. This study takes the object of research in Islamic banking that has different characteristics from conventional financial institutions.