An Empirical Analysis of Attributes Influencing Bank Selection Choices by Customers in the UAE: The Dubai Context.

This paper quantifies the determinants of banks selection attributes by university students-customers in Dubai leveraging multi-attribute model algorithm. The motivation for this paper is that there is little or no research that empirically examined retail bank selection attributes important to university student-customers when choosing a bank in the UAE. Our paper fills this gap by utilizing AHP algorithm to model determinants of bank selection and preference by university student-customers. Leveraging effective marketing strategies to procure and retain today's savvy university student-customers is more ever imperative. Therefore, it behooves forward looking C-level bank marketers to properly identify the requisite selection attributes that matter the most to potential customers when deciding on a bank to patronize. The study focuses on examining the bank selection attributes utilized by university student-customers. A sum of 100 students of Canadian University of Dubai served as a sample for the research. We used seven prominent bank selection attributes derived from relevant bank marketing literature, interviews with some undergraduate students, and one attribute from our own experience. Results indicate that three premier factors influencing student-customers' bank preference are service charge, proximity to location and ATM, and convenience. The results also indicate that for the focal banks as a whole, ENBD is the most preferred choice. Thus, results of this paper provide insightful and valuable information to bank C-suit executives on the selection attributes that are important to nowadays university student-customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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