Bank strategy & performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bank strategy & performance - Essay Example nd communication technologies by the banking sector are – â€Å"cost-reduction, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, competition, globalization, operational risks, cost reduction, time to market, surging volumes, e-commerce, enhancing flexibility, business diversification such as non-financial services and becoming ‘‘service aggregators’’, etc† (Centeno, 295). Holding a desirable market share, enhancement of cost efficiency and expanding the reach to customers are the main reasons why banks use the Internet banking facility. On an overall basis, IT investment in banks especially in hardware, software and IT related services are assumed to bring about improvement in bank performance. However a research shows that despite the banks being one of the key investors in IT, there is little association between IT related investment and the efficiency of bank operations. This gives rise to a contradiction in profitability. However the impact is mixed for different products. For instance, investment in IT services seems to bear a positive impact on accounting profits and profitability. On the other hand, investment in hardware and software related products tend to reduce the performance of banks. There might be certain factors working behind it. For instance, there could be lowering of entry barriers, which lead to loss in market power. (Beccalli, 2007, p.2229) Technology of Internet banking is changing pretty fast. Essentially the technologies in rural markets have been lagging behind and therefore community ban ks are slow in taking on this technology. For such banks cost of adoption of Internet banking itself might be expensive. Internet banking helps the banks to compete across a large spread of demography and facilitates the access of modern technology by the customers. Therefore community banks need to adopt such technologies in order to be at a competitive advantageous position. (Sullivan, 2000, pp.12-13) Internet has brought in a new wave of

Retail Management Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Retail Management Report - Essay Example The growing interest in Chinese and oriental culture including food has spawned a new era of Chinese/ oriental restaurants. China China is a restaurant that wants to offer Chinese cuisine to customers and therefore needs information about the sub industry on a variety of retail aspects. This retail audit will use collected data from a survey on Mandarin restaurant to propose effective marketing methods for China China Chinese restaurant based on the gathered social information. The recommendations will entail decisions on segmentation, location, product ranges, pricing, ambience at the restaurant, customer service, employees, and the necessary work force, a budget, and how the business is sustainable. The recommendations will also cover communications; and thereafter draw a conclusion based on the survey Company background China China is a restaurant business with the intention of establishing in the city of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. The company is entering into a fast growing retail ind ustry of Oriental and Chinese cuisine, which is becoming very popular. The owner of the business is a local with an eye for restaurant investments and no prior experience in Chinese restaurant cuisine. ... Objectives of the research The aims of this research is to establish the demographic trends for oriental Chinese cuisine customers, the nationalities frequenting these restaurants, the foods these customers prefer, what they spend on an average meal at a Chinese restaurant, frequency of visit to these restaurants, other Chinese restaurants they prefer and their overall satisfaction levels in terms of convenience, location and service. This information will be used to review the strengths of the sector, inherent weaknesses and threats, and how the market is segmented. This information will then be used to make recommendations and conclusions as regards pricing, advertising and promotion, merchandising, customer service, product offering, the sustainability if the business, where it should be located and the best regime for pricing. It will also recommend on what customer segments to target as customers; with justifications based on the research Research methodology The research was ap proached by utilizing a pragmatic research approach using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. A survey questionnaire was prepared taking into consideration the research objectives and sample size was decided by randomly selecting respondents. Random sampling was used because it gives every potential respondent a chance to be selected and ensures the data collected is not biased and therefore provides information that is fully representative of the population, contends Bradley (2007) The retail audit Market A market is the group of organizations or consumers that are interested in a product, are allowed by law or regulations to acquire the product, and are able to afford the product or