Recognition and ranking of customer financing methods in international trade: An approach to customers’ satisfaction in the Export Development Bank of Iran

One of the most important events in the present era is the rapid development of international trade and the presence of countries in different areas of international trade. This issue has posed various new challenges for countries in recent years. Management of these challenges has mostly been done with the intention to achieve two objectives of economic development and promotion to different areas of international economics and global trade. Nowadays, getting customers’ satisfaction is one of the most important principles in the competition among customer-oriented organizations because customers are the main motive for commercial organizations which seek major improvements for progress. Therefore, in this kind of market-based economy, banking system which is thought as one of the main constituents of the economy of every country and bears great responsibilities is not an exception to the above-mentioned principle. The purpose of this study was recognizing and ranking of customer’s financing methods in international trade with an approach to customers’ satisfaction. To achieve this purpose, the research questions were tested in a descriptive method of survey type. The statistical population of this study consisted of all the staff working in all branches of the Export Development Bank of Iran. The sample of the study which was selected according to cluster random sampling method consisted of 217 staff of the Export Development Bank. The data gathering instrument for this study was a questionnaire including 16 questions with a reliability of 0.85. According to the findings, the indexes of open account, prepayment, letter of credit, and documentary collection are considered as customer financing methods in international trade. Based on the ranking presented by the method of TOPSIS, open account and prepayment had the respective higher ranks at the traditional payment system and letter of credit and documentary collection took priority over other options in modern payment system.