Financial firms’ social activities and how they influence their customers’ preference structure

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance that customers give to social investment activities in their region when selecting a financial entity compared to other features directly related to the service that these institutions provide, namely the origin, the treatment by employees, office location and electronic banking services. Design/methodology/approach - – The technique of conjoint analysis is applied via a survey of 427 customers to determine customers’ preference structure when choosing a financial entity. Findings - – The results show the importance that customers give to the financial entities’ social activities carried out in the region. Moreover, a buyer segment representing 35 per cent of the sample was identified that assigns greater value to these social activities than to the average customer. Originality/value - – The development of corporate social responsibility policies has been a common practice in Spain’s financial sector. However, there is a lack of studies focused on analysing the impact of these policies on customers’ decisions. The authors test this idea by proposing that social initiatives carried out by financial entities strongly influence the preferences of consumers towards these banks compared to other attributes.