The Competitiveness Creation Strategy of Islamic Banking

"Objective � The development of Islamic banks in Indonesia requires a new strategy. The size of the population of Indonesia is a potential market for Islamic banks to target religious and non-religious customers and implement quality innovation to create value-based services to support the competitiveness of regional economies. This may improve the standard and quality of living. Specifically, this study investigated the influence of Islamic banking service quality dimensions to consumer satisfaction, word-of-mouth communication and loyalty. Methodology/Technique � This study was conducted in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, which is an Indonesian province that has a fairly a rapid rate of development of Islamic banking. The study focused on 191 people. Data collection was done by observation and interviews using questionnaires. Findings � Using Partial Least Squares, the results demonstrates the effects of variable compliance, empathy, and value proposition quality on overall satisfaction. This showed that overall satisfaction influences word-of-mouth communication and loyalty. This indicates that both the religious market consumers and the floating market consumers desire the establishment of a strong emotional bond between the Islamic bank, customers and shareholders that are developed together in the face of business risks and share profits fairly and honestly, in accordance with the principles of Islamic law. Furthermore, they want employees to be more empathetic and respond individually to customers. Novelty � The study suggest that a strategy be created in relation to competitiveness in Islamic banking in Banjarmasin to improve the quality of service-based value, and to increase the cultivation of religious customers as well as penetrating the floating market segment."