A Good Reputation Must be Earned, But How? Examining the Role of Relationship Communication and Employee Skills in Retail Banking

This study examines relationship communication and employee skills as antecedents to corporate image and the latter’s relationship with corporate reputation. It also considers the mediating role of corporate image and moderating roles of customer characteristics, such as duration of support and customer spending. Using purposive and quota sampling, responses were collected from 352 customers of South African banks using a self-administered questionnaire. Mplus version 8.5 tested the direct effects proposed, while the indirect effects were tested with the Hayes Process macro for SPSS. The study assists emerging market banks to understand how corporate image influences corporate reputation perceptions, based upon the inclusion of selected corporate image antecedents. It also emphasizes the importance of duration of support and monthly spending in the relationships between corporate image and its selected antecedents.