Customer CSR expectations in the banking industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine customer corporate social responsibility (CSR) expectations in the crisis context of the Spanish banking industry. The paper also takes into consideration the role that corporate governance structure plays in customer CSR expectations. Design/methodology/approach – Analysing 648 customers of savings banks and 476 customers of commercial banks, several univariate statistics and two cluster analyses are implemented. Findings – The authors identify significantly consistent patterns in the CSR expectations of savings banks and commercial banks customers. The customers of both types of banking companies have similar high expectations concerning the CSR oriented to customers, shareholders and supervising boards, employees, the community and legal and ethical CSR. Also customers of both types of banking companies can be consistently classified as customer oriented, legally (customer)-oriented and CSR-oriented customers depending on their CSR expectations. Practical implications – These results have interesting implications for managers because it allows them to develop optimal CSR based on their customers’ expectations. In this regard, it is observed that the CSR expectations of savings banks and commercial banks customers are quite homogeneous in such a way that the traditional differentiation in the CSR implemented by savings banks and commercial banks may be no longer justified. Originality/value – Previous scholars who have analysed customer CSR expectations have not studied them in a crisis context. This paper contributes to literature by proposing new managerial strategies for companies facing a product or corporate crisis. Scholars studying customer CSR expectations in the banking industry have not considered the role of corporate governance structure either. This paper provides detailed information about the CSR expectations of savings banks customers and commercial banks customers.