Artificial intelligence-driven predictive analytics and institutional performance in Gulf financial systems: Evidence from GCC financial institutions

This study investigates the Millennials and Gen Z perception toward Fintech services, their usage intention, and their financial behavior. The study took place in the Palestinian context with a global comparison among these generations. The authors used the questionnaire-based technique to meet the study objective. West Bank respondents were selected for this purpose; the study instrument was distributed through different social media channels. The findings show that reliability/trust and ease of use are the main issues in using a financial service. Millennials are more aware (48%) of Fintech services than Gen Z (38%), which is different from the global view where Gen Z is the highest. The smartphone penetration rate is 100% among both generations, while the financial inclusion ratio in Palestine is around 36.4%; these clear indicators are the main Fintech drivers to promote Fintech services in Palestine, and these are global indicators for Fintech adoption intention. Both generations (84%) intend to use e-wallet services, Millennials (87%) and Gen Z is (70%) prefer using real-time services. Half of the respondents see that Fintech plays a complementary role with banks. The majority see that Fintech services are cheaper than bank services. Wealth management, and robot advisor services, and both generations are looking to acquire them in the long run. The authors revealed that 85% of respondents from both generations trust banks, so it is recommended that banks digitize their financial services to meet the customers’ needs, considering that 90% of respondents see that promotions are a key issue in adopting Fintech services. Promoting e-wallet services by banks is highly recommended due to the massive rivalry with Fintech parties.

Sustainable growth and development can be the most important lesson that banks have learned in recent decades. Banks would gain many benefits, win the competition and develop sustainably if there have been more and more loyal customers. Customer satisfaction will help build customer loyalty. In order to have loyal customers, service quality must be good. Quality customer service of the bank is to ensure customer satisfaction and take their needs into consideration to improve service quality. High customer service quality will generate value not only to meet customer needs but also the expectations of customers and make banks more prominent than their competitors. This study identifies factors that affect customer satisfaction with the service quality at Vietnamese retail banks. The results are obtained by qualitative and quantitative method. The research model with a questionnaire consisting of 22 variables, 5 scales for a survey of 554 customers, is identified and developed through interviews with experts and group discussions. The findings show that customer satisfaction with the service quality at retail banks is influenced by “reliability”, “responsiveness”, “empathy”, “security”, and “tangibles”. Based on the findings, solutions for improving service quality are proposed for Vietnamese retail banks.

Risk management is one of the prominent issues which are pivotal to the success of a business and may adversely affect profitability if not properly practised. Therefore, the main objective of this paper was to determine risk management practices in manufacturing SMEs in Cape Town. The research conducted was quantitative in nature and constituted the collection of data from 74 SME leaders, all of whom had to adhere to a list of strict delineation criteria. All data collected were thoroughly analyzed through means of descriptive statistics. From the findings made, it is clear that SMEs in the manufacturing sector do in fact understand risk management initiatives applicable to ‘manage’ their respective businesses towards sustainability, but not to a large extent. It was found that respondents are unaware of the elements which make risk management effective, which ultimately aids to the development of problems for SMEs. All employees, managers and owners must coordinate their efforts together to identify and manage organizational risks within their ambit to obtain total risk coverage, as well as provide assurance that these risks are effectively managed from a coordinated approach. Further studies may be carried out to identify measures that can be taken to improve the effectiveness of risk management practices in SMEs.