Percepción de los usuarios sobre el sector financiero español tras la crisisanálisis de la situación con mapas cognitivos difusos

Laburpena

In recent times, the global financial landscape has experienced a global crisis that began in the USA and its effects have spread over the world. Specifically, although not as a direct consequence of the US crisis, Spain has also been shaken by a financial and, particularly, a banking crisis that has blurred the economic outlook from the highest levels of the economy to home economies. Since the financial crisis started in Spain in 2007, the concern for banking in general is growing. According to Alvarez (2008), there has been a crisis of trust in the financial sector in Spain. In addition, this crisis seems to have been a turning point in the perception that users have of banking. Pride and Ferrell (1982) define perception as a process in which the individuals select, organize and interpret the information they receive and create an image, which they can easily understand, of the world around them. Thus, in order to analyze the perception of users, it is necessary to answer questions such as: Are they satisfied? What variables would increase their degree of satisfaction? (Barrutia, 2002). To know the different components of the perception of the banking users, the banking system and its elements must be researched. Another important aspect is the technique to be applied for this study. In this case, we have chosen “Fuzzy Cognitive Maps”, a work methodology that gives qualitative information about changes in the behavior of a model (Ózesmi & Ózesmi, 2004), allowing the analysis of the dynamic qualitative system evolution (Curia & Lavalle, 2011). In addition, it allows predicting the final state of the system once its elements have interacted (Salmerón, 2010). Therefore, from our point of view, this work on the perception of users on the banking sector brings together several relevant factors. On the one hand, it delves into the treatment of a current issue such as the financial and banking crisis. Moreover, when studying perception, it deals with the relationships between user and bank, which seem to have changed after the crisis burst. A last important element is having applied a new technique called “Fuzzy Cognitive Maps” for the first time so as to carry out this type of studies opening new possibilities for similar researching. All these aspects make our study of interest to several groups. Firstly, for banking users because they will be able to know if their perception of banking is real and coincides with others1 perceptions, making them stronger in their demands or more aware of not being in the right path. Second, for user associations that will have a referent to focus their work on. Also, for banks because they will find out what they can improve or maintain so that their relationship with their clients is as productive as possible. Finally, all this will serve to find a meeting point between user and banking expectations. This study aims to make a diagnosis of how the user perceives the bank and what the determining factors of that perception are. To do this, the specific questions to be investigated throughout our research have been the factors that come to the consumer’s mind if we mention the banking sector, the outputs we would get in consumers’ perception by changing the values of those factors and how we can improve it According to the questions researched, we are providing contributions to have a better customer-hanking relationship. We are showing those factors that determine consumers' perception of the hanking sector, by studying some scenarios in order to get to know the future perception of consumers by modifying some of the previous factors and making proposals to improve that perception.