Evaluating The Quality Of Banking Services For Smes Internationalization: A Study In Italy

The bank is a fundamental supportive partner for companies to grow and compete in international markets. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the quality of services provided by banks in support of SMEs internationalization according to the customers’ perspective. The Kano model has been applied to assess the customer satisfaction of 50 SMEs in Italy with the services provided by banks in in support of their internationalization. Collected data have been analyzed applying the continuous and discrete method. The results allow identifying the supportive banking services for internationalization that generate the highest level of customer satisfaction when provided and of customer dissatisfaction when not provided. This work offers bank managers an overall view of the importance of various bank’s services for internationalization suggesting which services should be enhanced because fundamentals and which ones should be abandoned without affecting customer satisfaction. Previous works on the topic focus on the transfer of funding for international activities. This work goes beyond the bank's vision as a mere financial partner and considers it as a value co-creator that supports the company during its expansion abroad, by not only offering financial support but also integrating its missing competences and knowledge.