Julia Haug

Julia Haug is a bachelor student in Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz. In her studies, she is focusing on sustainable management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and the interplay between politics and the economy.
As part of her Bachelor thesis, Julia investigated which bank features and characteristics represent the greatest benefit for customers and thus influence their choice of a bank, and furthermore, what influence does the aspect of morality have on this.
She conducted a choice-based conjoint analysis with a sample of 242 participants from German-speaking countries. The results indicate that the account management fee is the most important feature for the total sample. If the individual moral-based segments are considered, the account management fee is also the most important feature for the low-moral-awareness segment, whereas the high-moral-awareness segment attributes the highest importance to the investment criteria of a bank. However, an attitude-behaviour-gap can be identified based on the question about the current bank of the respondents, as only seven out of 242 participants stated that they are with an ethical bank, although more than 18 times as many respondents are in the high-moral-awareness segment.
The utility part worth for 5 € and 8 € account maintenance fee allow the conclusion that morally conscious participants partly accepted higher fees in order to be able to select more ethical characteristics of the other features. It shows that customers are increasingly interested in more ethical forms of banking and also perceive them as more important. Nevertheless, the cost factor still holds the greatest potential for a shift away from the actually more moral attitude.