Professor Les Johnson
Les Johnson is a Professor of Marketing at MBS.
During more than 35 years in teaching, Les has consulted to many public and private sector organisations, mainly in marketing research and customer satisfaction measurement. He is the editor of a number of marketing and service-industry journals and was recently elected one of three inaugural Fellows of the Australian New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC).
One of Professor Johnson’s research interests is Macromarketing - a sub-field of marketing which focuses on the relationship with the consumer and consumer-wellbeing.
In his latest research project, Les and colleagues from La Trobe University in Victoria investigated whether there was any link between the existence of a community bank in a town, or in a location, and the local people's 'sense of community' and quality of life.
Focusing on one successful community bank franchise (Bendigo Bank), the researchers conducted a national survey to find out how people felt about the overall sense of community in their town or region in general. Respondents were then asked to rate the effect their bank had on aspects of community development, sense of spirit and level of support for the individuals of the town.
"Results suggest that community bank people perceived a far greater contribution relative to the other banks to the sense of community", Professor Johnson explains. "This doesn't mean that conventional banks retract from sense of community, but relative to the community banks, they don't look very good”.
Professor Johnson says part of the reason why community banks are so successful in this area is due to the cooperative nature of their ownership and organisational structure.
"Community Banks are established with direct financial support from the local communities they serve, with locals holding a direct shareholding interest. The community provides the capital while the bank provides the licence and banking service. And, as part of the structure of the agreement, part of the profit of the bank goes into community affairs of some type, sports grounds, etc."
Professor Johnson and colleagues suggest that this innovative business model can also be adopted by other community-based service businesses. But further research into this is still to be undertaken.
"The net result is that so far we’ve been able to demonstrate that community banks really do foster a sense of community. But this is only the first step. What we’d like to be able to do is look in much more detail at how they do it. What mechanisms are used and how can other businesses apply the same approach?"
The results of the initial study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Macromarketing ('Developing a Quality of Life Measure To Assess the Impact of Community Services').
A copy of the unpublished paper is available upon request. Email alumni@mbs.edu.
Resources:
'Developing a Quality of Life Measure To Assess the Impact of Community Services:
The Case of Australian Community Banks'
Forthcoming Issues of the Journal of Macromarketing
Special Issue on Consumer Well Being
Bryne, G., Rogers, M., Jobling, E, Walker, R.H and Johnson, L.W (2005) 'Community banks in Australia: an innovative approach to social and economic wealth creation?', Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Vol.5, Nos. 5/6, pp.495-507.
