The Role of Business and Friendships on WeChat Business: An Emerging Business Model in China

ABSTRACT

WeChat business is an emerging way of doing business in China, which can be considered as a marriage between traditional e-business and social networking communications. In WeChat business, firms have developed customer relationships along two distinct ways: business relationships and friendships. However, research on the combination of business relationships and friendships is relatively nascent, and there are contradictory findings. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of the two relationship strategies using data from a field experiment through the WeChat platform by an apparel firm. Results from the field experiment suggest that development of friendships with new customers can help the strategy of developing business relationships; but developing friendships and business relationships with experienced customers negates each other. The study contributes to the literature on relationship marketing and role theory, and helps WeChat managers clarify how new social networking relationships with customers can be effectively leveraged.     

Customer relationship management in retailing: A content analysis of retail trade journals

The purpose of this research was to increase knowledge and understanding of how retailers use business intelligence and data mining tools to implement customer relationship management (CRM) in retailing. Specific objectives were to (1) identify organization and infrastructure requirements for CRM effectiveness, (2) identify CRM objectives and goals of retail companies, (3) identify data mining tools utilized by retailers to perform CRM functions, and (4) identify CRM strategies used by retail companies. A keyword search within business databases using CRM and CRM identified publications with CRM content. Content analysis was used on articles (N=149) drawn from Stores, Chain Store Age, Harvard Business Review, and Retail Forward over a 5 year period (2000–2005). Selected articles were stored as text files in QDA Miner, a computerized qualitative analysis tool. Key organization/infrastructure needs emerged focusing on data structure, organizational systems, technology structure, and data accessibility. Retailers goals/objectives and strategies focused on marketing, customer service, understanding customers through data analysis and increasing acquisition and retention through customer loyalty programs. Data mining tools identified supported marketing and customer analysis efforts. Findings provide insight into the challenges retailers face as they implement a more customer-centric business strategy.     

Examining the Relationship Marketing,Marketing Productivity Paradigm

Abstract

The authors examine the relationship marketing research literature and identify three schools of thought regarding relationship marketing. The Inter-organizational, customer relationship, and customer valuation research perspectives are described and representative studies are discussed. The predominant conceptual approaches to marketing productivity in the research literature are identified and described. The shareholder value model of Srivastava, Shervani, and Fahey (1998) is selected as the most useful conceptual framework linking relationship marketing and marketing productivity. The linking constructs of customer equity and brand equity are identified as the critical conceptual connections between relationship marketing and marketing productivity. A research agenda is suggested, covering both conceptual and operational issues for further development of both relationship marketing and marketing productivity.     

Impact of Traditional Chinese Culture on Business-to-Business Relationship Marketing and Service Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This work addresses the mixed findings in relationship marketing studies regarding the importance of traditional culture-level (i.e., interpersonal) relationships on service firm outcomes.

Methodology/approach: This article leverages customer relationship marketing (CRM) theory to advance a framework for understanding the causal relationship between the Chinese cultural worldview and relationship marketing in order to better predict firm performance.

Findings: The author suggests that five major Chinese cultural characteristics—iren-qing, wa-pao, mianzi, chaxu-geju, and collectivism—can qualify the business-to-business (B-to-B) relationship building process and impact the effectiveness of interpersonal and/or group relationships on service firm outcomes.

Research implications: The study’s framework suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics, universal concepts manifest in the activities of Chinese society and organizations, have a positive effect on customer relationship marketing. Chinese culture characteristics can be used to generate excellent relationships with customers and thus create a consumer preference for certain companies and drive service marketing repurchase.

Originality/value/contribution: This study’s theoretical framework (a) distinguishes between Chinese cultural characteristic and relationship marketing relationships; (b) suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics and customer relationship marketing have a positive and substantial effect on service firm performance and that Chinese cultural characteristics are related to customer relationship marketing in their effect on service firm performance; and (c) provides managerially relevant guidelines for strategic sales planning.     

Determining Relationship Quality in the Development of Business-to-Business Financial Services

ABSTRACT

The quality of relationships built with customers during the New Service Development (NSD) process is a current concern of researchers in relationship marketing (and NSD) and is particularly important in a highly competitive environment characterised by rapidly changing customer needs like the one of financial services. The primary relationship analyzed in relationship marketing is the one between seller and buyer, but the focal type of relationship for new product and service development is the one termed “the knowledge relationship” (Gummesson 2002), a relationship used to create knowledge. This paper reports the results of in depth qualitative research on the factors that impact on the quality of such relationships developed between new service developers and their customers during the NSD process of business-to-business financial services. Results show that the most important factors that affect relationship quality are: communication quality of the relationship; the development of strong relationship bonds; the quality of relationship partners; a strong customer orientation in NSD based on a proactive approach of relationship partners during the NSD process, and proficiency in knowledge brokering.     

A Stakeholder Perspective on Relationship Marketing

Abstract

This paper proposes a broad framework of relationship marketing using the stakeholder approach. Drawing from Peck et al. (1999) framework and proposing several modifications, the authors identify the following relational groups-supplier markets, customer markets (channels), customer markets (end users), competitor markets, external influence markets, and internal markets. The growing importance of strategic alliances is reflected in all constituent groups as well as in a proposed modification of the Berry and Parasuraman (1991) levels of relationships. This paper also re-examines the strategic role of the traditional marketing mix strategies (namely, product, price, place, and promotion) in the new relationship paradigm. Finally, implementation strategies for the stakeholder markets, in general, and customer markets, in particular, are proposed. Several propositions are derived throughout the paper, many of which can be fertile areas for future research investigations.     

Enriching Customer Value Research with a Relational Perspective

Abstract

Much of the research on customer perceived value in marketing has been guided by a transactional view, in which determinants of value perceptions are studied with a focus on discrete transactions rather than recurring exchange relationships. Using data collected from a survey of organizational buyers, we found that perceptions of both relational benefits and relational costs significantly influence organizational buyers' perceived value. These effects remained significant when compared with those of perceived episodic benefits and costs. Our research underscores the need for a relational perspective of customer perceived value, whereby both episodic and relational antecedents of value should be accounted for and influenced by elements of the marketing mix.     

Segmentation based on customer profitability — retrospective analysis of retail bank customer bases

Segmentation continues to be an important marketing concept also in a relationship marketing context. Relationship marketing is, however, more interested in enhancing the existing customer relationships and this generates a need for a better understanding of the existing customer base. The paper argues that “retrospective” or historical analyses, that facilitate the calculation of customer relationship profitability, form an excellent starting point for segmentation of customer bases. Such segmentation is shown to be a strong analytical instrument as a basis for formulating marketing strategies. By using empirical data collected from two extensive case studies of retail banks in the Nordic countries the paper illustrates different ways of segmenting customer bases.     

The role of customer gratitude in making relationship marketing investments successful

This paper recognises that customer loyalty is important for many competitive organisations, and that retail firms make investments to build and maintain loyal relationships with their existing and potential customers (e.g. loyalty programs). However, there has been little focus on the mechanisms by which these relationship investments operate to achieve customer loyalty. This paper examines one mechanism, namely customer gratitude, which works to make a firm’s relationship marketing investment a success or a failure. Using data from 1600 undergraduate students, this study empirically confirms the mediating role of customer gratitude between the customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customers’ perceptions of the value of the relationship with the firm. Further, a significant moderating effect of perceived benevolence on the relationship between customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customer gratitude was identified. For theorists, this customer gratitude model offers a better psychological explanation of how relationship marketing investments operate to improve the value that customers place on their relationships with retailers. Our research suggests that managers should invest resources to stimulate customer gratitude in order to build strong customer–seller relationships.     

Customer Valuation as a Driver of Relationship Dissolution Sabrina Helm Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet,Germany

Abstract

As all customers are not created equal (Hallberg & Ogilvy, 1995), the different contributions of customers to a supplier's goals have to be evaluated to grant efficient relationship marketing. Furthermore, a handling system has to be developed for unprofitable customer relationships. This is a hitherto neglected field, as marketing researchers and practitioners are generally rather interested in attaining and keeping customers, not in the ending of relationships. The article aims at integrating the concepts of customer equity and profitability with approaches of relationship dissolution, which have recently emerged in the literature. Different aspects of calculating the value of customer relationships and value-based criteria that focus on monetary and non-monetary components of a customer's value are discussed. In an exploratory study undertaken in the German mechanical engineering industry, the relevance of customer valuation to dissolution decisions is analyzed.     

Logistics Service Providers and Their Customers: Gaining Commitment Through Organizational Implants

The current research examines the following question: how can on‐site representatives (i.e., organizational implants) be used to generate greater interorganizational relationship commitment? The relationship marketing literature explores many facets of interorganizational relationships and commitment, but until now, it has not considered the colocation of employees from separate firms. Dyadic survey data were collected from logistics service providers (LSPs) and their customers. The paired dyads were then analyzed using path analysis. Results indicate that organizational implantation can lead to greater levels of outcome interdependence between the organizations, which can then generate greater levels of commitment from the LSP toward the customer. Results also suggest that organizational implantation can lead to greater levels of relational capital and responsiveness, which is shown to generate greater levels of commitment from the customer toward the LSP.     

An integrative approach to relationship marketing,customer value,and customer outcomes in the retail banking industry: a customer-based perspective from Turkey

Given how important it is to provide superior value to customers and to maintain customer loyalty for a sustainable competitive advantage, the aim of this paper is to examine the relationships among relationship marketing components of – trust, competency, commitment, communication, and conflict handling, – relationship investment, relationship quality, perceived customer value, satisfaction and loyalty in an integrated framework in the Turkish retail banking industry. Unlike previous studies, this research extends the literature by analysing affective as well as cognitive dimensions in the same model with a holistic view by simultaneously examining the direct and indirect effects of the related concepts. The distinctive nature of this study is its evaluation of customer satisfaction and loyalty from the perspective of actual consumers. The research model was tested using data collected from 685 retail banking customers by applying structural equation modelling. The findings show that relationship marketing induces loyalty through relationship quality, customer value, and satisfaction, which are mainly provided by trust, communication, and relationship investment. Furthermore, relationship investment and relationship quality are the most important factors in the development of customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty. The emotional value dimension, which captures the affective aspects of perceived value, has the strongest effect on both satisfaction and loyalty.     

Country Effects on CRM Success

Abstract

Customer relationship management (CRM) adoption is growing at a dramatic pace in firms and is significantly impacting customer and business market behaviors. As a result, most firms have started developing and implementing CRM strategies. However, country effects on CRM strategy outcomes in international environments have not been discussed and are the focus of this paper. In this paper, we examine the impacts of marketing infrastructure and marketing institutions on the development of CRM strategies and success in the implementation of such strategies. Our framework has utility in understanding the impacts of country-specific factors in the outcomes of CRM Strategy.     

Marketing Innovativeness on Marketing Performance: Role of Religio-Centric Relational Marketing Strategy

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study aimed at investigating the effect of marketing innovativeness, market sensing capabilities and customer relationship management on marketing performance. The researchers tried to develop and solve the problem of the gap between marketing innovativeness and marketing performance. The respondents of this study were 318. Some of them are leaders or owners of SMEs Muslim fashion in Central Java, Indonesia. Data was analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study show that marketing innovativeness (MI) has no significant effect on marketing performance (MP), while market sensing capabilities (MSC) and Customer Relationship Management Capabilities (CRMC) have a significant effect on marketing performance. Likewise, marketing innovativeness, market sensing capabilities, and CRM capabilities have a significant effect on the religio-centric relational marketing strategy. Furthermore, religio-centric relational marketing strategy (RRMS) is able to mediate the relationship between marketing innovativeness and marketing performance.     

Customer Orientation of Service Employees—Toward a Conceptual Framework of a Key Relationship Marketing Construct

Abstract

Although customer orientation is a core element of the marketing concept and is especially crucial to the concept of relationship marketing, no widely accepted conceptualization of the construct exists. In the context of service organizations, the fulfillment of customer needs and wishes by customer-contact employeescan be seen as crucial for gaining a high degree of customer orientation. This paper develops a conceptualization of service employee customer orientation which is presented as a three-dimensional construct, the interrelated dimensions being the employee's motivation to serve customers, his or her customer-oriented skills, and his or her self-perceived decision-making authority. Implications are drawn out for relationship marketing of services organizations and relationship marketing theory.     

The Influence of Customer Relationship Marketing Strategies on Supply Chain Relationships: The Moderating Effects of Environmental Uncertainty and Competitive Rivalry

Purpose: A firm's customer relationship marketing strategy also may affect its attitudinal loyalty toward its main supplier. Furthermore, environmental uncertainty and competitive rivalry could moderate this relationship. This research investigates both questions.

Methodology/Approach: The empirical study involves a structured survey of 141 industrial firms. A structural equation technique with EQS 6.1 estimated the causal model. Multi-sample analysis revealed whether environmental uncertainty and/or competitive rivalry act as moderators.

Findings: The influence of customer relationship marketing on attitudinal loyalty toward the main supplier is positive but indirect, working through effective communication, satisfaction, and trust. However, when environmental uncertainty is high, the negative direct effect becomes significantly more intense, and when competitive rivalry is high, the positive indirect effect through satisfaction and trust is less intense.

Originality/Value: This study explores potential new paths in the relationship marketing field. Most scholars focus on the influence of a firm's relationship marketing strategy on customers' loyalty, but no previous works consider its potential influence on the firm's relationship with other partners in the supply chain, notably its strategic suppliers.

Research Implications: Structured academic research on this topic is lacking, even though many firms have implemented customer relationship programs. Supply-side researchers must evaluate the effects of such programs. Furthermore, this study combines different theoretical approaches.

Practical Implications: Practitioners can use the findings to segment their customer base and develop specific programs adapted to each target.     

Pre-Production Relationship Marketing

Abstract

The benefits of relationship marketing and customer relationship management have been well documented in the marketing literature and in business practice. Relationship marketing instruments (RMIs) are specific methods that can help bring about those benefits. The authors describe a unique type of RMI, one that can be used prior to product or service production. Designed to market season tickets for new or remodeled professional football stadiums before the stadium is built, Permanent Seat Licensing has been used effectively over the past decade for nine National Football League teams. The authors propose that this type of pre-production RMI has possible application for marketers of other products and services .     

Complaints-handling processes and organisational benefits: An ISO 10002-based investigation

Abstract

Benchmarking data provided by 144 organisations across four industry sectors are consolidated and mined to generate insights into the relationship between complaints-handling processes, as defined in ISO 10002, the International Standard for Complaints Handling, and a number of marketing-related outcomes. Factor analysis of the 17 complaints-handling process variables yields five factors accounting for 62.6% of the overall variance. The most important factors are: visibility and accessibility of the complaints-handling policy and process; easy-to-use process for all complainants; and responsiveness of the complaints-handling process. Collectively these factors account for 24% of the variance in the desired marketing-related outcomes, most notably levels of customer advocacy and customer satisfaction. Although there have been a number of empirical investigations of International Standards, this is the first empirical study to investigate the influence of ISO 10002-conformant complaints-handling processes on marketing-related and broader outcomes. We conclude that complaints-handling processes that conform to ISO 10002 can yield significant marketing-related benefits, and we make recommendations for marketing practitioners.     

关系维持对顾客与自助服务技术关系构建倾向的影响

近年来,大数据、互联网、人工智能的应用推动了自助服务技术的快速发展,传统的顾客与服务人员的互动越来越多地转变为顾客与自助服务技术的互动。能否依靠顾客与自助服务技术的关系促进顾客持续使用,已经成为自助服务营销成败的关键。为阐明自助服务关系维持策略对顾客构建关系倾向影响的作用机制,基于社会交换理论和关系营销理论,以旅游网站为研究对象,选取536名在线自助游顾客作为被试进行实证研究。研究发现,旅游网站资源互补性、服务质量、新颖性的相互作用构成关系维持策略,关系投资和关系质量是关系维持策略对顾客构建关系倾向影响的完全中介变量。因此,旅游网站为更好地与顾客构建关系,一要注重关系维持策略在顾客关系管理中的应用,注重资源互补性、服务质量、新颖性等使用价值的增强与完善,这是促使顾客持续使用网站旅游服务资源的核心与关键;二要注重关系维持策略的整体性和系统性,从提供完整服务包的角度出发,对资源互补性、服务质量和新颖性进行运营管理,传统网站新服务项目的开发以及新兴网站旅游资源的建设已经成为目前旅游网站吸引顾客的关键;三要注重关系维持策略的营销,将营销宣传的关注点从形象宣传转向功能宣传,通过加强顾客对关系维持策略中资源互补性、服务质量和新颖性的功能认知,增强顾客对旅游网站关系投资和关系质量的感知,进而提高顾客与旅游网站构建关系的倾向。