The antecedents of relationship commitment in the management of relationships in business-to-business (B2B) financial services

The importance of commitment in the management of long-term marketing relationships is well accepted in the marketing literature. There is, however, uncertainty regarding the antecedents of relationship commitment. The study on which this paper is based focused on four possible antecedents of relationship commitment, namely trust, communication, shared values and attractiveness of alternatives.

The study was conducted in the South African business-to-business (B2B) financial services industry. A web-based approach was used to survey 300 relationship managers, while data from 400 B2B clients were collected using a telephone survey. The relationship-manager data were analysed with regression analysis, while structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the client data.

The uniqueness of the study is the simultaneous consideration of the perceptions of both relationship managers and clients. As far as could be ascertained, a study of this nature has not yet been conducted in the B2B financial services industry. Based on the perceptions of both relationship managers and clients, the contribution of this study is the confirmation of the important roles of trust, communication, shared values and attractiveness of alternatives in the management of commitment to a relationship from both a customer and a provider perspective.     

If the Supplier's Human Capital Walks Away,Where Would the Customer Go?

Purpose: Professional service firms' clients often develop stronger attachments to their key contact employee than to the service firm. Since professionals are highly mobile, buyers of professional business services constantly have to decide whether to follow their key contact employee or remain with their incumbent firm, while service firms face the threat of losing customers if the employee leaves. This study examines how the key contact employee's human capital, the social capital between the contact employee and the client, and the service company's structural capital affect the decision whether to follow the key contact employee to another professional service firm.

Methodology/approach: The model is tested on a sample of 120 organizational buyers of advertising services by using partial last squares, a structural equation modelling technique.

Findings: Professional service firms' investments in company-specific structural capital create a deterrent for clients to follow the contact employee, because remaining with the service firm will increase clients' return on the service providers' structural capital. Furthermore, higher levels of structural capital reduce the value of the contact employee's investments in human capital should the employee leave. Conversely, human capital creates motivation to follow the contact employee, while social capital only provides value in combination with human capital.

Research implications: This study employs concepts developed in economics and economic sociology rather than relationship marketing variables to examine attachments to individual professional service providers and to professional service firms.

Practical implications: The findings underline the importance of competence, both at the company and individual level, for retaining clients of professional services. These results contrast previous studies emphasizing close interpersonal relationships and service firms' relationship-building activities.

Originality/value/contribution: Human, social, and structural capital provide value to clients and therefore apply well to professional services. Hence, these variables provide alternative explanations to service firms' client retention or desertion than traditional relationship marketing variables do. The findings add to our understanding of service provider–client relationships in professional services and knowledge intensive firms.     

The Effects of Relationship Marketing on Share of Business: A Synthesis and Comparison of Models

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The article synthesizes the extensive empirical work on relationship marketing (RM) and compares the various conceptualizations to give a better understanding of the relational factors (i.e., characteristics of the business relationship) that improve a seller’s objective performance (i.e., share of business) in a business-to-business (B2B) services context. These conceptualizations, taken from the literature, link relational antecedents (i.e., communication, domain expertise, relational value, and mutual goals) to relational mediators (i.e., trust, satisfaction, commitment, relationship quality) to explore how they in turn affect a seller’s share of business.

Methodology/approach: All 4 models derived from the literature review were assessed using a dataset drawn from a survey of 948 client firm representatives of a Portuguese hotel chain in a B2B services context.

Findings: The best of the models in terms of model fit and prediction of share of business shows that only customer commitment directly drives a seller’s share of business, and simultaneous interrelated changes in customer trust and satisfaction, as well as customer perceptions of relational value, drive customer commitment, and so exert indirect effects on performance. The model that proposes that a seller’s performance is strengthened by simultaneous interrelated improvements in customer trust, satisfaction, and commitment (i.e., with these three mediators being conceptualized as a single, combined, higher-order mediator, termed relationship quality [RQ]) shows inferior fit. No combination of mediators (satisfaction, trust, or commitment) improves the seller’s objective performance over and above their individual effects (i.e., there are no synergistic effects).

Research implications: The literature review suggested four ways of modeling RM antecedents, mediators, and their effect on performance. Complex second-order constructs such as RQ lack explanatory power when predicting outcomes and mask the effects of individual relational mediators. Correct conceptualization is important, as conclusions vary drastically even with the same set of relational mediators and same dataset.

Practical implications: B2B service providers’ investments in RM will lead to improved share of business only if customer commitment is high or there is at least the potential to improve it. This requires an understanding of how valuable

the customer believes the relationship to be, and how the customer rates the relationship with the firm in terms of satisfaction and trust. A customer segmentation approach to relationship building and maintenance is advocated and detailed suggestions are put forward.

Originality/value/contribution: Apart from the work by Palmatier, the relationships between RM antecedents and mediators have not yet been examined simultaneously and findings are fragmented. The article provides a synthesis of this expansive literature. It contrasts different interplays between RM mediators, including their interrelationships as a higher-order construct, and explores possible synergy effects. Unlike previous work, this study focused on an objective measure of seller performance (i.e., share of business), whereas previous studies have tended to examine subjective measures, especially within the B2B context. Furthermore, four full models were assessed here, each of which included the antecedents to RM mediators and their links to objective performance.     

Determinants of Client Expectations for Accounting Services

Abstract

As the market for accounting services becomes more competitive, accounting service providers must strive to continually improve service quality to attract new clients and retain existing clients. Client expectations provide a benchmark that must be met or exceeded for the client to perceive that high quality services have been delivered (Ades 1988; Aquila and Koltin 1992). Based on a review of accounting and service marketing literature, this paper developed a conceptual model that identified potential determinants of client expectations for accounting services. Hypotheses derived from this model were empirically tested using LISREL on survey data from 196 households.

The results of our analysis indicated that client satisfaction with prior services, prior service quality, word-of-mouth communication, and price were significantly related to accounting firm image. Firm image, in turn, was significantly related to client expectations for future accounting services. Importantly, several variables from the service marketing literature were not supported with our sample of accounting service clients. Hence, these results identify the critical determinants of client expectations for accounting services, provide insight into the expectation formulation process for accounting service clients, and offer guidance to accounting service providers who may wish to influence clients' expectations.     

Customer Loyalty in Clusters: Perceived Value and Satisfaction as Antecedents

Purpose: This article studies, from the perspective of relationship marketing, the loyalty behavior of industrial customers in the context of an industrial cluster. Loyalty is a key variable for studying long-term relationships between firms.

Research implications: Recent advances in consumer and services marketing consider that perceived value and satisfaction are central to explaining customer loyalty. However, very few business-to-business (B2B) studies explain the antecedents of customer loyalty, where perceived value acquires a multidimensional perspective. This study adopts the relationship marketing approach, and loyalty behavior is analyzed in a specific setting: an industrial cluster. Furthermore, the effect of the number of suppliers is analyzed as a possible moderator in the relationships of the model.

Methodology approach: We have chosen the Spanish tile cluster to test a series of hypotheses. Questionnaires were elaborated from primary and secondary information and structural equation models (SEM) have been used for statistical treatment and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Findings: This study highlights the importance of the relationships among perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty and the importance of the different dimensions of perceived value.

Practical implications: The empirical study and the results provide important evidence for managers, specifically, the critical influence of the emotional and social perceived values by the customer on his or her level of satisfaction and on the achievement of final loyalty—the importance in the commercial training programs of this matters.

Originality, value, and contribution: This study highlights the importance of the most intangibles dimensions of value for the industrial cluster relations between companies.     

Key drivers of services website loyalty

The ease of website comparison and strong price competition encourage users to constantly switch tourism service providers. The present work analyses how satisfaction, trust, and commitment can help to strengthen loyalty towards websites selling accommodation services. Moreover, special attention is paid here to evaluate the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between these variables. Structural equation models were used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 230 Mexican Internet users, online purchasers of tourist accommodation services. The results show significant differences between men and women's post-purchase behaviour with a higher influence in women of trust on commitment and of commitment on loyalty towards accommodation services websites. Managerial implications for accommodation websites are provided.     

The Precursor Role of Cooperation,Coordination, and Relationship Assets in a Relationship Model

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to test the importance of activity-oriented precursors in a relationship model. This study supports the theoretical view that firms create trust and knowledge through activities and these activities make a commitment decision less risky (Johanson & Vahlne, 2009). The secondary purpose of this study is to collect and examine data from interorganizational relationships in both Sweden and the United States. By including data from two countries, results will be more generalizable. Results can also lead to several managerial implications.

Methodology/approach: This study focuses on a sample of distributors from both the United States and Sweden. One hundred sixty-one usable surveys were returned from the U.S. survey, for a response rate of 27%. One hundred twenty-four usable surveys were returned from the Swedish survey, for a response rate of 21%. The PLS-SEM method was used to examine the model’s constructs.

Findings: Similar to past research results show that trust and commitment have a direct positive influence on satisfaction, and that trust also has a direct positive influence on commitment. However, this study uniquely supports four out of six newly tested hypotheses. Both cooperation and relationship assets have a direct positive influence on commitment. Cooperation has a direct positive influence on trust and commitment. Relationship assets have a direct negative influence on trust but a direct positive influence on commitment. Surprisingly, two hypotheses were not supported: Coordination did not have a significant relationship with either trust or commitment.

Research implications: Managers who want to achieve a satisfactory relationship based on trust and commitment need to prioritize their attention toward cooperation. They should also be aware that participation in joint activities (i.e., coordination and relationship investments) does not guarantee higher levels of trust or commitment in the relationship. It is the quality of the joint activities and the how dependent firms are on each other and not just participation in joint activities that are likely to create higher levels of trust or commitment. The quality of coordination and manageable levels of dependence may counteract the higher costs associated with joint activities compared to the costs associated with cooperation. Managers may be wise to not make major commitments to other firms unless high quality joint activities have created knowledge and trust between firms. Originality/value/contribution: The model adds the joint activity-oriented antecedents associated with collaboration which is essential to a successful relationship. Because of the high failure rate of collaboration may be due to cooperation and coordination failures and because these two constructs are underspecified in interorganizational research, this study is unique in examining activity-oriented antecedents in a trust/commitment model of relationship satisfaction in a cross-cultural context (i.e., with U.S. and Swedish samples).     

Surprendre positivement les clients : une tactique en marketing relationnel pour développer un avantage concurrentiel dans le secteur des services financiers

The turbulent environment in which financial institutions evolve motivates strategic thinking aimed at competitive advantage. Drawing from the literature on relationship marketing, one potentially successful strategy at the level of front line service is for financial advisors to behave in a pleasantly surprising way toward their clients (e.g., acknowledging a family member's birthday; covering a parking expense; giving tickets to an entertainment venue). We examine both antecedents and consequences of clients' perceptions of their advisors behaving in a pleasantly surprising way toward them. Antecedents included advisors' customer orientation, knowledge of client, and sense of humour. Consequences included clients' trust, satisfaction, purchase intentions, and word‐of‐mouth intentions. Several strategic recommendations and research avenues following from these findings are offered. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pleasantly surprising clients: a tactic in relationship marketing for building competitive advantage in the financial services sector

The turbulent environment in which financial institutions evolve motivates strategic thinking aimed at competitive advantage. Drawing from the literature on relationship marketing, one potentially successful strategy at the level of front line service is for financial advisors to behave in a pleasantly surprising way toward their clients (e.g., acknowledging a family member's birthday; covering a parking expense; giving tickets to an entertainment venue). We examine both antecedents and consequences of clients' perceptions of their advisors behaving in a pleasantly surprising way toward them. Antecedents included advisors' customer orientation, knowledge of client, and sense of humour. Consequences included clients' trust, satisfaction, purchase intentions, and word‐of‐mouth intentions. Several strategic recommendations and research avenues following from these findings are offered. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Applying career concepts to strengthen the work-attitudes of service professionals

Given the nature of employment relationships today, service organizations can strengthen the organization commitment levels and reduce the turnover intentions of its professionals through providing job features important to their careers. These features include opportunities to perform challenging work, experience trusting relationships with customers/clients, and obtain extrinsic rewards. Using a sample of alumni from a hospitality business program, hypotheses that these features impact organizational commitment and turnover intentions, partially through strengthening professionals’ career commitment, are developed and tested. Findings suggest that challenging work opportunities impact these attitudes both directly and indirectly. So too trusting relationships with customers and clients indirectly impact organization commitment and intent to turnover (ITO). Results also suggest that, as a whole, satisfaction with extrinsic rewards has no effect. However, an analysis of multigroup mediation results revealed that for professionals working in professional service firms, satisfaction with pay reduces both attitudes. Implications for research in organization commitment and ITO, specifically the role and impact of career-based antecedents, are discussed.     

Designing for Cost Transparency in Investment Advisory Service Encounters

Investment advisory services of financial service providers (FSPs) exhibit several characteristics that are detrimental to advisory quality. The interaction of advisor and client is strained by a lack of transparency regarding the advisory process (what activities are performed and why) and the information used therein (what information is used for what purpose and with what effect), as well as regarding the precise costs of the service and the recommended products. In prior research, we suggested that process and information transparency issues may be appropriately addressed with collaborative information technology (IT) artifacts. In this paper, we argue that collaborative, transparent artifacts may also be a premise of enabling cost transparency. To this end, we describe a complete research cycle of designing, implementing, and evaluating a shared cost-transparent IT artifact to support client-advisor interaction in investment advisory encounters. Evaluation results suggest the efficacy of our design in improving the clients?? perceived cost transparency as well as increase their satisfaction and their willingness to pay for the received investment advice. These findings may also challenge the common belief of FSPs that transparent, fee-based advisory services would neither be accepted by clients nor be economically viable. Practical implications of these findings for designing advisory encounters with supportive IT are discussed.     

An Investigation of Trust,Satisfaction, and Commitment on Repurchase Intentions in Professional Services

Abstract

The predictive ability of trust, satisfaction, and commitment regarding a customer's intent to retain professional service providers is explored. Trust, in business relationships, is typically perceived as a consequent of satisfaction and experience. However, professional service customers may be unable to commence relationships without trusting their providers; thus, the stance that trust leads to commitment may not hold. Given the difficulty that professional service customers have regarding their ability to assess their providers' trustworthiness, customers may take trust for granted once the relationship begins. Regression analyses suggest that professional service customers utilize satisfaction and commitment, rather than trust, to determine repurchase intentions.     

The Influence of Gratitude on Franchisor‐Franchisee Relationships

Set within a franchising context that is an integral and significant component of the small business sector, this paper is the first attempt at modeling the sentiment of gratitude, a critical nascent relationship construct, as mediating the linkage between relational norms (as antecedents) and relationship quality constructs (as consequents). Data from a sample of 439 Australian franchisees are used to test the hypotheses. Relational norms were captured using the well‐accepted taxonomy of solidarity, flexibility, and mutuality, and relationship quality was conceptualized in terms of its constituent constructs of trust, commitment, and relationship satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to test the six hypothesized relationships. Results show that all six hypotheses are supported, that is, relational norms significantly and positively affect the emergence of gratitude, and in turn, gratitude significantly and positively influences the relationship quality constructs of trust, commitment, and relationship satisfaction. Managerial implications for the franchising industry in particular and small businesses in general are discussed.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Mutual Trust in PPPs

This article aims to identify the antecedents and consequences of mutual trust in public-private partnerships (PPPs), making use of the theory of mutual trust to develop the conceptual model. The article then tests hypotheses to find the role of trust in PPPs and also to identify the antecedents and consequences. Data have been collected from personnel working in government, corporate and non-profit sectors related to a post-earthquake psychological rehabilitation program in China. A total of 234 usable responses have been obtained with a return rate of 69.2%. The results of structural equation modeling show that while mutual communication, corporate reputation, and shared value influence mutual trust between partners positively, opportunism exerts negative influence on trust; in addition, trust also influences performance, commitment, and long-term relationships between partners. We conclude that mutual trust eliminates opportunism and increases confidence between partners, leading to improved inter-firm performance. If the partners establish trust in the PPP, they reap all other benefits of cooperation of PPPs.     

Trust disposition,trust antecedents,trust, and behavioral intention

Trust is important for fostering successful relationships, reducing uncertainty and risk, and increasing willingness to purchase. This study tests the replications in the mobile banking (m-banking) industry and the influence of trust on purchase intention via investigating the relationships between disposition to trust, and trust antecedents to trust in forming trust in m-banking services, which in turn leads to behavioral intention to adopt those services. In spite of numerous studies being focused on the critical role of trust in recent decades, the topic of multidimensional trust antecedents in m-banking, as well as the effects of disposition to trust on m-banking adoption intention has been relatively neglected. Based on the data collected in Taiwan, the results reveal significant positive relationships between disposition to trust, trust antecedents, and trust. Meanwhile, the relationship between trust and behavioral intention are positively significant. Contributions and managerial implications are discussed.     

Internet Banking–An Empirical Investigation of a Trust and Loyalty Model for New Zealand Banks

ABSTRACT

The development of Internet Banking (I-Banking) requires a new recognition of customers' values for building long-term organization-customer relationships in the E-era. A Structural Equation Model was developed and tested in this paper to identify the determinants that influence customers' trust in, and loyalty to, I-Banking in New Zealand. The results indicated that shared value was the most critical factor impacting customers' trust in I-Banking, compared with two other important factors: communication and opportunistic behaviour control. With regards to improving loyalty among I-Bank customers, findings suggest that I-Banking needs to take satisfaction, trust, brand reputation and switching cost seriously. In particular, satisfaction needs to be regarded seriously, as it is the most important factor influencing customers' loyalty. Based on these findings, the paper culminates in recommendations to improve I-Banking services for customers.     

Trusting and Monitoring Business Partners throughout the Relationship Life Cycle

Purpose: The goal of this research is to understand the theoretical and empirical confluence of multi-dimensional trust with the role of monitoring as business partnerships unfold and evolve dynamically throughout the course of the relationship life cycle.

Methodology: A pilot study is run in which in-depth interviews are conducted with managers to glean their insights regarding the theoretical questions and to verify terminology for survey items. A large-scale survey study is then conducted to test hypotheses about the relationships among the focal constructs. The participants in both studies are real procurement professionals reporting on their primary supplier relationships. The qualitative study and the samples of real world managers enhance the external validity of this research.

Findings: In early stages of business relationships, monitoring and benevolence trust interact to positively impact business performance. Continued monitoring in later stages interact with benevolence trust to performance detriment. Conversely, monitoring and competence aspects of trust hurt business performance in earlier life stages.

Research Implications: Theoretical frameworks that include the constructs of multidimensional trust, monitoring, and relationship life cycle stages can build on the nuanced 3-dimensional contingencies established in this research. In particular, this research furthers the concepts of monitoring and the relationship life cycle.

Practical Implications: There is a time and a place to trust one's business partners, and a time and a place to verify their trustworthiness. As business partnerships are forged, monitoring and benevolence trust can be particularly fruitful.

Contribution: In this research, the authors build on the business marketing literature that has begun to delineate the benevolence and competence dimensions of trust in business relationships; they demonstrate the role that partner monitoring has in maintaining business commitments; and establish how these effects are modified over the stages of the relationship life cycle; i.e., from exploration, to build-up, maturity, and decline.     

A model of consumer relationships with store brands,personnel and stores in Spain

Abstract

Relationship Marketing is an important approach to the study of exchanges. This approach puts emphasis on the development of trust, satisfaction and relational norms to obtain parties' commitment. However, there are very few studies that consider the different levels the consumer relates with. Moreover, a limited number of marketing studies include variables that are often used in economic approaches such as signalling theory, which can enrich the understanding of commercial relationships. Therefore, the proposed multidisciplinary model relates economic variables—the signals that firms send to the market—and key relational variables—satisfaction and trust—considering three relationship levels of trust and satisfaction—store brands, personnel and stores. Results show a transference process among the three levels of trust and confirm that satisfaction and signals are important antecedents of each trust level.     

Providing a critical service today for tomorrow's consumers: A relational model of customer evaluations and responses in the child care industry

Based on data collected in the important and rapidly expanding child care services industry, this study develops and tests a model that examines the relationships among customers’ evaluations of service performance dimensions, their satisfaction with and trust in the organization, as well as their word-of-mouth intentions and also investigates the role of social status in the proposed relationships. The results show that non-interpersonal (i.e., hard) service quality attributes have a greater impact on customer satisfaction while interpersonal (i.e., soft) service quality attributes have more influence on trust. Word-of-mouth intentions are primarily driven by trust and the hard dimension of service performance. Social status is shown to act as a moderator of many of the relationships in the model. The findings of the study offer important implications for providers of child care and other consumer services that are high in credence qualities.     

On the Role of Experience in Developing Service Satisfaction in Consumer Financial Planning Services

ABSTRACT

This study of consumer professional services examines the role of experience in the development of service satisfaction with the personal financial planning services firm. Product experience possessed by the client moderates the interlinkages between service satisfaction and its two antecedents-performance and relational behaviour. The results of sub group analysis indicate that effects of the performance and relational behaviour vary considerably under different product experience conditions. The findings therefore add new insight to the understanding of satisfaction formation under different experience conditions, especially in the context of consumer personal financial planning services.