Antecedents and consequences of commitment in marketing research services: The client's perspective

Commitment is one of the most frequently studied variables in business-to-business relationships and several researchers propose it is the main antecedent of customer loyalty. However, while marketing relationships researchers agree on the importance of the construct, differences remain in its conceptualization and operationalization. This study examines commitment from the customer's perspective, consisting of three components: calculative, affective and normative. Relationships were tested between the three dimensions of commitment and social bonds, trust and satisfaction in the context of professional business services providers and their clients. The results of the model that was tested in Central and Eastern European companies show that affective commitment is the only one of the three components that significantly influences customer loyalty. Trust and social bonds have no significant relation either to normative or to calculative commitment while a relation of overall satisfaction with normative and calculative commitment is negative. The theoretical and managerial implications for the model to assist in the development of appropriate strategies to achieve affective commitment and loyalty in business relationships are discussed.     

Product and relationship quality influence on customer commitment and loyalty in B2B manufacturing relationships

The article examines how product and relationship quality influence customer commitment along with their combined effect on customer loyalty. The results show that product quality influences positive and negative calculative commitment. With regard to relationship quality, its “social” dimensions such as cooperation and trust have a much greater influence on commitment than its “technical” dimensions such as knowledge transfers and adaptation. On the “social” side, cooperation and trust positively influence affective and normative commitment, with trust also positively affecting positive calculative commitment, while on the “technical” side the only significant link is between adaptation and normative commitment. As for the consequences of commitment, affective commitment positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, while negative calculative commitment positively influences behavioral loyalty. In addition to indirect effects, product quality also directly positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. The results imply that customer loyalty depends more on “emotional” (affective commitment) than on “rational” (negative calculative commitment and product quality) motivation to continue the relationship.     

Managing opportunism in a developing interfirm relationship: The interrelationship of calculative and loyalty commitment

This research develops a framework for investigating associations among the duration of an exchange relationship, the interrelationship between a supplier's calculative and loyalty commitment, and opportunistic behavior on the part of a buyer. The findings indicate that (1) calculative commitment and loyalty commitment by suppliers function as substitutes; (2) a supplier's loyalty commitment increases gradually as a developing exchange relationship endures, whereas calculative commitment increases and then decreases; and (3) a supplier's calculative commitment leads to an increase in a buyer's opportunism, whereas the supplier's loyalty commitment leads to a decrease, and a supplier's loyalty commitment decreases the positive impact of calculative commitment on opportunism. These findings provide insights into how relationship duration affects buyers' opportunism through the interrelation between suppliers' calculative and loyalty commitment.     

价格促销与D＆B忠诚模式关联实证研究

顾客赢回管理概念模型包括价格促销策略，顾客感知（价格敏感、信任和情感），算计性承诺和顾客忠诚（真正忠诚、表面忠诚、潜在忠诚和不忠诚）等变量。研究目的是考查价格促销．算计性承诺和顾客忠诚之间的关系。研究数据来源于中国酒店行业（N=1074）。研究发现，价格促销导致顾客价格敏感，淡化了顾客对厂商的信任、情感等内在动机．并对顾客的忠诚形成有负面影响：研究揭示了价格促销策略使厂商陷入进退两难困境的深层次根源：研究对指导管理者采取恰当的赢回策略开展流失顾客的赢回管理具有借鉴和参考价值。     

Relationship factors and firms' willingness-to-pay: A comparison of east-west settings

The aim of this study is to examine the underlying mechanism that explains the effects of supplier firms' sustained competitive advantage (SCA) on customer firms' willingness-to-pay a price premium (WTP) across Eastern and Western settings. Drawing upon the relationship marketing (RM) paradigm, we posit that SCA influences WTP via calculative commitment and relationship quality (RQ). A survey involving executives from Australian (n = 336) and Chinese (n = 360) firms was conducted to test the theoretical model. The findings reveal that the effect of SCA on WTP is mediated by RQ and calculative commitment among Chinese firms. Among Australian firms, however, the effect of SCA on WTP is mediated only by RQ and not calculative commitment. The study contributes to the literature by distinguishing the role of ‘rational’ (i.e., calculative commitment) and ‘emotional’ (i.e., affective commitment and RQ) relationship factors in influencing WTP, and by validating a multidimensional RQ model that is applicable to culturally diverse contexts. To marketing practitioners, this research helps to identify the conditions under which RM practices can be effective for B2B firms that operate across diverse cultures.     

The effects of manufacturer's organizational learning on distributor satisfaction and loyalty in industrial markets

The main objective of this study is to examine the effects of organizational learning (OL) on satisfaction and loyalty in industrial markets. A conceptual model, in which the unit for analysis is the dyadic relationship between manufacturers and their main distributor, is proposed and tested. The empirical results showed that the manufacturer's OL is an antecedent of the relational outcomes achieved in business relationships. Specifically, increased OL in the manufacturer has a direct effect on the main distributor's degree of satisfaction and an indirect effect on his loyalty. It is also confirmed that the manufacturer's OL has a direct effect on the manufacturer's business performance. However, we found that links between OL and satisfaction and OL and loyalty are not changed by market turbulence.     

Guanxi practice and Chinese buyer-supplier relationships: The buyer's perspective

This study explores the different effects of guanxi practice on Chinese buyer-supplier relationships in the initiation and the maintenance stages during the buyer-supplier relationship lifecycle. Using survey data collected from the retail industry in China, we find that retailers perceive varying buyer-supplier relationship behaviors in these two relationship stages and, accordingly, guanxi practice exerts opposite effects on retailer satisfaction. Specifically, during the relationship initiation stage, guanxi practice is negatively related to retailer social satisfaction and commitment. However, during the relationship maintenance stage, guanxi practice is positively related to retailer economic satisfaction. The results from this study provide suppliers with managerial implications on when to and when not to practice guanxi in China.     

The performance implications of power–trust relationship: The moderating role of commitment in the supplier–retailer relationship

The current research examines how coercive power and non-coercive power affect trust and how these relationships are affected by affective and calculative commitment. It also expands the understanding of the role of an under-researched dimension of performance, i.e., strategic performance, and studies it as a mediating variable in the relationship between trust and financial performance. The proposed model is empirically tested using Partial Least Squares (PLS) in supplier–retailer channel in Taiwan. The findings reveal that affective commitment has a positive moderating effect on the negative relationship between coercive power and trust, while calculative commitment has a negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between non-coercive power and trust. The results also indicate that strategic performance partially mediates the effect of trust on financial performance. The research advances theoretical understanding on the complex power–trust relationship and provides insights into the role of commitment in both enabling and undermining channel relationships. The findings highlight the importance of building affective commitment in channel relationships and the critical role of strategic performance in the trust–financial performance relationship.     

Drivers of green cooperation between Chinese manufacturers and their customers: An empirical analysis

Although green customer cooperation can help manufacturers increase their overall performance, it is difficult for manufactures to effectively achieve green customer cooperation. This paper discusses how manufacturers can achieve green customer cooperation through the theoretical lens of capability-based view. It suggests that internal green process innovation and learning from their customers can lead to green customer cooperation and such positive relationships are dependent upon senior management's calculative and affective commitment towards the customer firms. Using multi-respondent data collected from 217 Chinese manufacturing firms, the results show that both green process innovation and learning from customers drive green customer cooperation. However, affective commitment counter-intuitively diminishes the positive effect of learning from customers on green customer cooperation, while calculative commitment further strengthens this effect. This paper contributes to green supply chain management literature by conceptually explaining and empirically proving the effects of green process innovation and learning from customers on green customer cooperation and the moderating role of calculative and affective commitments. Based on the research findings, the paper gives practical suggestions to Chinese manufacturers and their customer firms regarding green cooperation and the dynamics of senior management's commitment towards the customer firms.     

Market and supplier characteristics driving distributor relationship quality in international marketing channels of industrial products

Although we are beginning to comprehend the fundamental importance of relationship quality in interorganizational exchange, a relatively small, but growing, body of literature that has not kept pace with the tremendous growth in global channel transactions has been devoted to the development of cross-border relationship quality. This study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating the extent to which certain market and exporter characteristics affect the development of relationship quality in the context of importing distributors trading with exporting manufacturers of industrial products. Relationship quality is viewed as a higher-order construct composed of trust, commitment, and satisfaction. Findings reveal that psychic distance is related negatively to relationship quality, while transaction-specific investments and role performance are associated positively with relationship quality. No link is found between environmental uncertainty and relationship quality. Managerial implications of the findings are considered and limitations along with future research directions discussed.     

Delegating slotting allowance authority to the sales force

Slotting allowances are payments manufacturers make to retailers in exchange for product distribution. An important question manufacturers face is whether their salespeople should have the authority to allocate these payments and, if so, what are the implications of doing so. Unfortunately, although slotting allowances have been investigated in the literature, there is little guidance on these issues. Providing such guidance is important because slotting allowances are both costly to manufacturers and frequently demanded by retailers. Therefore, we introduce slotting allowance authority into the literature and suggest that it is positively related to customer loyalty toward the salesperson; however, this relationship largely depends on a customer's relationship motivation. Specifically, we offer a contemporary view of customer motivation by demonstrating that the relationship between slotting allowance authority and customer loyalty is less and more positive with increasing levels of intrinsic relationship motivation and extrinsic relationship motivation, respectively. Moreover, our results indicate a conditional process model whereby slotting allowance authority impacts sales growth through customer loyalty conditioned upon intrinsic- and extrinsic relationship motivations.     

A knowledge-enabled procedure for customer relationship management

The value of knowledge management and customer relationship management is well recognized by many leading companies. This study presents a proposed model of Knowledge-enabled Customer Relationship Management and demonstrates the way in which the presented model can facilitate the identification of important factors that have key impacts on business performance in particular settings. The results show that employees in the steel industry indicate that to provide product and service information for customers and to share internally the best practice information can have benefits for hard measures such as market share, repeat purchases, and customer retention and for soft measures such as customer satisfaction, market leadership and customer loyalty. Employees in the textile industry report that to provide customer complaint information of customers and to share internally the best practice information can have benefits for hard measures such as customer retention, cost savings, and market share and for soft measures such as customer satisfaction, market leadership, customer loyalty, and customer and employee productivity.     

Industrial brand value and relationship performance in business markets — A general structural equation model

This paper develops a general model of industrial brand value and relationship performance in business-to-business markets from the perspectives of consumer and industrial marketing literature. The structural equation model integrates the analysis of industrial brand value and relationship performance. The model describes the extent to which supplier-buyer transaction performance is influenced by the eight important factors: supplier competence, purchasing value, customer satisfaction, switching cost, brand trust and loyalty, relationship quality, commitment, and transactional performance.The general model is applied to organizational buyer groups of comprehensive industrial markets (Electronics, Chemicals, Equipment, etc). The analysis finds that supplier competence directly affects purchasing value and customer satisfaction, and via purchasing value and customer satisfaction, it indirectly affects commitment, switching cost, brand trust and loyalty. The managerial implications of the study results are also discussed.     

Examining important relationship quality constructs of the focal sponsorship exchange

Few studies have considered sponsorship from a relationship perspective. This is despite evidence that sponsors and sport entities engage in long-term, mutually beneficial, relationships where the role of trust and commitment is likely to be pivotal. This study examines empirically the effects of trust and commitment on two critical relationship outcomes, namely, economic and noneconomic satisfaction. Based on a comprehensive survey of the Australian Football League (AFL) and its protected sponsors, the paper demonstrates that commitment, measured by leverage investments, is a key antecedent of economic satisfaction, while trust is antecedent of both economic and noneconomic satisfaction.     

Determinants of Relationship Quality and Loyalty in Personalized Services

The study adopts a relationship perspective to examine and better understand customers' interactions with service firms' contact personnel, physical environment and customer environment and their influence on the relationship quality, that is trust and satisfaction, and consequently loyalty. The conceptual model, which integrates relational and evaluative perspectives, is validated in the Asian context of personalized service through findings from a survey of 325 respondents. The findings at the aggregate level indicate that while the physical environment is an important determinant of both trust and satisfaction in personalized service encounters, the customer environment influences only satisfaction but not trust. Service contact personnel's friendliness and knowledge of customers strongly influence relationship quality; while expertise, similarity and disclosure influence trust but not satisfaction. Both relationship trust and satisfaction were found to significantly influence loyalty to the service provider. At the disaggregate level, trust was found to be a stronger predictor of loyalty for high-end service providers while satisfaction was a stronger predictor of loyalty for low-end service providers. The implications for high-end and low-end service providers to enhance loyalty by strategically leveraging on key customer-firm antecedents of relationship trust and satisfaction are discussed.     

The antecedents of client loyalty in business-to-business (B2B) electronic marketplaces

The globalization of economic activity and the emergence of the Internet have led to the appearance of a new model of business-to-business (B2B) known as the electronic B2B market or e-marketplace which facilitates the establishment of marketing relationships between buyers and sellers. In view of the limited research in this area, the present study examines the elements that may influence client (i.e., user) loyalty in this context. The basis of the study is an analysis of empirical data provided by 197 Spanish e-marketplace selling-side users, investigating the influence of image, quality, satisfaction, and value on client loyalty. The results indicated that satisfaction had no direct impact on client loyalty, but that the e-marketplace's image and user-perceived quality and value are antecedents of its clients' loyalty.     

Exercised power as a driver of trust and commitment in cross-border industrial buyer-seller relationships

The article reports the findings of a study conducted among 151 U.S. export manufacturers of industrial goods regarding their working relationships with foreign customers. Specifically, the emphasis is on the sources of power exercised and how these affect trust and commitment in the relationship through the mediating role of conflict and satisfaction. Using structural equation modelling, it was confirmed that the exercise of power derived from coercive sources increases conflict and reduces satisfaction, while the exercise of non-coercive power sources leads to lower conflict (but not significantly increasing satisfaction). Conflict was found to be negatively associated with trust, as opposed to satisfaction which enhances trust. Trust was subsequently revealed to foster commitment in the relationship. Conclusions and implications are derived from the study findings and directions for further research are provided.     

Antecedents and consequences of relationship intention: Implications for transaction and relationship marketing

The terms relationship marketing (RM) and loyalty have been extensively promoted in marketing literature. Advocates of RM and loyalty have argued that RM leads to loyalty and loyalty leads to profitability. However, currently available evidence questions these arguments. We propose a term relationship intention. Relationship intention is willingness of a customer to develop a relationship with a firm while buying a product or a service attributed to a firm, a brand, and a channel. We build a multi-item scale for measuring relationship intention. We propose a framework, wherein we argue that the relationship intention is influenced by the customers' perceived firm equity, perceived brand equity, and perceived channel equity. We propose the consequences of relationship intention as being low cost to serve, price premium, word-of-mouth promotion, and company advertisement. We also argue that relationship intention moderates the association between lifetime duration and profitability. Finally, we discuss the managerial implications of relationship intention in terms of transaction and RM.     

Is perceived value more than value for money in professional business services?

It is well documented in the literature that customer perceived value plays an important role in understanding behavioral outcomes of business customers. However, most business-to-business research has focused on the functional dimension of perceived value, while consumer research has already advanced to a multidimensional value conceptualization. This study expands the concept of perceived value in the professional business services context to functional, emotional, and social perceived value. Based on signaling theory, we conceptualize and empirically support links between the three dimensions of perceived value and its antecedents (perceived corporate reputation, perceived corporate credibility, and perceived relationship quality) and outcomes (satisfaction and loyalty). The results of a survey involving 228 business clients reveal differences in links between value antecedents and the three perceived value dimensions: while perceived corporate credibility and relationship quality impact all dimensions, perceived corporate reputation impacts only perceived emotional value. Results of our study help in understanding how satisfaction and loyalty are viewed as perceived value outcomes; apart from functional value, emotional and social values play a significant role in the satisfaction and loyalty of professional business services clients.     

Determinants of economic and social satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships

The aim of this work is to examine the dimensions of satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships as well as identifying the antecedents of both the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. A literature review about satisfaction in marketing channels is followed by quantitative research into how this interchange process is perceived by food product distributors in their relationships with manufacturers. The results provide strong support for the impact of communication, trust and commitment on satisfaction, as well as the interrelationships among the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are extracted from these findings.