Buyer Loyalty in Business Markets: Can the Firm and Salesperson Get What They Truly Desire?

Purpose: Prior literature has acknowledged multi-foci customer loyalties (loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty) and argued that both entities (selling firms and salespersons) foster customer loyalty through respective loyalty-capturing efforts (relationship investments). However, scholars have not investigated the influences of different types of interfirm relationship-specific investment (RSI) activities and salesperson behaviors (brand-building and guanxi behavior) on customer loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, especially their simultaneous (interaction) effects. The current research attempts to address this issue and examines the impacts that RSIs and salesperson behaviors have on customer loyalties.

Methodology/approach: A survey of seller–buyer dyads was conducted to test the proposed theoretical model and hypotheses. Using 192 dyadic data from customers and salespersons in the Chinese business-to-business contexts, this study specifies the direct and interactive effects of sellers’ RSIs and salespersons’ behaviors on customer loyalties.

Findings: Results indicate that selling firms’ loyalty-capturing efforts—property-based and knowledge-based RSIs—have different influences on two types of customer loyalty. Salespersons’ relationship investments—brand-building and guanxi behaviors—also have asymmetric impacts on customer loyalty. Counterintuitively, salespersons’ loyalty-capturing efforts weaken the relationships between firms’ RSIs and customer loyalties.

Originality/value/contribution: This study specifies different types of relationship investments and examines their respective and interactive impacts on two types of customer loyalty—loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty. The findings indicate that firms’ and salespersons’ efforts may lead to unexpected and unintended effects on multi-foci loyalties. Therefore, the current study enriches our knowledge about multi-foci loyalty management and relationship marketing.

Practical implications: Because firms’ and salespersons’ loyalty-capturing strategies exert positive direct influences on loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, both entities may actively leverage relationship investments’ impact on customer loyalty. However, as the interactive effects derived from concurrent loyalty-enhancing activities are negative, firms need to clearly assess the nature and

characteristics of their relationship with buyers and properly design relationship investments and guide salesperson behaviors. Managers should use property-based RSIs as a primary safeguard of customer loyalty to the selling firm. Meanwhile, internal branding and training programs can help salespersons develop brand building behaviors and better understand the potential unintended outcomes that different behaviors may induce. Aligning a branding goal between the firm and salespersons can benefit both parties while avoiding counter-productive outcomes.     

Up-front payment under RD rule

This paper explores the effect of an up-front payment to contracts under the reliance damage measure. We find that the efficiency in most cases fails, but can be obtained by a high enough total payment to assume away the sellers breach, a high enough up-front payment to ensure that the seller does not sue, and a high enough trading price to ensure the buyers breach when the undesirable state occurs. Edlins device (1996), which has a very low trading price to assume away the buyers breach and a proper up-front payment to entice the seller to sign, fails to achieve the efficiency under the reliance damage measure.Received: 1 May 2002, Accepted: 15 May 2004, JEL Classification: K12, L00, D21Ho-Chyuan Chen: I wish to thank an anonymous referee of this journal for valuable comments.     

关系交易、内部控制质量与公允价值的选用——基于投资性房地产视角的实证研究

以2009-2016年沪深 A 股上市房地产公司为研究样本,基于资产专用性基本理论,实证检验供应商/客户关系型交易是否以及如何影响投资性房地产公允价值的选择使用,并考察内部控制在其中的调节作用.研究发现:随着关系型交易比例的增加,公司对投资性房地产使用公允价值后续计量的动机增强,但是这种动机在内控质量高的公司会受到一定程度的抑制.同时,供应商/客户关系型交易对企业会计政策选择行为具有重要影响,而健全有效的内部控制具有对企业会计选择行为的利弊制衡与风险管控作用.     

External Trade and Internal Geography: Local Export Spillovers by Industry Characteristics and Firm Size

Abstract

Exporting firms in a region may reduce export entry costs for other local firms either through market or non-market interactions. This paper tests this proposition by analyzing whether the probability of exporting among Swedish firms is positively associated with the local presence of exporters in their region and industry. Our results support this conjecture, while also providing some support for such export spillovers being more important in contract-intensive industries and small firms. The results for different industries and size-classes of firms are also sensitive to whether we focus on firms’ export status or restrict the sample to export starters.

RÉSUMÉ Les firmes exportatrices dans une certaine région pourront réduire les coûts d'entrée à l'exportation pour d'autres entreprises locales, par le biais d'interactions commerciales ou non commerciales. La présente communication soumet cette proposition à des tests en analysant si la probabilité d'exportation parmi des sociétés suédoises est en rapport positif avec la présence locale d'exportateurs dans leur région et dans l'industrie. Nos résultats soutiennent cette conjecture, tout en apportant un certain soutien pour l'importance majeure de cette diffusion des exportations dans des secteurs intensifs sur le plan des contrats et des petites entreprises. Les résultats pour différents secteurs ou entreprises classées sur le plan de leur envergure sont néanmoins sensibles au plan sur lequel nous plaçons notre recherche, à savoir le statut export des entreprises ou la limitation de l’échantillon aux nouvelles entreprises exportatrices.

EXTRACTO Las empresas exportadoras de una región pueden reducir los costes de entrada de exportaciones para otras empresas locales, a través de interacciones de mercado o que no sean de mercado. El estudio pone a prueba esta proposición analizando si la probabilidad de exportación entre empresas suecas se asocia positivamente con la presencia local de exportadores en su región e industria. Nuestros resultados apoyan esta conjetura, mientras que también proporcionan cierto apoyo para la idea de que dichos spillovers de exportación son más importantes en industrias de contratos intensivos y empresas pequeñas. Los resultados para diferentes empresas y clases de tamaños de empresas son, no obstante, sensibles a si nos centramos en el estado de exportación de las empresas o si restringimos la muestra a empresas nuevas en exportación.

外部贸易和内部地理—行业性质和公司规模对本地出口的影响

摘要 : 一个地区的出口公司可能会通过市场或非市场途径降低其他本地公司的出口报关成本。本文通过分析瑞典公司的出口概率是否与其所在地域和行业的出口商正相关来验证这一假设。结果证实了这一假设 , 同时也证明 , 这种出口影响对合同密集型产业和小公司更为重要。但是 , 行业不同 , 公司规模不同 , 其结果会受到对公司出口状况关注与否以及对出口商样本数目的限制的影响。     

内部控制、关系型交易与非效率投资

基于 2007年至2011年中国上市公司的经验数据,探讨企业关系型交易对管理层机会主义行为的影响。实证结果表明：供应商或客户关系型交易比例越高,投资效率越低,这会加剧投资过度或投资不足程度,说明供应商或客户关系型交易在带来关系租金的同时也会带来一系列负面效应;上市公司的内部控制质量越好,越有助于抑制关系型交易带来的非效率投资,说明内部控制作为一种可置信承诺,能够有效抑制机会主义行为、控制和降低风险,提高信息披露的可信度,缓解信息不对称,从而抑制关系交易引发的投资不足或投资过度行为。     

关系型投资与审计行为

文章以我国转轨经济环境为研究背景,从供应商/客户关系的视角,分析了上市公司关系型投资对上市公司聘选会计师事务所行为的影响。文章的研究结果表明,随着关系型投资的增多,企业会更愿意选择本地事务所,且事务所的审计任期会更长。文章的研究结果对理解企业间的交易模式以及组织边界等具有积极的理论价值,同时对于认识在转型经济市场中企业的商业运营模式和审计问题也具有积极的作用。     

内部控制、关系型交易与非效率投资

基于2007年至2011年中国上市公司的经验数据,探讨企业关系型交易对管理层机会主义行为的影响。实证结果表明：供应商或客户关系型交易比例越高,投资效率越低,这会加剧投资过度或投资不足程度,说明供应商或客户关系型交易在带来关系租金的同时也会带来一系列负面效应;上市公司的内部控制质量越好,越有助于抑制关系型交易带来的非效率投资,说明内部控制作为一种可置信承诺,能够有效抑制机会主义行为、控制和降低风险,提高信息披露的可信度,缓解信息不对称,从而抑制关系交易引发的投资不足或投资过度行为。     

Shared auditors,social trust,and relationship-specific investment in the supply chain

An auditor common to a supplier and customer may serve an information role, reduce information asymmetry, or mitigate a potential hold-up problem in the supply chain. The information role of shared auditors could be more important in a lax institutional environment where a lack of trust exists between the supplier and customer. Using a sample of listed firms in China from 2009 to 2015, we find that (1) a shared auditor enhances the supplier’s relationship-specific investment (RSI), and (2) this positive association is stronger when the customer is located in a region with lower trust. We also document an incremental effect of a shared audit partner on enhancing the supplier’s RSI in addition to the effect of a shared auditor at the audit firm level. Additional analyses suggest that a shared auditor alleviates information asymmetry between the supplier and customer and hence improves the supplier’s RSI. A shared auditor particularly improves the supplier’s RSI when the customer is limited in its legal protection, which validates the usefulness of this unique research setting (China) for studying the information role of shared auditors. By extending the research on shared auditors and social trust, this paper provides a reference for companies that wish to explore the role of auditors in enhancing RSI in the supply chain.