Loyalty in the Business-to-Business Service Context: A Literature Review and Proposed Framework

Loyalty has been named as one of the greatest competitive advantages for companies operating under high competition conditions. However, different authors look at this concept from different views and take different factors into account. This article consolidates academic research on loyalty in business services. The determinants of loyalty are identified and the development of loyalty as a process is investigated. These findings, together with the relationship development process and the possible influence of culture, are integrated into the resulting research framework. This framework suggests that relationship quality, comprising trust, satisfaction, and commitment, is a mediator of the loyalty development process. Furthermore, it suggests that these mediators, determining the transition from one stage to the other, are influenced by different antecedents. Finally, managerial recommendations and directions for future research are provided.     

Sectoral determinants of foreign affiliate sales employing European data

We test theories on sectoral determinants of foreign affiliate sales employing European foreign affiliate sales statistics (FATS). On the one hand, we test hypotheses that foreign affiliate sales are less likely in sectors with complex tasks and more likely in sectors where communication with customers is important. On the other hand, we test the hypothesis that the force of gravity is stronger in more complex sectors. Employing Poisson and negative binomial estimators, we find support for the first hypotheses and contradict the second hypothesis. We show that the interaction effect between distance and complexity changes sign from negative to positive when complexity is included as a separate regressor. We propose an explanation to reconcile our findings with the basic assertion in the second hypothesis that the force of gravity is stronger in more complex sectors, based on a composition effect between horizontal and vertical affiliate sales.