Relationship marketing: Investigation into consumers' initiation, maintenance, and adjustment/disengagement of marketing relationships.

摘要

This study sought to address relationship marketing from consumers' perspectives. A 3-stage model of consumers' relationship development processes was proposed, consisting of initiation, maintenance, and adjustment/disengagement. Consumers are posited to have a need for the relationship as their motivation for relationship initiation. This need for the relationship, affected by various personal and contextual factors, determines the consumer's initial relationship/transaction specific investment ( R/TSI). In the relationship maintenance stage, consumers' R/TSI depends upon their perception of the satisfactoriness, fairness, and relative performance of the relationship (the three dimensions of relationship quality) and the extent of their trust in the marketer. Consumers' R/TSI, along with their perception of relationship quality and trustworthiness, determines their commitment to the relationship. Commitment and trust, then, determine the consumer's anticipation of future interaction with the marketer.;Data obtained from a nationwide survey on general consumers provided initial support for the model. Results of regression analyses showed that the need for the relationship and relative performance were strongly related to R/TSI, and R/TSI was significantly related to affective commitment. Fairness was strongly associated with trust and affective commitment, but modestly related to R/TSI and intent commitment. Both relative performance and satisfaction were significantly connected with affective commitment and intent commitment, but modestly related to trust. Trust was strongly associated with affective commitment and intent commitment, but only modestly related to R/TSL Affective commitment, intent commitment, and trust were significantly associated with anticipation of future interaction, with intent commitment being the most connected. Additional analyses showed that affective commitment and intent commitment were the two most powerful predictors of R/TSI; for affective commitment, R/TSI and satisfaction were most influential predictors; and for intent commitment, the most powerful predictors were satisfaction and relative performance. Two findings were at odds with our hypothesis: satisfaction was negatively associated with R/TSI, and R/TSI was negatively associated with intent commitment. We speculated that these results were due to the moderating effect of high availability of alternatives and/or the consumer's propensity to perceive investments as unwanted costs.