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Managing customer relationships in emerging markets

Managing customer relationships in emerging markets The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of relationship comfort and relationship proneness on the ability of service firms to build and maintain customer relationships in emerging markets (EMs).Design/methodology/approachA field-survey was conducted with retail-banking customers in India (n=300) using a structured self-administered questionnaire with well-established scales.FindingsRelationship comfort positively affects key relationship marketing (RM) constructs (e.g. customer satisfaction, trust, commitment and loyalty) and relationship proneness positively moderates (strengthens) the impact of relationship comfort on customer commitment and loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings may not be generalizable to all customer types using bank services as well as other types of services and in other EMs.Practical implicationsService firms in EMs can build and maintain robust customer relationships by using relationship comfort and relationship proneness to strengthen key RM constructs, such as customer satisfaction, trust, commitment and loyalty.Originality/valueThe paper highlights the importance of maintaining RM as a tool to build valuable customer relationships but also reveals the importance of relationship comfort and relationship proneness in building trust-based customer relationships in the EMs. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Service Theory and Practice Emerald Publishing

Managing customer relationships in emerging markets

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
2055-6225
DOI
10.1108/jstp-12-2018-0295
Publisher site
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of relationship comfort and relationship proneness on the ability of service firms to build and maintain customer relationships in emerging markets (EMs).Design/methodology/approachA field-survey was conducted with retail-banking customers in India (n=300) using a structured self-administered questionnaire with well-established scales.FindingsRelationship comfort positively affects key relationship marketing (RM) constructs (e.g. customer satisfaction, trust, commitment and loyalty) and relationship proneness positively moderates (strengthens) the impact of relationship comfort on customer commitment and loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings may not be generalizable to all customer types using bank services as well as other types of services and in other EMs.Practical implicationsService firms in EMs can build and maintain robust customer relationships by using relationship comfort and relationship proneness to strengthen key RM constructs, such as customer satisfaction, trust, commitment and loyalty.Originality/valueThe paper highlights the importance of maintaining RM as a tool to build valuable customer relationships but also reveals the importance of relationship comfort and relationship proneness in building trust-based customer relationships in the EMs.

Journal

Journal of Service Theory and Practice – Emerald Publishing

Published: Nov 29, 2019

Keywords: Customer loyalty; Emerging markets; Relational commitment; Relationship comfort; Relationship proneness

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