Customer Satisfaction in Transnational Buyer–Supplier Relationships

Abstract

This study analyzes customer satisfaction in buyer–supplier relationships across national boundaries (transnational business relationships) with manufacturing firms on both sides of the dyad. The analysis is based on data from 511 industrial customers from the United States and Germany, 201 of which reported on a transnational relationship. The results indicate that quality and flexibility are important antecedents of customer satisfaction. These antecedents were significantly lower in transnational relationships than in domestic ones. Using equity theory and the confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm, the authors develop alternative models for describing the relationships between customer satisfaction and its antecedents in transnational as opposed to domestic relationships. The findings reveal that there are no structural differences between transnational and domestic relationships regarding the relationships between customer satisfaction and its antecedents. Specifically, a lower level of customer satisfaction in transnational relationships is due to lower levels of the antecedents and does not constitute an effect of transnationality per se.