Formulating Loyalty Attributes in B2B Failure/Recovery Episodes: The Impact of Quality, Service Recovery, Relationship Satisfaction and Trust

Abstract

Drawing on relationship and services marketing literature, the authors empirically test a model of business loyalty in a sample of 471 industrial clients of coffee machines experiencing a failure/recovery incident, integrating the concepts of service quality, product quality, service recovery satisfaction, industrial relationship satisfaction, and trust. The study builds on recent advances in services marketing theory assessing the relationships underlying the identified constructs in the b2b environment. The results demonstrated a clear pattern of service and product related quality dimensions, and a number of other important findings including the empirical verification of the mediating role of overall relationship satisfaction in the formation of loyalty attributes. We note that industrial relationship satisfaction is mainly explained by product and service quality, as demonstrated by the variance explained (R2 = 50%). The results clearly showed the existence of a positive bond between perceived quality of product / services and industrial relationship satisfaction supporting thus H1. A detailed examination of the results reveals the existence of direct and indirect bonds concerning the service quality dimensions. Indeed, the perceived quality of the delivery and sales services exert a positive and direct influence on industrial relationship satisfaction. The technical service aid and installation service behave differently, and product quality fully mediates their impact on industrial relationship satisfaction. The impact of trust is verified as well. The present empirical inquiry begins with an examination of the literature pertaining to each of the concepts involved and the presentation of our conceptual framework. The methodology employed in this research is then explained and the study results presented and discussed. Finally, conclusions and managerial implications of the study are provided and a set of future research directions examined along with study limitations.