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Neeru Sharma: Doctoral candidate, University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Paul G. Patterson: Associate Professor, School of Marketing, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Introduction
For many services, the essence of marketing is, or ought to be, the development of long-term, value-laden relationships with customers (Berry, 1983; Bejou and Palmer, 1998; Christopher et al., 1991). Despite this, it is surprising to find so little empirical research that models the nature and determinants of relationships in consumer services, especially in the context of those high in credence properties (i.e. where clients have difficulty in confidently evaluating service quality even after purchase and consumption) (Darby and Karni 1973) such as financial, legal, medical and other services delivered by highly trained and qualified professionals.
The primary objective of this study therefore is to begin to fill this gap in our knowledge by modeling the antecedents of relationship commitment in the context of a professional service - personal financial planning services. In doing so we examine the impact of three exogenous constructs:
- (1) communication effectiveness;
- (2) technical quality; and
- (3) functional quality;
and one endogenous, mediating construct (trust). The results support the hypothesized model and show communication effectiveness to be a key driver of all antecedent variables, and the single most powerful determinant of relationship commitment.
Background
Most research to date that has examined antecedents of loyalty and commitment has primarily focused on industrial markets, distribution channels and consumer goods (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Ping, 1993;Wilson and Mummalaneni, 1989; Wind, 1970). Relationship commitment has been viewed as critical in interorganisational relationships (Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Kumar et al., 1995) and considered essential for successful long-term relationships. It is typically defined as "an implicit or explicit pledge of functional continuity between exchange partners" (Dwyer et al., 1987, p.19). In the channel literature, it has been associated with trust, relationship termination costs, functional social norms, opportunistic behaviour, idiosyncratic investments and communication (Table I). While research in business-to-business services associates commitment with trust, perceived value, involvement of service provider and quality of interaction between clients and service providers (Lapierre, 1997; Patterson and Spreng, 1997).
However, unlike tangible goods and even business-to-business services, professional services targeted at the consumer market are often difficult for...