Although a variety of approaches can be used to manage student commitment, the role of physical elements, such as a facility or institution's virtual presence, appearance of infrastructure and signage, is often neglected in the literature. This gap in the literature is surprising considering the growing interest in the field of social sciences regarding the influence of physical elements (or tangibles) on commitment. It is against this background that this study investigated the possible effects of physical element attributes on student commitment. A number of antecedents of physical elements were identified by means of a literature review and their expected relationships with student commitment were proposed as hypotheses. These hypothesised relationships were assessed and a survey amongst 290 students from a multi-cultural South African university was conducted. The statistical program SPSS version 23 was used to analyse the data, and the hypothesised relationships were assessed by means of regression analyses. The findings of the study indicate that the physical element dimensions 'communicators' and 'virtual servicescape' most significantly influenced overall student commitment. Contrary to popular belief, the study revealed that social servicescape did not have a significant impact on student commitment.Furthermore, it appears that a specific set of physical element attributes should be applied when student commitment is managed. Finally, the study offers an in-depth discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings for relationship marketing strategies.

Background: Offering quality healthcare services in South Africa’s remote areas remains a challenge. Pharmacies, and independent community pharmacies (ICPs) in particular, can play a vital role in providing access to pharmaceutical products and services in these areas.Aim: Part of the success of ICPs is the role that their employees play in building trusting relationships with pharmacy clients. It is against this background that this article investigates key employee-related factors that contribute towards building affective, calculative and contractual trust when pharmacy clients are serviced.Setting: Clients of a specific ICP group participated in the study. The selected ICP group, which manages eight pharmacies across the Western Cape Province, has between 8000 and 41 000 active client profiles per pharmacy.Methods: All 299 respondents who participated in the study were personally interviewed. Statistical analyses were done through Statistica, and structural equation modelling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) was used to assess both the measurement and the structural model.Results: Although a number of significant relationships were confirmed, the importance of especially familiarity is highlighted when trust is managed in a pharmacy client-employee relationship.Conclusion: Given their geographical location, ICPs are ideally situated to provide access to healthcare services in the more remote areas of South Africa. By focusing on managing trust, ICPs can ensure a more constructive experience to their clients.