In this article, the authors develop a new measurement scale (the RELQUAL scale) to assess the degree of relationship quality between the exporting firm and the importer. Relationship quality is presented as a high-order concept. Findings reveal that a better quality of the relationship results in a greater (1) amount of information sharing, (2) communication quality, (3) long-term orientation, as well as (4) satisfaction with the relationship. The four multi-item scales show strong evidence of reliability as well as convergent, discriminant and nomological validity in a sample of British exporters. Findings also reveal that relationship quality is positively and significantly associated with export performance. Suggestions for applying the measure in future research are presented.
While the importance of customer engagement has been widely acknowledged a gap remains in terms of our understanding of how customers engage with products and services delivered online. Addressing this gap is important given the increasing proportion of time spent interacting with companies online and the key role of customer engagement in delivering an effective customer experience. This paper seeks to address this gap through developing a theoretical framework of online customer engagement anchored in twenty-eight semistructured interviews with members of social media brand communities. This study's contribution to the customer engagement literature is twofold. Firstly, the study will bring new insights regarding personality traits as an antecedent of online customer engagement (OCE) and, secondly, customer-perceived value emerges as a novel consequence of OCE.Understanding what personality traits drive customers to engage online and what value they perceive to receive in this digital age can help managers to better segment and evaluate their customers' online engagement. Online brand communities can be improved accordingly.
This article is a direct response to a recent observation in the literature that managers appear to be short-term oriented in their assessment of the performance of an export venture (Madsen 1998). On the basis of a cross-national survey of exporting firms, the authors present a three-dimensional scale for assessing managerial judgment of short-term export performance (i.e., the STEP scale). The three dimensions are (1) satisfaction with short-term performance improvement, (2) short-term exporting intensity improvement, and (3) expected short-term performance improvement. The scale presents evidence of reliability as well as convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity, and it reveals factorial similarity and factorial equivalence across both samples. The authors outline managerial and public policy implications that stem from the scale and identify avenues for further export marketing research.
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