How Relationship Age Moderates Loyalty Formation

Abstract

In this article, the authors focus on the concept of relational equity, that is, the customer perception of distributive justice within a continuous customer-provider relationship. The authors investigate the influences of relational equity on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. Moreover, they test the hypothesis that relationship age moderates the impact of relational equity on loyalty, adopting a cross-sectional design and data from a sample of Italian customers of mobile phone services ( N = 461). Relational equity is recognized as a significant determinant of customer loyalty over and above satisfaction and trust effects, and its influence increases along with relationship age. From a managerial point of view, results suggest that loyalty programs should be tailored according to the age of the relationship. Moreover, particular care should be devoted to monitoring perceived relational equity, especially in longer-term relationships.

The Impact of Perceived Service Fairness and Quality on the Behavioral Intentions of Chinese Hotel Guests: the Mediating Role of Consumption Emotions

“…Previous studies have found that perceived service fairness influences behavioral intentions directly (see for example Karatepe, 2006;Namkung & Jang, 2010;Raimondo et al, 2008). Other research findings have indicated that in service recovery situations, consumption emotions partially mediate the relationship between service fairness and repurchase intentions (Chebat & Slusarczyk, 2005;Schoefer & Diamantopoulos, 2008).…”

“…The relationship between perceived fairness and behavioral intentions has received attention in the marketing literature, generally confirming that perceptions of service fairness can influence behavioral intentions directly (see for example Karatepe, 2006;Raimondo, Miceli, & Costabile, 2008). Swan and Mercer (1983) suggest that perceived fairness leads to complaining/complimenting, word-of-mouth, and repurchase/avoidance behaviors.…”

Customer intimacy and commitment to relationships with firms in five different sectors: Preliminary evidence

“…Bolton, 1998;Raimondo et al, 2008;. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies investigating whether the determinants of customer commitment differ between explicit relationship stages in business-to-consumer relationships.…”

Linking Perceived Service Quality to Relational Outcomes in a Chinese Context

“…Researchers suggest that relationship age plays a role in behavioral outcomes (Raimondo et al 2008;Seiders et al 2005;Verhoef et al 2002). People in lengthy relationships would have more opportunities to gather information about one another, more motivation to acquire information, and more motivation to integrate/assimilate that information into coherent representations (Swann and Gill 1997).…”

“…Prior research has suggested that relationship age may have an impact on relational outcomes (Bolton 1998;Raimondo, Miceli, and Costabile 2008;Verhoef, Franses, and Hoekstra 2002). This is highly relevant in health-care services, which are characterized by considerable uncertainty.…”