Customer Loyalty in Clusters: Perceived Value and Satisfaction as Antecedents
- 31 August 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing
- Vol. 16 (3), 276-316
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10517120802496878
Abstract
Purpose: This article studies, from the perspective of relationship marketing, the loyalty behavior of industrial customers in the context of an industrial cluster. Loyalty is a key variable for studying long-term relationships between firms. Research implications: Recent advances in consumer and services marketing consider that perceived value and satisfaction are central to explaining customer loyalty. However, very few business-to-business (B2B) studies explain the antecedents of customer loyalty, where perceived value acquires a multidimensional perspective. This study adopts the relationship marketing approach, and loyalty behavior is analyzed in a specific setting: an industrial cluster. Furthermore, the effect of the number of suppliers is analyzed as a possible moderator in the relationships of the model. Methodology approach: We have chosen the Spanish tile cluster to test a series of hypotheses. Questionnaires were elaborated from primary and secondary information and structural equation models (SEM) have been used for statistical treatment and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Findings: This study highlights the importance of the relationships among perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty and the importance of the different dimensions of perceived value. Practical implications: The empirical study and the results provide important evidence for managers, specifically, the critical influence of the emotional and social perceived values by the customer on his or her level of satisfaction and on the achievement of final loyalty—the importance in the commercial training programs of this matters. Originality, value, and contribution: This study highlights the importance of the most intangibles dimensions of value for the industrial cluster relations between companies.Keywords
This publication has 93 references indexed in Scilit:
- The effect of social conflict on relationship loyalty in business marketsIndustrial Marketing Management, 2007
- Emotions, trust and relationship development in business relationships: A conceptual model for buyer–seller dyadsIndustrial Marketing Management, 2006
- Letter from the editorIndustrial Marketing Management, 2006
- Value in business markets: What do we know? Where are we going?Industrial Marketing Management, 2005
- Sourcing in the global aerospace supply chain using online reverse auctionsIndustrial Marketing Management, 2004
- Capturing value creation in business relationships: A customer perspectiveIndustrial Marketing Management, 2003
- 아웃소싱 전략요인이 마케팅 성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구Journal of Global Academy of Marketing Science, 2003
- Measuring Customer-Perceived Value in Business Markets: A Prerequisite for Marketing Strategy Development and ImplementationIndustrial Marketing Management, 2001
- The dynamics of the service delivery process: A value-based approachInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, 1997
- On the evaluation of structural equation modelsJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1988