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This paper aims to investigate the satisfaction of dealers with their suppliers in the agricultural machinery sector.

A dummy approach of the three‐factor model is used to detect the dimensions that influence the overall satisfaction of agricultural machinery dealers. The model considers satisfiers, dissatisfiers and so‐called performance factors that might lead to both satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Two dissatisfiers, after‐sales and service methods and relationship with supplier, are detected. Furthermore, there is one satisfier, competitive outlook, and one performance factor, the product program.

The dummy approach detects the three factors implicitly. A Kano‐questionnaire might be helpful to confirm the results.

Producers should first fulfill the factors that have the highest negative impact: product program, followed by after‐sales and service methods and relationship with supplier. After reaching a specific level within these factors, producers could seek to increase their dealers' satisfaction with the two factors, product program and competitive outlook. The product program thus represents the key factor for producers seeking to both decrease dissatisfaction and increase satisfaction.

While different approaches of the three‐factor model are used along with customer satisfaction, this paper is the first to detect different factors of dealer satisfaction in the agricultural machinery sector.

Increased attention has been paid to the question of how to build stable and long‐term working relationships between suppliers and dealers. This study proposes a conceptual model including behavioral dimensions of supplier‐dealer relationships and presents hypotheses about how to achieve satisfactory inter‐organizational relationships. Satisfaction is the consequence of working relationships focused upon in our model. The model is an empirical assessment of the relationship between Swedish lumber dealers and their suppliers. T‐test evidence suggests that all proposed critical variables, with the exception of coercive power, are of significant importance for achieving a high rate of perceived relationship satisfaction, regardless of whether the relationship is characterized by a high or a low level of trust and commitment. A good reputation, close relationship and positive relationship benefits are key variables for the achievement of high satisfaction in a “high‐trust and commitment relationship”. Results also indicate that it is possible to achieve a high satisfaction level even when the supplier‐dealer trust and commitment are lacking.

Suppliers use a variety of strategies to gain a preferred position within their dealers′ supply network. Dealers allocate purchases among several suppliers in order to maximize benefits from their suppliers′ competitive maneuvers and to avoid being dominated. Uses an extension of transaction cost analysis and contract law to provide empirical insight into supplier‐dealer relationships within dealers′ supply networks. Also suggests simple but powerful mechanisms for suppliers to enhance relationship strength.

The paper aims primarily to describe and analyze how the strategic and operational relationship with independent dealers has been improved and controlled. The paper also aims to describe and analyze the improvement program that the dealerships have designed, adopted and implemented, and the improvements that have resulted from them.

The paper used an explorative, qualitative research approach using in‐depth interviews. In order to achieve a prior understanding of Volvo Trucks North America's (VTNA) quality improvements at the dealerships, three in‐depth interviews were conducted with dealers in the USA. One interview was held with a business manager responsible for five dealerships in the Chicago area, and another with the person in charge of the quality improvement program at the corporate level.

The key to success lies in the strategic and systematic implementation of the tools and programs with which VTNA has provided its dealerships. The following six factors were identified as key issues in VTNA's improvement program: customer focus, product quality, service experience, employees, information and communication technology, and customer satisfaction.

This paper illustrates how a large company such as Volvo is able to positively influence a large number of smaller companies using a small number of policies.

The automotive industry in the European Union (EU) faces a sharply reduced regulatory environment, with Block Exemption (1400/2002). Economists have predicted fundamental changes in the market as a result of the modified Block Exemption. In this article, the aim is to investigate how the relationship between a car dealer and its main supplier (i.e. an OEM or its national representative), affects how the dealer perceives threats and opportunities in this more competitive environment.

Based on relationship marketing theory, propositions about antecedents and consequences of commitment to a supplier are formulated for the changing automotive market. Data were collected from 413 car dealerships in Belgium, The Netherlands and Finland, countries without domestic automobile brands.

Commitment to the main supplier is mainly driven by satisfaction and trust. The more car dealers are committed to their main supplier, the lower the threat they perceive from new intermediaries, and the lower their intention to expand their business beyond the current relationship. Commitment to their main suppliers also reinforces their confidence in the future. This confidence in the future spurs dealers' expansion plans within their current relationship.

Longitudinal research would allow better inferences about market evolution and causal sequences.

Satisfied and committed dealers seem reluctant to make radical changes in their relationships and marketing strategy, apparently being entrenched in traditional channel structures. The modified Block Exemption could increase the average size of dealerships, improve the competitive position of large dealers, accelerate consolidation in the automotive distribution sector, and decrease competition between traditional dealerships. Opportunities have been created by the modified Block Exemption for new entrants to capitalize on new market niches and customer categories. Multi‐brand dealers could use these opportunities to create a purchasing experience that differentiates them from the traditional dealers.

Contributing to scarce research on complex channel relationships within a captive distribution structure, this is the first empirical study of the European car industry in the context of the modified Block Exemption. It is also one of the few studies that takes the perspective of the dealership.

Reports on a study on the concept of car after‐sales service as applied in Germany. The study was undertaken by benchmarking four key players: Fiat AG, Nissan Deutchland, Toyota GmbH, and Ford Werk AG. Describes the factors responsible for the growing importance of the after‐sales sector in automobile marketing.

Recent literature in marketing reveals a substantial growth of interest in behavioural issues relating to channels of distribution. It appears that research in behavioural aspects of channels has come of age in the 1980s and the interest is likely to continue. Behavioural constructs such as conflict, co‐operation, power, performance, channel‐member satisfaction, and the interrelationships among these have been the focal point of an increasing number of conceptual and theoretical writings. The primary intent of this literature is to augment a better understanding and management of channel behaviour.

This paper aims to link conceptually the concepts of price fairness and customer satisfaction and empirically demonstrate the influence of perceived price fairness on satisfaction judgments. Further, it seeks to examine specific factors that influence fairness perceptions including price perception and consumer vulnerability.

The study is conducted in the context of automobile purchases in major German car dealerships. Based on a theoretical conceptualization of the constructs and an empirical pretest, 246 car buyers were surveyed and their fairness perceptions and satisfaction judgments with the car buying process measured.

The research shows that price perceptions directly influence satisfaction judgments as well as indirectly through perceptions of price fairness. Results also indicated that consumers' vulnerability, which is induced by a perceived demand‐supply relationship and the urgency of need from the consumers' side, had a negative effect on perceived price offer fairness.

The research demonstrated the influence of perceived price fairness on satisfaction judgments empirically. The study was conducted in the context of car purchases and the generalizability of the model should be further tested.

The effect of consumer vulnerability implies that sellers should not only avoid exploiting their customers but should also anticipate consumers' potential feelings of being exploited. Being sensitive to the buyers’ psychological state and assuring buyers of fair treatment will enhance perceptions of price fairness without changing the price offer.

Both the direct and indirect effects of price perception on satisfaction judgment were examined in the paper. Specifically, the influences of consumer vulnerability and price procedure fairness on satisfaction judgments are new and contribute to the dual‐entitlement principle and our existing knowledge in price fairness.

Discusses the issue of power in franchise systems and the consequences it has on the relationships between manufacturers/franchisers and dealers/franchisees. Attention is paid to the training issue, as it is a significant variable in the “franchise package” which is provided by the franchiser to the franchisees, and through the literature proves to be a determining source of power possessed and employed by the manufacturer/franchiser over the dealer/franchisee. The literature review shows that there has been relatively little academic research on this issue. Training has been researched as part of the “assistance” or “general support” provided by the manufacturer, but not as a factor in its own right. An analysis of the current trends characterising the training provisions within the UK car industry and their implications on power relationships between manufacturers and dealers is presented. Training appears to be a source of power possessed and employed by the car manufacturers and, thus, it confirms that the car manufacturers highly control and influence the training area.

Customer clubs belong to the most important and particularly cost‐intensive elements of customer retention systems. By offering specific advantages to club members, they are supposed to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, up to now there is no certainty with respect to the existence and degree of the expected loyalty effects. Thus, there still is also no sufficient foundation for an estimation whether investments in customer clubs can be justified in comparison to several alternatives of gaining new customers or customer retention. To fill this gap in information, this paper focuses on the question of which kind of retention effects of customer clubs might exist and whether there is a scientific evidence of these effects. In the first step, a theoretical model and propositions of different retention effects of customer clubs are developed. Afterwards the results of an empirical study among members of the Volkswagen Customer Club, Germany’s largest automotive customer club are presented. They indicate that customer club satisfaction has a remarkable impact on the customer’s relationship satisfaction and customer retention. Consequently it can be concluded that a customer club certainly is an important issue of retention management.