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Article
Publication date: 24 July 2009

Antecedents and consequences of buyer‐seller relationship quality in the financial services industry

Lova Rajaobelina and Jasmin Bergeron

The purpose of this study is to develop a model that investigates the antecedents and the consequences of buyer‐seller relationship quality in the financial services.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a model that investigates the antecedents and the consequences of buyer‐seller relationship quality in the financial services.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a survey of more than 400 dyads (414 financial advisors and 772 clients in Canada) and were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings

The results notably show that, for both financial advisors and clients, customer orientation has an impact on buyer‐seller relationship quality, whereas buyer‐seller similarity does not. The link between relationship quality and both consequences (purchase intention and word‐of‐mouth) is significant for the two samples.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations and research directions refer to the measure of word‐of‐mouth construct, which is only weakly reliable, and the need to consider a multilevel approach.

Practical implications

The study can be helpful for financial advisors to build effective strategies for enhancing their relationships with clients.

Originality/value

The study is one of the few to consider both perceptions (financial advisors and clients) in order to analyze buyer‐seller relationship quality in the financial services sector.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 27 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02652320910979889
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

  • Buyer‐seller relationships
  • Financial services
  • Relationship marketing

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Article
Publication date: 5 September 2008

The effects of humour usage by financial advisors in sales encounters

Jasmin Bergeron and Marc‐Antoine Vachon

For many years, the financial industry has been perceived as conservative, old‐fashioned, and somewhat tedious. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of…

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Abstract

Purpose

For many years, the financial industry has been perceived as conservative, old‐fashioned, and somewhat tedious. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of humour usage by financial advisors on several sales performance outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was completed by more than 400 buyer‐seller dyads. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were conducted. An important strength of SEM is its ability to incorporate the psychometric notions of constructs and measurement errors in the same estimation procedure.

Findings

A financial advisor's good sense of humour has a positive impact on the clients' perceptions of service quality, trust, satisfaction, purchase intentions, and word‐of‐mouth propensity.

Research limitations/implications

Although only customer perceptions were used, the paper suggests many ways to use the results as a spring board by sales researchers to accrue research efforts in understanding the truly rich role of humour.

Practical implications

Many practical implications are suggested to entice organizations to emphasize salespeople's humouristic skills as a competitive advantage.

Originality/value

This is believed to be the first paper to investigate the effects of humour usage in sales encounters in the financial industry. A better understanding of humour is useful for service providers owing to its mass potential, its low cost, and its positive benefits for customers and financial advisors alike.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 26 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02652320810902424
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

  • Financial services
  • Humour
  • Selling methods
  • Marketing strategy
  • Banks
  • Customer satisfaction

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Article
Publication date: 16 March 2010

Customer sociability and the total service experience: Antecedents of positive word‐of‐mouth intentions

Ronald J. Ferguson, Michèle Paulin and Jasmin Bergeron

The service‐dominant logic describes customer‐actualized value as being idiosyncratic, experiential, contextual, and meaning laden. Since positive word‐of‐mouth (WOM) is…

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Abstract

Purpose

The service‐dominant logic describes customer‐actualized value as being idiosyncratic, experiential, contextual, and meaning laden. Since positive word‐of‐mouth (WOM) is an expression of customer‐actualized value, the paper postulate that WOM is not only related to a holistic set of assessments of the service experience but also to the idiosyncratic nature of the individual customer. In particular, do socially oriented individuals have a greater propensity to engage in positive WOM? The purpose of this paper is to test hypotheses that socially oriented personality traits, and personal values as well as a set of dimensions of the total service experience, are antecedents of positive WOM. The context studied is a surgical operation involving considerable personal meaning and implication in the whole service process.

Design/methodology/approach

A cohort of 500 surgical patients are studied prior to, three‐days after and one‐month post‐surgery. Independent variables include the socially oriented personality traits of agreeableness and extraversion, social‐ vs self‐oriented personal values, as well as dimensions of the total service experience assessed by information adequacy, pain and discomfort, patient‐to‐patient interaction, patient‐to‐personnel interaction, and recovery outcomes. The dependent variable is the strength of positive WOM intentions.

Findings

The sociability of surgery patients as measured by both their personality traits and socially oriented values is significantly related to the strength of positive WOM intentions. Self‐oriented values are not associated with positive WOM intentions. Also, to varying degrees, all dimensions of the total service experience are associated with positive WOM intentions.

Originality/value

The paper is the first to illustrate that, in a given service context, the antecedents of customer loyalty may be complex, not only dependent on customer assessments of their interactions and experiences throughout the service process, but also relative to their dispositional characteristics such as sociability. The consistency of the results for positive WOM assessed at three‐days and one‐month post‐surgery adds to the robustness of the findings. This paper makes a significant contribution to the service‐dominant logic and the concept of value co‐creation.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231011025100
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

  • Personality
  • Customer loyalty
  • Health services
  • Customer service management
  • Consumer behaviour

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Article
Publication date: 1 November 2001

Targeting consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products

Michel Laroche, Jasmin Bergeron and Guido Barbaro‐Forleo

Concerns related to the environment are evident in the increasingly ecologically conscious marketplace. Using various statistical analyses, investigats the demographic…

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Abstract

Concerns related to the environment are evident in the increasingly ecologically conscious marketplace. Using various statistical analyses, investigats the demographic, psychological and behavioral profiles of consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Finds that this segment of consumers were more likely to be females, married and with at least one child living at home. They reported that today’s ecological problems are severe, that corporations do not act responsibly toward the environment and that behaving in an ecologically favorable fashion is important and not inconvenient. They place a high importance on security and warm relationships with others, and they often consider ecological issues when making a purchase. Managerial implications for green marketers and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 18 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006155
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

  • Green marketing
  • Consumer behaviour
  • Segmentation
  • Environment
  • Canada

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2003

How intangibility affects perceived risk: the moderating role of knowledge and involvement

Michel Laroche, Jasmin Bergeron and Christine Goutaland

The marketing literature suggests that product intangibility is positively associated with perceived risk and the intangibility construct encompasses three dimensions…

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Abstract

The marketing literature suggests that product intangibility is positively associated with perceived risk and the intangibility construct encompasses three dimensions: physical intangibility, mental intangibility, and generality. The purpose of this research is to test which dimension of the intangibility construct is the most correlated with perceived risk. A survey was conducted and structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the proposed model. Results show that the mental dimension of intangibility accounts for more variance in the perceived risk construct than the other two dimensions, even when knowledge and involvement are included as moderators. Hence, the challenge for marketers might not be so much to reduce risk by physically tangibilizing goods and services, as has been advised for the past two decades, as rather to mentally tangibilize their offerings.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/08876040310467907
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

  • Intangibility
  • Risk
  • Perception
  • Services marketing
  • Knowledge
  • Involvement

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Article
Publication date: 28 January 2014

Online relationship quality: scale development and initial testing

Isabelle Brun, Lova Rajaobelina and Line Ricard

The purpose of this paper is to propose a reliable and valid integrative scale for online relationship quality based on both the relationship marketing and electronic…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a reliable and valid integrative scale for online relationship quality based on both the relationship marketing and electronic commerce literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The scale was developed using the approach put forward by Churchill (1979). The scale development and validation process includes a qualitative exploratory phase, three pre-tests and a final study using an online questionnaire (476 members of a consumer panel).

Findings

The findings support a third-order integrative model of online relationship quality composed of three dimensions (trust, commitment and satisfaction). The final scale is composed of 21 items.

Research limitations/implications

The study shows a lack of discrimination between satisfaction and trust, which other studies have also found. As the scale is validated in only one sector, online banking, it should be tested and replicated in other contexts (e.g. insurance).

Practical implications

An instrument for assessing the quality of online relationships between banks and consumers is important for marketing professionals who want to determine their relational positioning and focus on those dimensions that promote long-term online relationships. The scale developed here can be used to assess customers’ perceptions of the quality of the relationship with an online financial institution, to segment those customers more effectively, and to improve targeting of marketing strategies and activities.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the enrichment of the body of theory and provides researchers with a tool for the further investigation of the quality of online relationships.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-02-2013-0022
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

  • E-banking
  • Relationship marketing
  • Measurement scale
  • Online relationship quality

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Book part
Publication date: 1 August 2017

Convenience Orientation in the 21st Century: Qualitative Insights from Interviews with Consumers and Marketing Professionals

Carolin Scheiben and Lisa Carola Holthoff

The chapter investigates factors shaping convenience orientation in the 21st century as well as present-day barriers to the consumption of food and non-food convenience products.

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Abstract

Purpose

The chapter investigates factors shaping convenience orientation in the 21st century as well as present-day barriers to the consumption of food and non-food convenience products.

Methodology/approach

A qualitative research approach with two kinds of data triangulation is used. Multiple key informants (marketing managers and consumers) allow a consideration from different angles and multiple methodologies (in-depth and focus group interviews) help to gain deeper insights into the topic.

Findings

Convenience orientation comprises dimensions that were previously not considered in marketing research. In addition to the known factors time and effort saving, consumers buy convenience products because of the flexibility they provide. Moreover, concerns for health, environment, and quality are important barriers that prevent consumers from buying and consuming convenience products.

Research limitations/implications

Our results suggest that factors increasing and decreasing convenience consumption depend at least partly on the product category. Future research should integrate various other product groups to further explore domain-specific convenience orientation.

Practical implications

The conceptualization of convenience orientation offers important implications for new product development as well as for the design of the marketing mix. For instance, existing barriers could be overcome by improving transparency or meeting environmental concerns.

Originality/value

The chapter reveals the factors shaping the consumption of convenience products. The presented findings are important to academics researching convenience consumption and practitioners producing and distributing convenience products.

Details

Qualitative Consumer Research
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1548-643520170000014012
ISBN: 978-1-78714-491-0

Keywords

  • Convenience orientation
  • consumption
  • consumer behavior
  • interviews
  • barriers

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