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The purpose of this study is to understand how perceived vulnerability reduces consumers’ willingness to utilize services offered by nonprofit organizations (NPOs).

Three online surveys were conducted across two research contexts to test the proposed model. Hayes’ PROCESS was used to analyze the data.

Perceived vulnerability decreases the perception of relational benefits, which in turn decrease consumers’ commitment to NPOs. Reduced commitment lessens consumers’ willingness to cooperate and acquiesce to organizations’ recommendations. Risk aversion and cognitive ability mediate the relationship between perceived vulnerability and perceived relational benefits.

The findings uncover mechanisms through which perceived vulnerability influences perceived relational benefits, contributing to the understanding of behaviors of consumers that perceive vulnerable. This paper does not manipulate consumers’ perceived vulnerability but only measures their perceived vulnerability, limiting the explanatory power of causal relationships between perceived vulnerability and perceived relational benefits.

This study can provide some insight for NPOs about how to better serve their target population. To increase willingness to utilize service offerings, NPOs should decrease their perceived risks of new services.

This paper clarifies why consumers that perceive vulnerability are not willing to deploy the NPOs’ services which could improve their situation by demonstrating that cognitive ability and risk aversion mediate the relationship between perceived vulnerability and perceived relational benefits.

The purpose of this article is to empirically examine the influence of consumer involvement on perceived relational benefits across service types.

Based on Bowen's service typology, responses from patrons of fast‐food restaurants and hairdressers/stylists were used to assess the influence of consumer involvement on relationship marketing, specifically perceived service benefits and response behaviors.

Results indicate that highly involved consumers perceive greater relational benefits when engaged in a high contact, customized service (i.e. hairdressers/stylists) versus a more standardized, moderate contact service (i.e. fast‐food restaurant).

Care should be taken when generalizing these findings to other service settings as this study only addressed two service types. Thus, an opportunity for future research could add moderate contact, non‐personalized services to determine if there are significant differences between the three service categories. Additionally, this study was based in the USA, thus cultural differences may influence perceived benefits of service firms selected.

The results of this study suggest that a service firm providing a more standardized service offering is better served by hiring and training competent and trustworthy employees than by adopting relational benefit programs. On the other hand, high contact customized service providers are encouraged to engage in relationship activities with highly involved consumers, specifically those related to confidence benefits.

This study confirms the recommendation that relationship marketing may be inappropriate for all service firms. More importantly, the level of consumer involvement with the service has a significant moderating effect on perceived relational benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of functional value and symbolic value between positive moods and word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals in the context of Taiwan’s banking industry. In addition, this study investigates the moderating effect of relational benefits on the relationship between perceived value and WOM.

The research model was tested using data collected from customers (n=362) of the top 10 domestic banks in Taiwan. Structure equation modeling was employed to test and validate the conceptual model.

Positive moods are found to be an important predictor of functional value, symbolic value and WOM in this banking service study. Four types of relational benefits are identified including social, special treatment, confidence and face. Note that two distinct segments of bank customers are identified in terms of relational benefits: those who appreciate face benefits (n₁=169), and those who appreciate general relational benefits (n₂=193). The findings reveal the existence of partial mediation between a banking customer’s mood and WOM through functional value and symbolic value in the overall sample (n=362). However, it was found that functional value partially mediates the influence of positive moods on WOM among respondents in the “general relational benefits” segment only. That is, relational benefits are found to moderate the relationship between functional value and WOM.

This study expands the existing body of knowledge on customers’ perceptions of value by differentiating types of value perceptions.

This paper aims to investigate the different types of perceived relational benefits in the bank‐retail customer relationship. It further seeks to assess the influence of these benefits on satisfaction with the bank and on three behavioral outcomes, word‐of‐mouth, intention to continue the relationship and cross‐buying.

Three focus groups with retail bank customers were conducted to identify perceived relational benefits. Then exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were run on survey data to confirm the structure of relational benefits. Finally, a structural equation model was estimated in order to test the relationships between relational benefits, satisfaction with the bank and behavioral outcomes. The country of study was Greece.

Five types of perceived relational benefits were identified: two trust‐related (competence and benevolence), special treatment, social and convenience. Only competence and convenience significantly affect satisfaction with the bank. No direct link between relational benefits and behavioral outcomes was found, as satisfaction plays a mediating role between them.

Findings are context specific but extend previous knowledge on the nature of relational benefits and point out the need to study trust benefits in a multidimensional way as well as to further confirm “convenience” relational benefits.

Findings suggest additional leverages to build relationships and help identify priorities for enhancing overall bank satisfaction through relational actions.

This is the first time that two types of trust‐related benefits are distinguished and a convenience benefit is identified. Further, two of these newly identified benefits (convenience and competence) are the ones that build satisfaction.

Conversion franchising is a strategy where franchisors recruit existing franchisees from rival systems or by converting independent businesses to franchisees. The present research aims to investigate the attractiveness of conversion offers and the likelihood of such offers being accepted under different conditions of the franchising agreement.

Based on commitment theory and agency theory, it is hypothesised that conversion likelihood will be larger if the conversion offer is more attractive in terms of relational benefits, relational costs, the management of control in the franchise relationship, or perception of brand strength. The study comprises a qualitative phase followed by a scenario experiment held among 415 Australian business format franchisees across six industries.

The qualitative findings reveal a predominantly calculative attitude towards the franchise relationship. The experimental findings support that relational costs and perception of brand strength are unconditional drivers of conversion likelihood; however, the effects of relational benefits and power and control depend on the details of the conversion offer. Effects of relational benefits depend on the level of power and control. More experienced franchisees and service-based franchisees are more likely to convert.

The use of experimental case scenarios limits the external validity but enhances the internal validity by allowing control for factors that are difficult to account for in survey-based approaches. The study includes only franchisees from Australia although from a range of industries. The proposed methodology can be easily modified for other contexts.

The results can help franchisors tailor conversion proposals to suit specific conversion targets based on experience and industry type. Franchisors should generally focus on developing conversion proposals that are attractive in terms of perceived brand strength and relational costs. Relational benefits and management of power and control appear to play a role only in particular circumstances. For example, when no other factors differentiate the competitor, the management of power and control can make a difference in indicating franchise support quality and level of control among franchisees.

The study extends franchising research to the franchisee perspective and to a non-American context. It utilises an experimental approach that hitherto had not been applied in franchising research, allowing rigorous testing of hypotheses about franchise behaviour. Hypotheses are tested for different industry groups.

Frontline employee authenticity has been investigated in relation to both potentially positive and negative outcomes, but largely from the employee perspective. The current paper aims to investigate frontline authenticity in a sales/service context from the customer perspective, specifically examining the influence of adaptive selling in relation to a customer’s perception of salesperson authenticity. Effects on customer’s perceptions of final benefits and value are examined.

Survey data collected from customers of an insurance firm in South Korea were used to investigate the proposed model. Customer perceptions of salesperson adaptive selling, authenticity, key benefits delivered and organizational value provision were all captured.

The results suggest that authenticity does indeed positively influence perceptions of beneficial outcomes related to a transaction with a salesperson. These benefits then fully mediate the linkage from adaptive selling to a customer’s perceived value, gained from the salesperson’s organization.

The collection of data from only the customer’s perspective is both a strength and a weakness. Although all of the key variables investigated are important to evaluate via the lens of the customer, such a data collection always introduces the potential problem of common method bias.

Managers should be aware of the importance of a salesperson behaving in an authentic manner. Although many frontline contexts have desired and scripted narratives for interacting with customers, deriving key benefits through the customers’ eyes may come more strongly by allowing the frontline employee to act naturally.

Authenticity has been investigated in managerial and brand contexts, but an understanding of its importance in a frontline context is in its early stages. Similarly, the importance of understanding conditions that moderate the effectiveness of adaptive selling is consistent with calls in the literature.

The paper aims to examine the nexus between perceived relational benefits and brand engagement within a restaurant setting in a developing economy context.

This paper used a survey research design, obtaining data via self-administered questionnaire from 500 customers of 25 restaurants. A five-stage analysis involving exploratory factor analysis, ANOVA, multiple regression, cluster analysis and multinomial logistic regression was carried out using SPSS 22 for Windows.

Results from the study show that three relational benefits (social benefit, exploration and entertainment) contribute significantly to consumers’ brand engagement in a restaurant service setting. Variations across consumers with low, medium and high brand engagement levels are also provided.

The paper extends the current understanding of brand engagement from a restaurant setting. It provides evidence to issues of potential research and managerial interests and offers insightful implications to the academic and practitioner communities.

This paper aims to explore benefits customers expect from a long‐term relationship with their bank and the costs associated with such a relationship; it further tests these relational benefits and costs as segmentation variables.

A qualitative study based on three focus groups was designed to provide initial input on different types of expected relational benefits and costs. Then, quantitative data were collected from a survey of 209 real bank customers.

Analysis reveals five types of expected benefits and two types of costs. Four clusters were formed out of these seven expected benefits/costs. These clusters are also different on demographic, behavioral and psychographic variables and present clear and consistent relational profiles.

Scales developed from the focus groups need further validation. Also, findings should be considered as sector and context specific. This work brings additional insight into the nature of expected relational benefits and costs, supports their usefulness for customer segmentation and offers opportunities for studying relational benefits and costs in an integrated way.

Findings provide managers with a better understanding of what customers value in the relationship with their bank and what keeps customers back from having a “close” relationship. Also, relational benefits/costs segmentation is suggested as a powerful tool for targeting and positioning.

The study identifies new types of relational benefits and costs. It is the first time expected relational benefits and costs are studied together and confirmed as meaningful segmentation variables.

This paper seeks to investigate the value enterprise customers perceive in information sharing services and the consequences of that perceived value for relationship intention.

An impact model was developed to assess the associations between the functional and relational value perceived by enterprise customers in regards to information sharing services and their relationship commitment and loyalty intention. The model was tested on 81 firms which had participated in e‐business projects subsidized by the Taiwan Government. Partial least squares was conducted to assess hypothesized information sharing marketing effects.

The findings suggest that functional and relational value enterprise customers perceive in information sharing services will positively influence their relationship intention.

The proposed model provides an expanded view of the marketing effects of an information sharing service. Researchers believe this work to be a starting point for the research of the marketing effects of an information sharing service.

The research results of this study reveal that information sharing not only can be used to support supply chain activities (i.e. facilitating supply chain management), but also can be used to support marketing activities (i.e. enhancing customer relationships).

The purpose of this paper is to empirically a model that reflects the different types of relational benefits perceived by customers, as well as the benefits obtained by the organization in terms of customer loyalty.

In order to achieve the aim of this paper, a quantitative analysis through a personal survey to consumers for four types of retailing activities is performed. Data are analyzed through factor analysis and a structural equation model is estimated.

Confidence benefits and special treatment benefits have major influence on customer loyalty towards the retailer. These results are consistent across retail activities.

The present study is limited in its scope and a first approach is considered that it might inspire further research adding new constructs into the model in order to deepen into the analysis of the relationship between customer and retailer relational benefits.

Since the benefits related to purchase risk reduction and confidence are the most influencing on customer loyalty, the retailer should concentrate his efforts in offering guarantees for his products and carrying out communication campaigns for improving corporate image. Also actions providing special treatment benefits might have a positive influence on customer loyalty.

Relational benefits and results for the retailer are studied in four different retail activities.