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Using the concept of human security, the purpose of this paper is to explore the subjective perception of insecurities experienced by Thai subcontracted workers in industrial value chains and examines how they mitigate these insecurities.

This paper uses a qualitative approach and analyses the narratives from in-depth interviews with 23 female subcontracted workers in low-income communities in Bangkok, Thailand. Four male subcontracted workers were also interviewed to compare gender differences. Five key informant interviews with NGOs and academicians were conducted.

There are three main findings. First, subcontracted workers’ economic insecurities are influenced by their work and personal trajectories in the labour market. Second, many of their health and care-related insecurities are fuelled by relational rather than individual experience; that is, they are worried they will not be able to provide care for their children, to fulfil their responsibility as mothers, or they are concerned with the effects of their hazardous work environment on their family members. Third, most subcontracted workers mitigate their insecurities using their immediate relational network in the absence of formal protection.

While earlier literature on subcontracted workers’ vulnerabilities in Thailand discussed the issues from a politico-economic perspective, this paper uses the concept of human security, which enables us to better understand their insecurities as context-specific experiences in their daily lives.

This study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of cognitive trust during the expansion phase in buyer–supplier relationships. It takes a global approach and examines cultural nuances between developed nation and emerging market firms by including participants from the United States, China, and Brazil. The results demonstrate the importance of trust in building social capital and the central role which trust plays in shaping business relationships in all studied cultural contexts. There are similarities and differences across countries. Results support relationship marketing theory by demonstrating the importance of conflict resolution, communication frequency, and social bond in building buyer–supplier relationships in the United States, which in turn increase cooperation between partners. Results also indicate that in China, social bond plays a much greater role in building trust, which in turn increases cooperation only to the extent that it serves as a mechanism to secure committed relationships. In Brazil, results show that conflict resolution is the most important factor in building trust. It also mediates the relationship between communication frequency and trust, as well as drives cooperation positively. Overall, trust is found to influence exchange of confidential communication and increases commitment between partners in all three countries.

This paper aims to contribute to the empirical validation of the relationship model as it applies to the case of major national brands positioned in the frequently purchased packaged goods markets, and propose the perceived brand relationship orientation concept as an additional antecedent of trust, affective commitment and attitudinal loyalty. Yet, for a relationship to exist, the parties need to be mutually considered as potential relational partners. This paper seeks to introduce the concept of perceived brand relationship orientation, which is considered, along with perceived quality, as a significant direct antecedent of relationship quality (trust and affective commitment) and, indirectly, attitudinal loyalty.

The empirical application involves major national brands positioned in frequently purchased packaged goods food categories (ice cream and frozen meals). The conceptualization and measurement of the perceived brand relationship orientation bears on a qualitative analysis of marketing experts and consumers. Refinement and validation of measures are applied to a convenience sample of 153 students and finally to a sample of 404 consumers, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Structural equation modeling is used to test the model and hypotheses.

First, the authors validate the relationship marketing model in the case of strong national brands positioned in the frequently purchased packaged goods sector. The authors show that perceived quality impacts relationship quality (trust and affective commitment), which in turn influences attitudinal loyalty. Second, in addition to the effects of perceived quality, the authors show that perceived brand relationship orientation has direct positive impacts on trust and affective commitment and, in turn, has an indirect impact on attitudinal loyalty. However, this effect is limited to the case where consumers have a high (versus low) level of attitude toward the brand.

The application is limited to only two product categories and to strong national brands that enjoy high levels of perceived quality and attitude. Also, the model could be connected to behavioral loyalty metrics, in addition to attitudinal loyalty. The moderating impacts of relational disposition toward the brand should also be tested in future research.

To develop consumers' attitudinal loyalty, brands must invest in programs converting efficiently perceived quality into trust and affective commitment as bases for differentiation and competitive advantage. Implications for brands' communication and distribution policies come along together with the necessity of enhancing the contacts and dialogue between the brand and the consumers. This confirms the potential outputs of brands' CRM strategies in the case of frequently purchased packaged good categories.

The conceptualization of BPRO in the case of frequently purchased packaged good categories is a new step in the consumer‐brand relationship understanding.

The purpose of this study is to understand how employees of an organization build and maintain successful business relationships by analyzing major antecedents of relationship quality and relationship commitment.

In this study, the authors develop a conceptual framework and formulate hypotheses regarding the relationships between demographic homophily, interpersonal communication, trust and dependent variables of perceived relationship quality and relationship commitment. This paper tests hypotheses presented in this study with the help of a structural equation model, based on a data sample from South Korea.

Unlike common thinking, demographic homophily does not directly increase the perceived relationship quality. The authors find a significant direct effect of interpersonal communication on relationship commitment but no effect of commitment on perceived relationship quality. Both seem to play independent roles but are positively influenced through the emergence of trust.

By applying demographic homophily and interpersonal communication as antecedents and trust as mediator and main driver, the authors research effects on perceived intra-organizational relationship commitment and perceived relationship quality. In detail, the authors confirm the hypothesized centrality of trust in intra-organizational relationships between demographic homophily, interpersonal communication and dependent variables of perceived relationship quality and relationship commitment. Nevertheless, the authors surprisingly find neither significant evidence that demographic homophily increases the perceived quality of a relationship, nor does it lead to higher communication intensity directly, even in an environment (i.e. Korea), where it would be expected.

Based on the findings of this study, there are several practical implications. Understanding the interpersonal relationship characteristics in an intra-organizational setting enables managers to optimize organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Intra-organizational relationships between employees’ are highly dependent on mutual trust as an indicator for relationship quality and relationship commitment. Organizations can also benefit from the understanding of the mechanisms of demographic homophily and interpersonal communication for the establishment of interpersonal trust as well.

Research about the effect of demographic homophily and interpersonal communication and the central role of trust in an intra-organizational approach to business relationships on perceived relationship quality and relationship commitment is scarce. The mutual testing of the effects and interaction of established constructs like demographic homophily, interpersonal communication and trust on perceived relationship quality and commitment constitutes the main contribution of this study to the literature on management and business relationships. The insights of this study about interpersonal bonding help companies to establish long-term business relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze customer loyalty in the context of existing relationships between Brazilian banking service provider and its customers in the context of B2C (Business-to-Consumer) relationships. Hence, a theoretical model was proposed and tested with banking services private individual customers taking into account perceived value, service provider reputation, financial bonding tactics, structural bonding tactics, social bonding tactics and switching costs as customer loyalty determinants.

A multivariate statistical approach with structural equations modeling was used in a 505 customer sample of the one prominent bank in Brazil.

Results indicate that the proposed theoretical model confirming a satisfactory fit, presenting a good explanatory power (R²=0.738) and supporting that perceived value influences the service provider reputation; financial bonding tactics, structural bonding tactics and social bonding tactics influence perceived value; service provider reputation influences switching costs; switching costs influence customer loyalty and the social bonding tactics influence customer loyalty.

The results evidenced in the present research could serve as benchmarking for other researchers or managers connected to the financial service sector (or bank service) when looking for a better understanding about the antecedents of customer loyalty, adapting strategies and actions to stimulate and generate better market and economic–financial results for the institutions of this sector.

Finding out which constructs better explain customer loyalty, and its possible relations, is something relevant for the banking sector, once it can generate more effective managerial insights, positively making an impact in a customer portfolio performance, or the financial institution itself, from the construction, maintenance and strengthening of the relationships with customers.

This study aims to determine the mall criteria that are the most crucial for the youth market by determining the winning brand in comparison to other offerings to understand what is required to gain a competitive advantage and to differentiate a mall from its rivals.

This study chose the Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis-2 method to evaluate the mall preferences of young people. By using this method, the various criteria were evaluated for more than one alternative to find the best solution. JSMA program was used to analyze the data. The survey was administered using the mall intercept method to reduce sample bias.

The study identifies that the criteria that have the highest impact on the mall preferences of young people are the mall campaigns for loyal customers; the traffic in the mall locality and the mall’s parking facilities; the mall’s facilities for disabled people; the quality of the mall locality; and the quality of the people visiting the mall. The study reveals that a mall’s physical features, its facilities and the criteria related to employees have a very low impact on the mall choices of young people. The study further finds that the youth market has very low satisfaction levels for all of the identified criteria. This study reveals that this macro accessibility criterion is less relevant for the youth market than for the general population.

Despite the importance of this market, there is insufficient research on the shopping behavior of young people. They have a considerable impact on the purchasing decisions of their families, significant disposable income and constitute the future market for the sector. This study uniquely enables the sequential ordering of customers’ decision-making criteria and determines the effectiveness or impact of these criteria in the mall sector.