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Customer relational benefits have been identified as a driving motivation for consumers to engage in long term relationships with service providers. Such benefits can be expected to play a crucial role in the success of service firms when extending their business into other countries and cultures. Most of the previous discussion of relational benefits has been conducted almost exclusively in North-American contexts and has not addressed the impact a nation’s culture may have on the relevance of relational benefits for gaining relationship outcomes such as customer loyalty. The aim of this article is to deepen our understanding of the role of relational benefits in developing long-term relationships with consumers in a cross-cultural context. Specifically, propositions focusing on the moderating role of power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance for the benefits-outcomes relationship are developed. The article concludes with a discussion of potential implications for service firms and researchers.

Co-operative managers must invest appropriately to strengthen member relationships, such as by initiating corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions or providing members with more relational benefits. This paper aims to investigate how members’ motives (collectivistic vs individualistic) might influence the effectiveness of these investments in terms of enhancing members’ trust and loyalty intentions.

This research combines an exploratory approach, based on six focus groups, with a confirmatory approach based on a field study and two scenario-based experiments.

Members tend to regard the two motives in contest and infer a “more CSR versus more benefits” arbitration effort by co-operatives, such that they appear to prioritize one motive over the other. Members with individualistic motives principally support co-operatives’ arbitration toward relational benefits, so the positive effects of CSR initiatives on their trust and loyalty intentions are weaker (Study 1). Both CSR and relational benefits can be more or less efficient, depending on members’ motives (Study 2).

Reflecting their contrasting motives, members infer arbitration by co-operative managers, reflected in their “more CSR versus more benefits” belief. This insight and the related implications for trust and loyalty intentions have not been addressed in prior research.

Managers can avoid the negative consequences of “more CSR versus more benefits” inferences by ensuring a good fit between their investments and their members’ prevailing motives. If members have more collectivistic (cf. individualistic) motives, CSR initiatives (cf. relational benefits) enhance their trust and loyalty intentions more effectively.

This research builds on previous work on members’ relationships within co-operatives and on members’ motives. Results find that the effectiveness of co-operatives’ investments to strengthen members’ loyalty intentions depends on members’ prior motives.

Despite interest in social stereotypes such as gender, race and age, professional stereotypes of frontline employees is still a new topic that requires measurement in the banking services. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a reliable banker stereotype scale that reflects all useful dimensions.

A multi-dimensional scale is developed using a mixed method in the French context. Qualitative data were collected from two samples (11 private banking clients, 17 retail banking clients). Quantitative data were collected from two diversified samples built by quotas: an exploratory sample (n = 226) and a confirmatory sample (n = 579). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test and validate the scale.

The measurement scale proves to be valid and reliable. The scale is then used in a conceptual model as an explanatory factor of expected relational benefits where relations are analyzed using structural equation modeling. The model successfully provides some explanatory links between the banker stereotypes and the expected relational benefits.

The concept of the professional stereotype can be further used to better understand relationship quality and customer satisfaction through relational benefits, and more widely as a part of the know your customer (KYC) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) procedures.

The scale identifies four behavioral dimensions (partner, paternalistic, subordinate and shark) and one about dress code (formal clothing).

This paper aims to explore how and why salespeople enhance or hinder long-term business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships at the interpersonal level by considering self-disclosure and relational cost and reward evaluations.

Data from interviews (N = 47) with B2B sales professionals were analyzed, focusing on the shift of the phases in long-term B2B customer relationships.

Long-term B2B customer relationships evolve at the interpersonal level through a process of continuous relational cost and reward evaluation, self-disclosure and business disclosure in three phases: becoming business partners, collaborative partners and collaborative and personal partners. The reward evaluations progress from being business related to including even more relational benefits. Disclosure progresses through general business disclosure and general self-disclosure; strategic business disclosure and personal life self-disclosure; and synergistic business disclosure and private self-disclosure.

The long-term B2B customer relationships could be studied at the interpersonal level from the customer’s perspective. Self-disclosure could be studied in cross-cultural settings as well as gender differences should be considered in future studies. Business and social penetration theory could be applied to investigate different types of relationships and other professional relationships, such as those between employers and employees. It would be important to test whether the business-related and self-disclosure subtypes apply to the development of other types of professional relationships or whether other disclosure subtypes exist. The authors recommend exploring salespeople’s and customers’ privacy management strategies in multiple communication channels.

Managers may apply the results of this study in their customer relationship management and sales training.

The findings outline a contextual extension of social penetration theory.

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.

Extant studies on the relational capital—performance benefits in buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) give limited attention to the value of internal resources/capabilities possessed by each party, thus imply the universal benefits of relational capital regardless of a party's own abilities. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper aims to investigate whether and how a firm's operational efficiency moderates the relation between its relational ties with the largest customer and its performance outcomes.

This study employs a large panel data of US public firms and their major customer relationships for the period of 1980–2018 from Compustat and a two-stage least square regression to address endogeneity concerns.

The authors find that suppliers achieve different performance benefits and disbenefits from their relational ties with major customers depending on their own operational efficiency. Specifically, strong suppliers achieve higher market share and lower profitability as relational ties with major customers increase. In contrast, weak suppliers who develop high levels of relational ties with their major customers tend to increase their profit-generating potential, yet their market share declines. Thus, the findings suggest that suppliers make different trade-offs between profit enhancement and pie expansion depending on their operational efficiency.

As a secondary data study, this research relies on proxy measures to capture relational ties in BSRs. Although the validity of the proxy measures are well established in the literature, additional primary information on sample firms and their relationships may be able to identify other types of internal and external resources and capabilities that can be leveraged as relational capital.

Relational ties with major customers entail both relational capital and relational liabilities. Strong suppliers trade off their profit-maximizing potential for the pie expansion opportunity via sales growth to major customers. On the other hand, weak suppliers achieve higher profits from relational ties with major customers, but this benefit comes at the expense of pie expansion due to decreasing sales to major customers. Managers should be aware of performance trade-offs between profit enhancement and pie expansion depending on a firm's internal capabilities and carefully choose to develop and exploit relationship-based assets with customers depending on their performance goals.

The contrasting performance outcomes demonstrated by strong and weak suppliers in this study challenge the prevailing assumption about the broad performance benefits of relational ties in BSRs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to empirically substantiate the contingency role of suppliers' operational efficiency in the relational capital—performance link.

This paper aims to investigate the interrelated role of relational commitment and dependence as drivers of key performance outcomes. Specifically, the authors provide a conceptual model of the impact of commitment on relationship value dependence and switching cost dependence. The authors further investigate how these dimensions of dependence offer differing noneconomic and economic paths to strategic and financial performance.

Survey data was collected from 296 purchasing agents across multiple industries located in the USA. The conceptual model and accompanying hypotheses were tested via partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results show that the relational path is driven by affective and normative commitment, which are related to relationship value dependence. Conversely, calculative commitment is related to switching cost dependence. This economic path is related to both strategic and financial performance, whereas the relational path is more closely related to strategic as opposed to financial performance outcomes.

This study extends research on Business-To-Business (B2B) relationships by leveraging social exchange theory to examine the interrelated roles played by two forms of dependence on performance outcomes. Thus, the authors answer Scheer et al.’s (2015) call for research into the two distinct types of dependence – relationship value and switching cost dependence – and their roles in determining B2B relationship outcomes. The findings contribute to the literature by integrating social exchange and relationship marketing concepts to develop a dual pathway approach to B2B partnerships.

The results suggest that dependence is not necessarily negative for firms. Specifically, buyers can and do still exhibit positive performance, both strategic and financial, in relationships with suppliers even when dependent on the relationship. Regardless of whether buyers are dependent due to a relationship or economic factors, both can, in different ways, lead to positive strategic and financial outcomes. Together, the authors contribute to the understanding of B2B partnerships by offering guidelines for both buyers and suppliers in the dyad.

The authors derive a comprehensive model depicting primarily relational and economic paths to performance through different types of commitment and dependence. The authors contribute to the literature by demonstrating that relational and economic paths to success are not the same, highlighting how firms could influence performance even when the relationship is not necessarily characterized by generally positive relational benefits and behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between relational capital and supply chain collaboration (SCC) and how this relationship relates to innovation. The authors propose a theoretical framework to illustrate the effect of relational capital on three dimensions of collaboration and radical and incremental innovation.

The paper has a quantitative approach. The authors conducted the survey to collect the data from 225 suppliers in the Hunan province of China. The proposed model is tested with exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

The findings show that relational capital can facilitate information sharing and benefit/risk sharing when firms work together to achieve innovation. Furthermore, the results indicate that relational capital leads to radical innovation through facilitating information sharing among firms and helps in generating incremental innovation by encouraging firms to share risks and benefits with their partners.

The findings of this study give some suggestions for managers of the firms in terms of building their collaborative strategies. Managers should exploit relational capital to build successful and long-term collaboration. Also, through relational capital, managers can share information to create radical innovation or pool risks and share benefits with their customers to achieve incremental innovation.

This study provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between relational capital, different dimensions of SCC and innovation in the context of a developing economy. Moreover, the findings provide a clearer understanding of the collaborative mechanism of relational capital and collaboration to achieve radical and incremental innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how marketing capability, dysfunctional conflict, and relationship value affect relational benefits through the relational proclivity between suppliers and initiators in a group-buying web site.

The initiators selected were those who conducted group buying more than ten times in the group-buying web site. In total, 9,000 invitation e-mails were sent to initiators, of which 389 were returned; the model and hypotheses were tested by using structural equation modeling.

In online group buying, initiators can know about a new product only through the web site; the marketing capability of suppliers and the relationship value of initiators are positively associated with the relational proclivity between suppliers and initiators. And, the results indicate that the dysfunctional conflict of initiators is not positively associated with the relational proclivity between suppliers and initiators. Finally, The relational proclivity between suppliers and initiators is positively associated with the relational benefit between initiators and buyers.

The supplier and the initiator can work together in brainstorming new products; moreover, initiators can assist suppliers by helping them identify buyers’ demands and giving them relevant feedback.

The suppliers’ marketing capability is important for initiators because it can help increase the latter’s ability to catch buyers’ attention. In addition, the initiator and supplier together can think about product innovation and new product designs.

Initiators, as key persons in the group-buying process, serve as a bridge between suppliers and buyers and have a positive impact on group buying. The findings suggest that certain facets of initiators are helpful in explaining the expected product performance of buyers.

Numerous companies have launched branded applications to foster consumer–brand relationships. Due to fierce competition among branded apps, the retention rate is quite low. The facilitation of behavioural outcomes through branded apps is a highly relevant research area. This paper investigates the drivers of behavioural outcomes in the context of branded apps from an investment model perspective.

This work examines various branded apps primarily used by consumers in disparate product categories, namely, Target, Walmart, Under Armour, Nike, Pandora, Spotify, Starbucks, Burger King, Disney and Netflix. Four hundred and one valid online questionnaires were obtained and partial least squares structural equation modelling was used for data analysis.

The results obtained extend the investment model to the context of branded apps and show that app investment size and app satisfaction facilitate brand relationship commitment, successively enhancing app continuance intention, brand purchase intention and app word-of-mouth (WOM) intention. Furthermore, app confidence benefits and self-enhancement benefits facilitate app satisfaction, while app social benefits and special treatment benefits facilitate app investment size.

The present work applies an investment model to various branded apps to show how relationship components facilitate behavioural outcomes. We contribute to the literature by identifying four types of app relational benefits as drivers of relationship components in the context of branded apps.