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The paper's aim is to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of the relationship between providers and consumers of a “high‐credence” service, in Hong Kong.

A model of antecedents and outcomes was constructed. Relationship quality was conceptualized as the degree of trust in and satisfaction with the service provider. Data collected in face‐to‐face interviews with over 200 clients of 12 health‐care clinics questionnaire survey were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling, to test six hypotheses.

The findings support the hypotheses and show that the service providers' expertise, empathy, likeability, and communication effectiveness significantly influenced relationship quality, leading in turn to the likelihood of re‐patronage and word‐of‐mouth recommendation.

The study suggests ways in which service providers can improve the quality of the customer relationship. Findings can be generalised only with caution, given the focus on health‐care delivery in a Chinese society. Future research could usefully investigate other high‐credence service sectors.

Empirical data have examined the association between four possible antecedents and relationship quality in a real‐world setting, and suggest practical actions for planners of customer relationship strategy in the high‐credence context.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise relationship quality (RQ) and determine its antecedents and consequences in athletic services.

One in‐depth case study is carried out in a big fitness centre and involves ten personal interviews with various employees and observation.

RQ is perceived through the behaviour of both provider and customer and the quality of their interaction. RQ antecedents include the personality and skills of employees and customers; the servicescape; the quality of the offer; permanent staff; the relational orientation and reputation of the provider; the power of entertainment, and relationship duration. Finally, RQ effects include the creation of enduring customers; psychologic benefits for customers; employee satisfaction; customer retention and profitability; new service ideas; relationship exploitation, and the personal success and reputation of instructors.

New variables emerge for analysing the quality of service‐based buyer‐seller relationships. Also, RQ is linked to the everyday behaviour of both parties and not the feelings that they develop such as trust, commitment and satisfaction as previous research demonstrates. However, results are based on one case study. Future research should expand the number of cases; test results empirically and validate them in other types of relationships or services; do dyad (provider and customer) studies, and analyse the factors that influence RQ at different relationship development stages.

The results of this study offer guidance to athletic services firms on how to increase RQ by selecting and training employees; informing, researching and training customers; the management of the servicescape; the adoption of flexible services; the development of loyal customers; the use of customer ideas, and the enhancement of employee satisfaction.

A guide to developing quality relationships in athletic services is provided to fitness centres. New concepts emerge for the management of service‐based buyer‐seller relationships.

Given the importance of relationship benefits in creating customer satisfaction, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of relationship benefits (special treatment benefits and confidence benefits) on relationship quality and word of mouth (WOM) for online retailers. The conditional mediating role of relationship quality between customer satisfaction and WOM is also examined.

A sample of 700 MBA students from two universities in Punjab (North India) has been used to collect data. Structural equation modelling and PROCESS Macro (Hayes (2017) have been used for data analysis (mod mod mediation).

When customers perceive high confidence benefits, special treatment benefits moderate the mediational role of relationship quality between customer satisfaction and WOM. Specific conditions under which use of confidence benefits and special treatment benefits are successful for online retailers have also been identified.

Tailored use of special treatment benefits with confidence benefits in appropriate combinations will help the online retailers in segmenting the customers and differentiating amongst them according to the customers’ receptivity towards these benefits. Marketers can devise communication strategies, create customer segments and position their services using the results obtained in the study.

The present study is the first of its kind which clarifies as to why the previous literature considered special treatment benefits as less relevant to customers. It also establishes the situations in which these benefits successfully moderate the effect of customer satisfaction in developing relationship quality and eliciting positive WOM in the Indian internet retailing context.

This paper is a continuation of our research effort to develop a new approach to total relationship management. It is a theoretical and conceptual one, providing marketing and management ideas on how to integrate total quality management (TQM) and total relationship management (TRM) in order to achieve better quality relationships, product/service and process. Aims to shed light on how TRM and TQM can be integrated, and to suggest how the work on TQM can add impetus to successful TRM. First, the role of quality in customer satisfaction and relationships, and the main philosophy behind TRM, are discussed. TRM, quality, loyalty and profitability are examined; some TQM tools are suggested for possible use with the TRM approach to improve its functions. Finally, the common grounds of TQM and TRM, and the common principles for TRM success, are identified.

Researchers recognize that interpersonal relationships contribute to the career development of professional employees. The purpose of this paper is to extend this research to individuals working at a formative point in their careers. Guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory, a model is developed that tests whether the quality of individuals’ work relationships at an early career stage has implications for their development of career cognitions and career exploration behaviors.

Structural equation modeling is used to test the model in two samples of employed students (n=372 and n=166).

Coworker relationship quality had a direct influence on career self-efficacy, which led to increased career outcome expectations, goals and exploration behaviors. The influence of supervisor relationship quality was mixed across studies.

Findings suggest that the quality of individuals’ relational experiences at work, even at an early career stage, has implications that extend beyond the workplace to affect their careers more generally.

Results speak to the dangers associated with a poor interpersonal climate for employees at an early career stage, and suggest that managers invest in opportunities that allow these employees to build stronger bonds with coworkers. The results also suggest that career counselors and internship coordinators be sensitive to the interpersonal climate of organizations with whom they contract.

This study offers insight into the connection between early employment experiences and individuals’ career cognitions and career exploration behaviors.

This exploratory study aims to analyse the influence of organisational resources and capabilities on relationship quality and firm performance in the context of high-technology offshore outsourcing service vendors.

Using a qualitative case study design, data from four offshore business process and information technology outsourcing firms were analysed.

Findings highlight that resource dependence, cultural orientation and the vendor’s resources and capabilities strengthen relationship quality and affect firm performance.

The distinctive contribution of this study lies in identifying key organisational mechanisms that improve relationship quality and firm performance, as well as help to understand the adverse effects of ethnocentricity and power faced by vendors and subsidiaries within diverse intercultural contexts. Study limitations and future research directions, along with implications for theory and practice, are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to understand faculty mentoring experiences across career stages and the influence of mentoring relationship quality on job satisfaction. The study participants were faculty members from a consortium of liberal arts colleges in the USA. The theoretical lens draws from scholarship on career stages, developmental networks, and working alliances.

The analysis is based on a subset of 415 faculty member responses about mentoring from a larger data set on faculty development. The online survey was conducted in Spring 2014. Frequencies, χ², regression equations, and confirmatory factor analysis were computed using R statistical software.

Over half the faculty members were both mentors and protégés; although, a sizable minority of faculty members did not engage in mentoring. Early-career faculty members were significantly more likely to have a mentor than were mid- or late-career faculty members. For both mentors and protégés, the higher they rated the quality of the mentoring relationship, the more job satisfaction they reported; this finding was greatest for mid-career (associate rank) faculty members. Participants reported significantly higher relationship quality with their mentors than with their protégés.

The results may not generalize to faculty members who work at other institution types, for example, research-intensive or two-year schools, or to non-US higher education contexts. Statements made regarding those who do not participate in mentoring are speculative on the part of the authors.

Institutions may need to develop support for faculty members who may not desire to engage in mentoring. More attention may be warranted to create individual and institutional supports focused on high-quality mentoring.

This study extends the literature on mentoring by establishing that many employees serve in mentor and protégé roles simultaneously. Further, employees engage in mentoring relationships across career stages as mentors and as protégés. The authors developed a reliable measure of mentoring relationship quality that may be used in future mentoring studies. Higher quality mentoring relationships were associated with significantly greater job satisfaction.

Drawing from the theory of relationship dynamics, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the relationship life cycle moderates the link between relationship quality and customer value co-creation. As customer-firm relationships pass through different stages (exploration, buildup, maturity, and decline) characterized by distinct customer behaviors, this study proposes a dynamic conceptual framework.

A questionnaire was administered in financial services firms. The final valid sample comprised 2,000 individuals. Subjective customer information from the questionnaire was combined with objective data that the financial entity provided.

The results demonstrate that the relationship life cycle plays a key moderating role, revealing that, in the buildup and maturity stages, the influence of relationship quality on customer value co-creation is stronger than in the decline stage. However, for customers in the exploration stage, relationship quality does not lead to customer value co-creation behaviors.

As customer relationship stages are constantly evolving, this study provides companies with additional interesting tools to personalize business strategies and to adapt marketing investments to the specific situation of customers.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to consider how the relationship life cycle influences the strength with which relationship quality promotes customer value co-creation.

The purpose of the current study is to advance understanding of sponsorship effectiveness by investigating the impact of the quality of the relationship between a consumer and a sport property on sponsorship effectiveness.

A model was developed to examine linkages among relationship quality, sincerity, attitude toward sponsor and intention to purchase a sponsor's product. The measurement model was tested using confirmatory factory analysis. The relationships in the hypothesized model were tested using simultaneous equations.

The results indicate that positive attitude toward a sponsor and intention to purchase said sponsor's product(s) are more likely to occur among the customers who perceive a higher degree of relationship quality with the sport property and believe the sponsor motives are sincere.

A conceptual model of sponsorship effectiveness was developed and empirically tested. The tested model provides an expanded view of relationship quality and its impact on key variables of sponsorship effectiveness.

Provided in this study is a framework for both sponsors and sport teams that can be used to understand some of the ways in which sponsorship works. The findings suggest that sponsors should leverage their activities to communicate sincere motives, not just “doing business”. For the sport property, the implication is developing quality relationships with consumers, and being able to promote such relationships to prospective sponsors.

Relationship quality has been previously shown to influence various behavioral aspects related to partners in business‐to‐business relationships. This study extends the literature by examining the effect of business‐to‐consumer relationship quality on the expected outcomes associated with a business‐to‐business relationship.

This paper aims to determine the dimensions of service quality of advertising agencies and their effects on relationship quality between an advertising agency and their clients through the social and economic exchange.

The intention was to target firms which use the services of an advertising or marketing solutions agency; hence, participants were recruited from a business database service providing details for key decision makers in Australia and New Zealand. An online survey was used in this study.

Creative competence, project management processes and project outcome influenced relationship quality through value and interpersonal relationships. However, only creativity had a significant direct relationship with relationship quality.

Although creativity plays a major role in relationship development, agencies must have efficient and effective project management processes in place to ensure successful project completion within timeline and budget to be able to maintain ongoing relationships with their clients.

The research draws upon literature from three key disciplines, service quality, relationship marketing and project management, to address the gaps in the current literature related to customer relationship management in the B2B client–agency context.