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This paper aims to investigate the extent to which relation-specific investments undertaken by the distributor favor the presence of various governance structures (formal contract and relational governance). Furthermore, it examines whether dependence moderates the effect of relationship-specific investments on these governance structures.

Survey data were gathered from 224 wholesalers from the food and beverage industry. Hypotheses were tested through regression analysis.

This study illustrates that property-based relationship-specific investments have a greater positive impact on the use of formal contracts than knowledge-based relationship-specific investments. Furthermore, knowledge-based relationship-specific investments have a greater positive impact on relational governance than property-based relationship-specific investments. The results also suggest that it is necessary to consider the moderating effect of cost-based dependence and benefit-based dependence. Finally, mixed governance structures (e.g. formal contracts combined with relational governance) have a positive impact on satisfaction and intention to maintain and extend the relationship.

The findings allow manufacturers to concentrate their efforts on mixed governance structures facilitating relationship-specific investments and benefit-based dependence from distributors to develop a competitive advantage.

Several investigations have obtained a relationship between investments in specific assets, governance structures and performance. Nevertheless, they have not identified different types of investments in specific assets. This study proposes that there are two types of relationship-specific investments: based on property and based on knowledge. Additionally, a two-dimensional model of dependence (cost-based and benefit-based) allows capturing the different theoretical spheres of this concept.

Customer journey is more omnichannel than ever. Currently, one of the most influential omnichannel behaviors is research shopping in its two predominant forms: webrooming and showrooming. The purpose of this study is to determine the possible moderating effect of each of these behaviors from a cognitive-affective perspective.

The proposed theoretical framework was applied to a sample of 636 mobile phone users.

The results indicated that research shopping moderated the intensity of the relationship between emotions and perceived value and between emotions and satisfaction. The analysis of the moderating effect of each concrete type of research shopping behavior indicated that negative emotions had a more intense negative effect on perceived value and satisfaction in the case of webrooming than in the case of showrooming.

This study focused on determining the possible moderating effect of research shopping vs one-stop shopping and webrooming vs showrooming on the intensity of the relationship between emotions, perceived value and satisfaction, considering determining factors of customer engagement to retailers (Han and Jeong, 2013). To achieve this objective, the authors performed a quantitative research in the Spanish market, choosing mobile phones as a reference product. The results will contribute to the current state of omnichannel retailing research by the analysis – through a cognitive-affective approach – of the consequences that research shopping and each of its two basic types (webrooming and showrooming) have on retailers.

El proceso de compra de los clientes es más omnicanal que nunca. En la actualidad, uno de los comportamientos de compra omnicanal más influyentes es el denominado research shopping en sus dos formas predominantes: el webrooming y el showrooming. El objetivo principal de este estudio es determinar el posible efecto moderador de cada uno de estos comportamientos desde una perspectiva cognitivo-afectiva.

El marco teórico propuesto se aplicó a una muestra de 636 usuarios de teléfonos móviles. Asimismo, se realizó un análisis multigrupo para comparar si existen diferencias entre los consumidores que realizan research shopping y los compradores unicanal, así como entre los webroomers frente a los showroomers.

Los resultados muestran que la conducta research shopping modera la intensidad de la relación entre las emociones y el valor percibido, y entre las emociones y la satisfacción. El análisis del efecto moderador de cada tipología concreta de research shopping evidencia que, en el caso del webrooming, las emociones negativas tienen un efecto negativo sobre el valor percibido y sobre la satisfacción más intenso que en el caso del showrooming.

Este estudio contribuye al estado actual de la investigación sobre la estrategia omnicanal mediante el análisis −a través de un enfoque cognitivo-afectivo− de las consecuencias que el research shopping y cada una de sus dos tipologías básicas (webrooming y showrooming) tienen para los minoristas.

Research shopping, Webrooming, Showrooming, Emociones, Valor percibido, Satisfacción

Trabajo de investigación

The current work aims to analyze the role of commitment perceived by the consumer in the maintenance of long‐term relationships. The context of analysis chosen is the tourism sector, more specifically the relationships that retail travel agencies establish with their consumers. The study tests a conceptual model via a system of structural equations using the statistics package EQS 6.1 for Windows. The results corroborate the importance of the consumer’s trust in the travel agency and the consumer’s perception of the firm’s commitment, because this commitment acts as an antecedent of trust and creates the conditions for the firm to achieve a stable portfolio of customers.

This paper seeks to report the results of a study examining the effects of manufacturer-distributor relationships' governance structures (market governance, third-party enforcement of agreements and self-enforcing governance modes) on the distributor's willingness to collaborate with the manufacturer.

To test the hypotheses, survey data were gathered from 224 wholesalers from the food and beverage industry in Spain. Manufacturer-distributor collaboration refers to the possibility of sharing strategic information and encouraging creativity. Regression analyses illustrate the differences in the distributor's willingness to collaborate with the manufacturer under different governance scenarios.

The study illustrates that the greater the skill of the manufacturers and distributors in developing self-enforcing governance modes (e.g. bilateral formal safeguards and bilateral informal safeguards) that complement third-party enforcement of agreements (e.g. legal contracts), the greater the willingness of both to share strategic information and creativity will be. Furthermore, this investigation delineates the moderating effect of opportunism on the relationship between governance and the distributor's willingness to collaborate with the manufacturer. Finally, the results show that the distributor's willingness to share strategic information has an inverted-U relationship with creativity and innovation development in manufacturer-distributor relationships.

The study's findings allow firms to concentrate their efforts on the most relevant governance structures that minimize transaction costs and provide incentives to develop collaborative manufacturer-distributor relationships and create value for the customer.

The research acknowledges the multidimensional nature of collaboration and goes deeper into the need to share strategic information (external and internal strategic information) and the factors that compose the generation of creative ideas in the manufacturer-distributor relationship (knowledge-sharing routines, learning orientation, open-mindedness and management support). Additionally, although research on collaborative distribution channel practices has advanced over the past decades, the importance of governance structures to the development of collaborative practices has not been firmly established. The paper addresses this void in the literature by reporting the results of an empirical study examining manufacturer-distributor collaborations within the food and beverage industry in Spain.

Very little attention has been devoted so far to the study of the market orientation concept in private non‐profit organisations. However, there is a general agreement concerning the positive effects that this concept’s adoption has on the non‐profit services implementation as well as on these organisations’ long‐term success. Thus this paper aims at obtaining further empirical evidence on this field of research using a private foundations sample. Nevertheless, it is considered that the distinctive and specific nature of private non‐profit organisations’ activities deserves the development of a special instrument to evaluate their degree of market orientation. In this sense, one of this study’s main contributions is the development of a market orientation measurement scale which accounts for the peculiarities of private non‐profit organisations’ operations. Additionally, the study proves the positive effect of market orientation on the non‐profit outcomes and on the fulfilment of these organisations’ missions.

Preferential treatment of selected customers is one of the strategies employed by companies seeking to implement relationship marketing. However, it remains unclear whether or not this policy negatively affects relationships with customers not receiving the above‐mentioned preferential treatment, as existing literature focuses, for the most part, on the beneficiaries. The purpose of this paper is to study whether or not the perception of lack of preferential treatment has a positive impact on dissatisfaction following a service failure, after accounting for the effects of attribution.

The sample used in this paper consists of 344 subjects who, over the last six months, have experienced service failures. The data are collected via personal interviews using a structured survey. Structural equation modelling is employed in order to test the relationship between lack of preferential treatment and dissatisfaction.

The results of this investigation indicate that lack of preferential treatment has an additional explanatory power with regard to customer dissatisfaction, after considering the effects of attributions, and that negative emotions have a mediation effect on the relationship between these cognitive antecedents and the aforementioned dissatisfaction.

This paper examines only one service context; as a consequence, caution is needed when generalizing the results.

Given the findings of this paper, managers are advised to consider the “merits” of preferential treatment to help strengthen customer relationships.

This paper provides an initial step towards understanding the impact of systematic and deliberate use of preferential treatment as a relationship marketing strategy from a non‐beneficiaries perspective.

In the brand equity literature, little attention has been paid to comparing the role of product and brand name attributes in obtaining differential advantages. This work presents a framework for analysis based on the benefits of these attributes as conceived by consumers. Two types of benefits are identified in both attributes – functional and symbolic benefits – and the dimensions of each of these benefits are specified. In line with the consumer assessments of six brands of sports shoes, we found evidence in the Spanish market that in the benefits associated to the brand name consumers observe greater differences between the brands than in the product‐associated benefits. This result suggests that the brand name can be a key strategy for the firm to enjoy comparative advantages.

This paper aims to determine whether intentionality attributions have an effect on the customer’s complaint and switching behavior after a service failure, after accounting for the effects of the traditional dimensions of attribution (stability and controllability), and to examine whether intentionality attributions give rise to humiliation and to what degree this negative emotion enables us to understand the customer’s complaint and switching behavior after a service failure.

A contribution of this investigation is that it studies real complaint and switching behaviors, as the few studies that focus on understanding customers’ complaint and defection behaviors mostly analyze customers’ intentions.

The results of the study indicate that intentionality attributions have an effect on the customer’s switching behavior after a service failure, in addition to the impact of the traditional dimensions of attribution. The findings also show that humiliation is the emotion that mediates the relationship between intentionality attributions and switching behavior, opposite to other emotions that may also be related to attributions. Finally, the results also support that the effect of attribution of intentionality on complaint behavior is indirect; it only exists because attribution of intentionality influences negative emotions like humiliation, which in turn influences complaint behavior.

To understand what makes customers complain after a service failure or switch service providers without giving them first the possibility of recovering the failure may help managers reduce the damage caused by the failure and increase the company’s profits.

This study will try to contribute to the service failure research by analyzing the role of two variables that have not been analyzed before in this context: intentionality attribution and humiliation.

Transaction‐specific investments are often required in marketing channels in order to improve channel efficiency. However, such investments often increase the risk of opportunistic behaviors being sparked off. This paper aims to analyze the role of partners' investments in specific assets and the development of relational norms as safeguarding mechanisms against opportunism.

Three hypotheses are developed in line with transaction cost economics and relational exchange theories. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 479 manufacturer‐distributor relationships in the food sector in Spain.

The paper finds that partner‐specific investments and relational norms are effective mechanisms against opportunism. However their efficacy differs depending on which opportunism (supplier's or distributor's) is to be avoided.

The paper focuses on two mechanisms, yet there are other safeguards that firms can employ.

The partner's investments in specific assets are an effective safeguard for suppliers as well as for distributors. Companies should aim for balanced investment in this field, as it is the optimum way in which to avoid opportunistic behavior. Relational norms have shown to be effective only for distributors.

The study adopts a bilateral approach analyzing the effects of the governance mechanisms on both supplier and distributor opportunism. The paper provides new evidence on the role of the partner's specific investments as a safeguard against opportunism. They do not directly act against opportunism, but they act as variables that moderate the causal relationship between the specific investments of the firm and the partner's opportunism.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of attributions on the efficacy of service recovery strategies in preventing customer defection following a service failure.

The empirical investigation is carried out on the retail banking industry with a final sample of 448 real cases of customer retention or defection after a service failure.

The results of the study not only highlight the relevance of intentionality as an additional factor in explaining customer defection, but also show the effects of some attributional dimensions (intentionality and controllability) on the efficacy of some recovery strategies (redress, apology and explanation) applied by companies to prevent post-complaint customer defection.

The efficacy of the recovery strategies depends on the causal attributions that the customer makes about the service failure.

This study analyzes not only the effects of traditional dimensions of attribution (stability and controllability), but also the additional effect that intentionality attributions may have on actual customer defection (not intentions). Moreover, it analyzes their effects on the effectiveness of recovery strategies in preventing customer defection. Most of these effects have never been empirically analyzed in the literature.