Relationship Bonds and Customer Loyalty: A Study Across Different Service Contexts

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2015

Authors

Mafalda Lima (Author) FEP; Teresa Fernandes (Author) FEP

Conference proceedings International

Title: EXPLORING SERVICES SCIENCE, IESS 2015

Pages: 326-339

6th International Conferences on Exploring Service Science 1.5 (IESS)

Porto, PORTUGAL, FEB 04-06, 2015

Indexing

ISI Proceedings

ISI Web of Knowledge - 5 Citations

Scopus - 8 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Social sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00A-4J2

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-14980-6_26

Abstract (EN): The benefits of customer relationship strategies are well known and somewhat established nowadays. Customer loyalty emerges as the crucial glue in developing a relational approach. However, relational bonds, which relate to customer loyalty, have not yet been fully explored. Also, there is little research that takes into account the effect of service types on customer relationships and bonding. This paper develops a conceptual framework based on previous literature with a complete set of different relational bonds and examines its influence on customer loyalty across search, experience and credence services through a survey-based empirical study, with a sample of 233 consumers. The results provide guidance to managers to differentiate customer relationship strategies according to each specific service context.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 14