Switching costs, alternative attractiveness and experience as moderators of relationship commitment in professional, consumer services

Neeru Sharma, Paul G. Patterson

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    436 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    To date, empirical and conceptual models of relationship marketing have focused almost exclusively on a range of direct antecedents and mediator variables to explain variations in a dependent variable - usually relationship commitment. No attempt has been made to examine under what conditions these various antecedents have a stronger/weaker impact on relationship commitment. This paper extends the relationship marketing literature by testing a contingency model to assess the impact of trust and service satisfaction on relationship commitment under conditions of varying switching costs, alternative attractiveness and experience-based norms, in the context of a professional consumer service. Employing a sample of 201 clients of financial planning services, we test 11 hypotheses formulated on the basis of a review of the services and relationship marketing literature, and a series of qualitative interviews with clients. The results clearly indicate that the impact of trust and satisfaction vary according to contingency conditions of switching costs, attractiveness of alternatives and client experience.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)470-490
    Number of pages21
    JournalInternational Journal of Service Industry Management
    Volume11
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2000

    Keywords

    • relationship marketing
    • customer services
    • customer relations

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Switching costs, alternative attractiveness and experience as moderators of relationship commitment in professional, consumer services'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this