تجربه به عنوان یک تعدیل مشارکت و رضایت در وفاداری به نام تجاری در تنظیم تجارت بنگاه به بنگاه02-314R

This paper examines the relative influence of two key antecedents of brand loyalty—satisfaction and involvement and the moderating role of experience, using a sample of business buyers. The central argument of this paper is that the strength of the effect of these variables on attitudinal brand loyalty will vary with the level of customer experience with purchasing the service. Building on previous research which examined low-risk, customer product settings [Kim, J., Lim, J.S., & Bhargava, M. (1998). The role of affect in attitude formation: A classical conditioning approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 26 (2): pp. 143–152; Shiv, B., & Fedorikhin, A. (1999). Heart and mind in conflict: The interplay of affect and cognition in consumer decision-making. Journal of Consumer Research 26: 278], this study shows that for a high-risk setting, involvement with the service category will be more dominant in its influence on brand loyalty than satisfaction with the preferred brand. Furthermore, it was found that experience moderated the influence of involvement and satisfaction on attitudinal brand loyalty for a high-risk business-to-business service. This study provides new insights into the theory and practice of buyer behavior and business-to-business brands.

Most business research is primarily in the goods arena particularly manufactured goods, with little focus on services (Dawes et al., 1993 and Patterson et al., 1997). Consequently, much of the research to date has a manufacturing basis resulting in business-to-business services being poorly defined and under researched (Javalgi & Moberg, 1997, Johnston & Lewin, 1997 and Patterson et al., 1997). There is also a dearth of research into business brands even though organizations such as Accenture, Yellow Pages, IBM, and Hewlett Packard generate billions of dollars from their business-to-business brands (Lyons, 1998). Given that the activity on branding in the business-to-business sector and services in general is increasing (Rosenbroijer, 2001), it is timely to investigate customer responses to business brands. Given the lack of empirical studies in business services loyalty (Patterson et al., 1997 and Quelch & Ash, 1981), this research follows the guidelines offered by industrial marketing researchers, Wind and Webster (1972) who suggest modifying generalized models of consumer research for the business-to-business sector. There is evidence that brand equity—a consumer branding concept—is applicable to the business sector (Bendixen et al., 2004, Gordon et al., 1993 and Hutton, 1997) and brand awareness preference in business markets (Yoon & Kijewski, 1995). Thus, it is likely that the brand loyalty concept is also relevant to the business sector. This research is one of the first to examine brand loyalty concept in the business sector. Considerable attention has been given to brand loyalty, attitudinal brand loyalty in particular (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980), and increasingly the interplay of affect and cognition in attitudinal brand loyalty is being investigated (Bagozzi et al., 1999, Härtel et al., 1998 and Shiv & Fedorikhin, 1999). Despite the recognition that there is a need to build brands in a business-to-business context (Bendixen et al., 2004, Gordon et al., 1993 and Hutton, 1997), no study has investigated the antecedents of attitudinal brand loyalty in a business services setting. It is posited that satisfaction with the preferred brand (Giese & Cote, 2000) and involvement with the service category are important determinants of attitudinal brand loyalty. This paper addresses an important gap in the business literature by examining the relative influence of these two antecedents of brand loyalty. The central argument of this paper is that the strength of the effect of these variables on attitudinal brand loyalty will vary according to the level of customer experience with purchasing the service. Building on previous research which examined low-risk, customer product settings (Kim et al., 1998 and Shiv & Fedorikhin, 1999), this study shows that for high-risk settings, such as is generally the case for business services, involvement with the service category will be more dominant in its influence on brand loyalty than satisfaction with the preferred brand. This paper commences with a discussion of the conceptual framework including literature on brand loyalty, satisfaction, involvement, and the role of previous experience leading to hypotheses development. The results of the study of 267 businesses are presented. This paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and their managerial implications as well as limitations and suggestions for future research.

This study examined the influence of satisfaction and involvement on attitudinal brand loyalty for a professional business service. The results support the view that satisfaction and involvement are important antecedents of attitudinal brand loyalty. Each construct significantly contributed to the total explained variance in attitudinal brand loyalty. Additionally, the results provide encouraging empirical support for the hypothesized moderating effect of experience on the relationships between these antecedents (satisfaction and involvement) and attitudinal brand loyalty. The finding that involvement decreased with experience provides further evidence that involvement is highest in the early experiences of a product/service or brand as demonstrated by (East, 1997 and Sheth, 1968). This argument is premised on the belief that, as the purchaser becomes more familiar and gains experience with a product/service, the level of information-seeking and decision-making diminishes. Accordingly, the more routine the purchase, the less likely purchaser involvement, and the more likely that habitual buying takes place. Results of the present study provide support for the premises upon which the predicted antecedents of attitudinal brand loyalty are based. This finding is significant in that this study is one of the first to investigate the relationship between key antecedents of attitudinal brand loyalty in a business-to-business context. Importantly, this study demonstrates for the first time that affect as evidenced by satisfaction with the service category may play a greater role than cognition as evidenced by involvement in a high-risk business-to-business service purchase when respondents have high levels of experience with purchasing the service. The findings provide further encouraging evidence of the need to consider the interplay of affect and cognition in the development of attitudinal brand loyalty (e.g. Härtel et al., 1998 and Shiv & Fedorikhin, 1999). Two of the key implications for theory are: first, the role of emotion in business purchasing, and second, the importance of brand loyalty for business services. Satisfaction is one of the most researched affective variables in marketing (Bagozzi et al., 1999); however, its affective role in business services has not been clearly addressed. It is interesting to note that while there is little acknowledgement of emotion in business marketing (Sweeney & Webb, 2003), satisfaction is a well-known business construct. This research indicates that emotion may play more of a role in business purchasing than previously thought, inviting further research to investigate this. The second implication is the importance of researching brand loyalty for business services. The high mean score (3.9 out of 5) suggests that attitudinal brand loyalty is important for business purchases and thus may have a significant role for actual repurchase. A great deal of business-to-business research is focused on relationship marketing, and while this is a critical factor it is not an end in itself, that is, businesses aim for effective relationships so that they may increase loyalty to the organization and result in organizational success. Thus, a study of loyalty is a logical extension of relationship marketing and thus an important research area in an increasingly competitive sector.