It has been pointed out that the construct of commitment plays a central role in business relationships. This article draws on the relationship marketing literature in order to construct a framework that can be used to investigate what motivates clients to continue their relationship with an audit firm. The results from an empirical study provide evidence for existence of a number of antecedents and consequences of commitment in auditor—client relationships. It is shown that particularly affective commitment plays an important role in these relationships.
Markets for audit services are increasingly characterised by intensified competition, saturation and deregulation. As a result, the number of public accounting firms which are adopting and cultivating a marketing orientation is rapidly expanding (Ahmed & Hopson, 1990). Attention is paid to developing positioning strategies (Ellis & Mosher, 1995), extending the services portfolio (Diamantopoulos et al., 1995) and providing “consumer-oriented financial statements” (Schmidt & Sanborn, 1995).
These developments have been paralleled by a paradigm shift in marketing theory and practice from a focus on discrete transactions to long-term relationships. The marketing literature now abounds with numerous articles emphasising the pay-off from buyer–seller relationships in terms of profitability, market share and customer satisfaction (e.g. Morgan & Hunt, 1994, Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1994, Mangos et al., 1995 and Sheaves & Barnes, 1996). In recent marketing theory, as well as in the broader context of all social sciences dealing with relationships, it has been recognised that commitment is a central element in establishing and maintaining long-term relationships (Scanzoni, 1979Dwyer et al., 1987Gundlach et al., 1995). Coote (1994), p. 6), for instance, states that “moving to relationship marketing does require commitment to building ongoing client exchanges”. Evidence on the application of the relationship marketing concept in the context of auditing has remained rare (Coote; Mangos et al.). Moreover, while audit firms are well aware of the importance of relationships with clients, in-depth information with regards to the essential ingredients of such a relationship is hardly available (Mangos).
The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of relationship commitment to the accounting literature and to test several theoretical propositions with regards to the audit firm—client relationship empirically. It is structured as follows. First, we will focus on relational exchanges, the concept of commitment and its significance for the audit firm. Secondly, we will report on the results of a study that has examined empirically the antecedents and consequences of different types of commitment in auditor—client relationships. In conclusion, we will address the theoretical as well as the managerial implications of our findings.
