Customer relationship investment and relationship strength: evidence from insurance industry in China

Guicheng James Shi · Huimei Bu · Yuan Ping · Matthew Tingchi Liu · Yonggui Wang

34 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Services Marketing

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Customer Service Quality and Loyalty Service and Product Innovation Customer churn and segmentation

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to elucidate how different relationship investment efforts by a service firm affect its customers’ perceived relationship investment; to determine how perceived relationship investment influences various dimensions of relationship strength; and to explore the moderating effects of customer innovativeness and complaint propensity on the relationship between the perceived relationship investment and relationship strength. Design/methodology/approach To minimize common method variance, data were collected from pairs of life insurance agents in China and their clients using self-report questionnaires. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that customers value financial effort most followed by social effort and structural effort. Perceived relationship investment influences the affective strength most strongly, followed by cognitive strength and conative strength. Customer innovativeness and complaint propensity both moderate the effectiveness of perceived relationship investment in influencing two of the three dimensions of relationship strength. Originality/value This study is among the first to specify how service employees can guide consumer perceptions of relationship investment by applying three types of relationship investment effort. The impact of perceived relationship investment on different dimensions of relationship strength was assessed to demonstrate how service providers can benefit from investing in building consumer relationships. The moderating impact of consumer innovativeness and of complaint propensity was quantified. The research findings have important implications for managing different relationship investment as well as recruiting and training service employees.

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References

1999Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives 1988Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach.1994The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing 1985A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research 1988Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence 2017Exchange and Power in Social Life 1960The Norm of Reciprocity: A Preliminary Statement 1987Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships

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