Students: Dissertation: Gila Gabay Ben-Rechav

Gila Gabay Ben-Rechav

ABSTRACT
Customer relationships have received considerable attention from both academicians and practitioners and are the focus of this study. This study is an inter-disciplinary study with holistic thinking as its main approach. This study contributes to the existing literature of relationship marketing in that it tested theorized yet unexplored relationships between benefits provided to relational customers and customer loyalty. Taking a systemic approach, research questions were examined from perspectives of both parties to the dyad: The sales associate and her or his consumers.

This study also extends the existing literature of trust. Over the years trust has emerged as a central construct in the study of relationships marketing. This study examined groups of benefits as antecedents of trust in the sales associate and the effect of that trust on loyalty to the sales associate, loyalty to the store, spending commitment, and sales.

The study model was tested in two settings: A travel agency ranked as one of the top ten agencies in the Northwest and 11 hair salons in the Northwest that are part of a National hair care chain store. Fifteen travel agents and at least 5 of their customers participated in the travel agency sample (n=121) and 35 stylists and at least 3 of their customers (n=134) participated in the hair salon sample.

Results showed that all groups of benefits: Pricing benefits, Social benefits, and Structural Solutions are antecedents of trust. This supports a multiple perspectives view and calls retailers to understand how trust factors into the relationship from a consumer’s perspective. Trust was found to be a strong predictor of loyalty to the sales associate. Structural benefits and social benefits also predicted loyalty to the sales associate.

Trust in the sales associate, loyalty to the sales associate, and perceived quality of merchandise and service predicted loyalty to the store. In the travel agency sample, loyalty to the store and loyalty to the sales associate predicted spending commitment. Finally, spending commitment predicted sales. This finding emphasizes the importance of continuous feedback and an error-controlled regulation in maintaining the essential variable of the system.

Monday, January 24, 2000
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Talya Bauer, Co-Chair
Tom R. Gillpatrick, Co-Chair
Charla Mathwick
Nancy A. Perrin
Donald M. Truxillo, Graduate Studies Rep.