European Journal of Marketing

How commitment both enables and undermines marketing relationships

Gordon Fullerton

Article information:

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

To cite this document:

Gordon Fullerton, (2005),"How commitment both enables and undermines marketing relationships",
European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 Iss 11/12 pp. 1372 - 1388
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560510623307
Downloaded on: 06 April 2015, At: 04:11 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 60 other documents.
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 3538 times since 2006*

Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:

Christian Grnroos, (1994),"From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in
Marketing", Management Decision, Vol. 32 Iss 2 pp. 4-20 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251749410054774
Annika Ravald, Christian Grnroos, (1996),"The value concept and relationship marketing", European
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 30 Iss 2 pp. 19-30 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090569610106626
Christian Grnroos, (2004),"The relationship marketing process: communication, interaction,
dialogue, value", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 19 Iss 2 pp. 99-113 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/08858620410523981

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 376953 []

For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for
Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines
are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.

About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com

Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company
manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as
providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee
on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive
preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister

EJM
39,11/12

How commitment both enables

and undermines marketing
relationships

1372
Received November 2004

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm

Gordon Fullerton
Sobey School of Business, Saint Marys University, Halifax, Canada
Abstract

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

Purpose The relationship marketing literature puts forward that customer commitment is central
to the development of marketing relationships. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to
which two components of customer commitment (affective commitment and continuance commitment)
both enhance and undermine customer loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model was developed to determine the extent to
which the components of commitment both served as mediators of and interacted with one another in
the relationship between service quality and switching and advocacy intentions. This model was
examined in a survey of customers in three service settings; financial services, retail-grocery services
and telecommunications services.
Findings Commitment serves as a partial mediator of the service quality-loyalty relationship. It
was also found that affective commitment made a negative impact on switching intentions and a
positive impact on advocacy intentions in all three service settings. Continuance commitment had
mixed effects on switching intentions and made a negative impact on advocacy intentions.. At the
same time there was an interactive effect between the two components of commitment such that
continuance commitment depressed the positive effects of affective commitment on both dependent
variables.
Originality/value While the positive impact of identification based affective commitment is well
understood in the marketing literature, the role of continuance commitment is not so well appreciated.
This study reinforces the weakness of a relationship based on continuance commitment. In addition,
few studies prior to this one have demonstrated the interactive effects between the two components of
commitment.
Keywords Relationship marketing, Customer loyalty, Services, Canada
Paper type Research paper

European Journal of Marketing

Vol. 39 No. 11/12, 2005
pp. 1372-1388
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0566
DOI 10.1108/03090560510623307

Introduction
The notion that service firms must be concerned with the development and
management of relationships with their customers is not new (Sheth and Parvatiyar,
2002). It has been thought that services industries were natural settings for relationship
marketing because the intangible nature of services and the inseparability of the
service from the service provider were conducive to the development of relational
exchange (Berry, 1995; Bitner, 1995). In recent years, a significant body of literature has
been produced on the nature of service relationships (Bansal et al., 2004; Fullerton,
2003; Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Gruen et al., 2000: Harrison-Walker, 2001). For the
most part, these recent studies have been built upon the commitment as mediator
The author would like to thank the Editors, the anonymous reviewers and Roland Rust for their
comments on previous versions of this paper.

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

hypothesis (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). The central position of this hypothesis is that
customer commitment is a key mediator of the relationship between the customers
evaluations of a firms performance and the customers intentions regarding the future
relationship with the firm (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). This hypothesis has received
significant empirical support in recent years in both business-to-business and
business-to-consumer environments (Bansal et al., 2004; Garbarino and Johnson, 1999;
Gruen et al., 2000; Pritchard et al., 1999).
Marketing scholars have also recognized that commitment has multiple
components and they have borrowed from the organizational behaviour literature,
bringing significant insight on the nature of organizational commitment to the study of
customer commitment (Bansal et al., 2004; Fullerton, 2003; Gundlach et al., 1995; Gruen
et al., 2000; Harrison-Walker, 2001). Given that customer commitment has multiple
components, it is important to recognize that the components of customer commitment
may not have the same effect on customer loyalty. While there is ample support for the
position that customer commitment facilitates the development of marketing
relationships, there is also ample evidence that customers sometimes feel trapped in
marketing relationships. This basic research question examined in this paper is
whether or not customer commitment in service relationships always leads to increases
in customer loyalty. In particular, it is important to consider the extent to which the
specific components of customer commitment enhance and potentially detract from
customer loyalty.
First, the paper will discuss the nature of both the service quality and commitment
constructs because a good understanding of these constructs is crucial to the
development of good theory about the workings of service relationships. Service
quality is a key construct of investigation in the services marketing literature and it is
perhaps the most important antecedent of customer loyalty in services industries (Fisk
et al., 1993 Zeithaml, 2000). This discussion of service quality will be followed up with a
discussion of customer commitment. While there are many constructs of interest in the
area of relationship marketing, customer commitment has emerged as perhaps the
most important construct of interest in explaining important relational dependent
variables (Bansal et al., 2004; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). This review of the central
constructs in both services and relationship marketing will be used to map out an
integrated conceptual model of the role that customer commitment plays in service
marketing relationships. At this point the paper will outline the methodology used to
test this theoretical model. Next, the paper will report the results of these
investigations. The paper will close with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial
implications of the findings.
The nature of service quality
Service quality is one of the most investigated constructs in the history of marketing
scholarship and it is clearly the most investigated construct in the field of services
marketing (Iacobucci, 1998). Service quality is an overall evaluation of the perceived
level of service performance (Parasuraman et al., 1988). There has been considerable
discussion in the literature about the proper operationalization of the service quality
construct (Brady and Cronin, 2001; Carman, 1990; Cronin and Taylor, 1992;
Parasuraman et al., 1988). This continues to be an ongoing debate but it is clear that
service quality is a complex construct, determined by a number service related

Marketing
relationships

1373

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1374

antecedent evaluations including responsiveness to waits (Hui and Tse, 1996; Taylor,
1994), the interaction with service personnel (Brady and Cronin, 2001), the empathy of
service personnel (Parasuraman et al., 1988), responsiveness to service failures
(Keaveney, 1995; Parasuraman et al., 1988), the service environment and atmospherics
(Brady and Cronin, 2001; Parasuraman et al. 1988) and the reliability of the service
(Parasuraman et al., 1988).
Overall service quality has been regarded as being similar to an attitude because it
was thought to be an overall evaluation of the service based on its perceived goodness
(Iacobucci, 1998). Attitudes are summary evaluations of objects on a positive to
negative continuum, which direct intentions and behaviour (Petty et al., 1997). Service
quality is frequently conceptualized and measured as an overall, evaluative
attitude-like construct (Brady and Cronin, 2001; Taylor, 1994; Taylor and Baker,
1994), regardless of the number of distinct antecedent evaluations formally leading to
the overall evaluation. Even though the service quality as attitude proposition has not
been subjected to much empirical and conceptual debate, the conventional wisdom is
that the overall evaluative nature of service quality makes it an attitude or attitude-like
construct (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Given this conceptualization, service-marketing
scholars have logically attempted to draw a link between service quality evaluations
and relevant behavioural intentions and/or behaviours. For the most part, service
quality has been regarded as a construct that makes a positive impact on customer
loyalty (Zeithaml, 2000).
The nature of commitment
Commitment is a force of psychological attachment (OReilly and Chatman, 1986).
Commitment is viewed as a central construct in the relationship marketing literature
(Morgan and Hunt, 1994) and there are various views about the nature of the construct.
Many of these definitions assume that commitment is an attitudinal construct
(Gilliland and Bello, 2002). This enables researchers in the area to focus on the
relationship between customer commitment attitude and a number of relational
intentions and/or behaviours. Commitment has been viewed as an implicit or explicit
pledge of continuity between relational partners (Dwyer et al., 1987). It has also been
defined as mutuality and the forsaking of alternatives (Gundlach et al., 1995). Others
have defined commitment as an enduring desire to maintain a valuable relationship
(Moorman et al., 1992). Accordingly, marketing scholars should regard customer
commitment as a psychological force linking the consumer to the selling organization.
These definitions mirror those in the organizational behaviour literature where
commitment is viewed as a construct that links the employee to the employing
organization (Allen and Meyer, 1990; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; OReilly and Chatman,
1986). This is relevant because a number of marketing scholars have directly borrowed
from the organizational commitment literature to inform our understanding of the
nature of customer commitment (Fullerton, 2003; Gilliland and Bello, 2002; Gruen et al.,
2000; Gundlach et al., 1995; Harrison-Walker, 2001; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). The
dominant position in the organizational behaviour literature is that commitment
contains at least an affective component and a continuance component (Allen and
Meyer, 1990; OReilly and Chatman, 1986).
The position that customer commitment has both an affective and continuance
component has support in the marketing literature (Bansal et al., 2004; Fullerton,

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

2003; Gilliland and Bello, 2002; Gruen et al., 2000; Harrison-Walker, 2001). For the
most part, commitment in marketing scholarship has been operationalized as
affective commitment (Fullerton, 2003). In their important study on the roles of trust
and commitment in marketing relationships, Morgan and Hunt (1994) substantially
operationalized commitment as affective commitment by adapting their measure of
commitment from the Allen and Meyer (1990) affective commitment scale. Affective
commitment in marketing relationships has its base in shared values, trust,
benevolence, and relationalism (Fullerton, 2003; Garbarino and Johnson, 1999;
Gilliland and Bello, 2002; Gruen et al., 2000; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Affective
commitment exists when the individual consumer identifies with and is attached to
their relational partner (Fullerton, 2003; Gruen et al., 2000). Overall, consumers
should be viewed as being affectively committed to a service provider when they
like their service provider, regardless of the type of the service that is being
consumed.
Continuance commitment in marketing relationships is rooted in switching costs,
sacrifice, lack of choice and dependence (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997; Dwyer et al., 1987;
Fullerton, 2003; Gilliland and Bello, 2002; Gundlach et al., 1995; Heide and John, 1992).
In part, continuance commitment has its base in Beckers (1960) theory of side-bets
where the consumer is bound to a relational partner because of the potential that
extra-relational benefits would be lost in the event of a switch. At the same time,
scarcity of alternatives is also an important causal antecedent of the psychological
state of continuance commitment (McGee and Ford, 1987). Continuance commitment
may well explain why consumers sometimes feel trapped in marketing relationships
when they cannot easily exit the relationship (Fournier et al., 1998). The nature of
continuance commitment is that customers can be committed to the relationship
because they feel that ending the relationship involves an economic or social sacrifice
or because they have no choice but to maintain the current relationship. The
psychological state of continuance commitment represents what has been termed by
some as the dark-side of relationship marketing (Fournier et al., 1998).
An Integrated model of commitment in service relationships
Both the services marketing literature and the relationship marketing literature seek to
explain many of the same dependent variables. Customer retention and advocacy,
which have been identified as important behavioural consequences of service quality
(Zeithaml et al., 1996), also fit within the domain of constructs outlined by Morgan and
Hunt (1994) as the consequences of commitment in marketing relationships.
Researchers who have examined service relationships are frequently interested in
explaining customer retention or service switching (Bansal et al., 2004; Gruen et al.,
2000; Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Fullerton, 2003). Advocacy, or the act of being a
reference customer, has also been an important dependent variable in service
relationship research (Fullerton, 2003; Harrison-Walker, 2001). As a central,
key-mediating construct in relationship marketing, commitment explains the
relationship between a number of background evaluative variables and constructs
(relationship benefits, communication and trust) and a number of behavioural
dependent variables (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Figure 1 outlines an integrated
structural model of the role that commitment plays in the relationship between service
quality and both switching intentions and advocacy intentions.

Marketing
relationships

1375

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1376

In the study of service relationships, service quality is a natural independent

variable because of the dominant position that it holds in the services marketing
literature (Iacobucci, 1998). Customer retention (Bansal and Taylor, 1999; Cronin and
Taylor, 1992; Fullerton and Taylor, 2002; Gottlieb et al., 1994; Keaveney, 1995; Olsen
and Johnson, 2003; Rust et al., 1995; Zeithaml et al., 1996) and advocacy (Anderson,
1998; Fullerton and Taylor, 2002; Zeithaml et al., 1996) have been well-investigated
loyalty-related behavioural consequences of service quality. For both behavioural
consequences, researchers have found that service quality makes a positive impact.
The service quality literature has put forward that consumers respond to favourable
service quality evaluations by continuing to purchase services from that provider
(Parasuraman et al., 1988). At the same time, customers who are pleased with the level
of quality delivered by a service provider are willing to recommend that organization
to other customers (Anderson, 1998; Zeithaml et al., 1996). These findings are entirely
consistent with the service quality as attitude proposition in that the service quality
evaluation/attitude brings forward intentions regarding future behaviour with respect
to the service provider (Bansal and Taylor, 1999; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Fullerton
and Taylor, 2002; Zeithaml et al., 1996).
H1. Service quality is negatively related to switching intentions.
H2. Service quality is positively related to advocacy intentions.
In addition the overall service quality construct subsumes the constructs of reliability
and responsiveness in a multidimensional perspective of service quality (Brady and
Cronin, 2001; Parasuraman et al., 1988). These variables are conceptually quite similar
to relational constructs such as trust and shared values which Morgan and Hunt (1994)
identified as proximal antecedents of commitment. These cognitive evaluations of
performance over time can be expected to build affective attachment because
customers tend to like relational partners that provide benefits to them. In building an
integrated model of service relationships, overall service quality can be viewed as an
immediate antecedent of customer affective commitment in service relationships. This
proposition has received some empirical support in the services marketing and
relationship marketing literature (Gruen et al., 2000).
H3. Service quality is positively related to affective customer commitment.
Consumers experience continuance commitment when they are dependent on a
relational partner (Fullerton, 2003; Gruen et al., 2000). Dependence is caused by a

Figure 1.
Service relationships:
integrated model

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

number of conditions, including side-bets, scarcity of alternatives and contracts

(Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Fullerton, 2003). A customer could be locked into doing
business with a service provider, regardless of the level of perceived benefits received
(Barnes, 1997). In this situation, the consumer may perceive that few alternatives exist
outside the current relationship. This applies whether there is a real scarcity of
alternatives imposed by monopoly-market conditions (Barnes, 1997), contracts
(Anderson and Weitz, 1992) or merely perceived as a condition in the external
environment. Regardless, when consumers perceive few alternatives outside the
existing relationship they feel dependent on their partner. Perceived scarcity of
alternatives outside the existing relationship gives rise to continuance commitment.
H4. Scarcity of alternatives is positively related to continuance customer
commitment.
In a relationship, consumers can experience both continuance and affective
commitment to varying levels at any one point in time (Gilliland and Bello, 2002;
Fullerton, 2003). High levels of customer commitment are not necessarily desirable,
from the perspective of the service provider as the relationship between commitment
and customer retention and advocacy may depend upon the component of commitment
highlighted in the relationship (Fullerton, 2003; Gilliland and Bello, 2002). The
organizational behaviour literature can help us tease out these complex relationships
as marketing scholars have borrowed from the significant body of literature on
employment relationships to inform our understanding of consumer-organization
relationships (Fullerton, 2003; Gilliland and Bello, 2002; Gruen et al., 2000;
Harrison-Walker, 2001; Morgan and Hunt, 1994).
In employment relationships affective commitment has been shown to be strongly
and positively related to employee retention in organizations (Allen and Meyer, 1990;
Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Mayer and Schoorman, 1992; OReilly and Chatman, 1986).
The link between affective commitment and customer retention is a well-researched
topic in relationship marketing. Affective commitment has been shown to make a
uniformly positive impact on customer retention (Fullerton, 2003; Garbarino and
Johnson, 1999; Gruen et al., 2000; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Pritchard et al., 1999). Others
(Price and Arnould, 1999) have recognized that positive affect lies at the heart of many
customer-service provider relationships where the consumer exhibits frequent
repurchase patronage.
H5. Affective customer commitment is negatively related to switching intentions.
In the organizational behaviour literature, affective commitment has been shown to be
strongly and positively related to employee organizational citizenship behaviours,
including advocacy (Allen and Meyer, 1990; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990). It is reasonable to
expect that consumers who feel a psychological connection with their service provider
will act as favourable reference customers for the organization (Price and Arnould,
1999). Other researchers in marketing have identified a strong positive relationship
between affective commitment and advocacy and customer citizenship behaviours in
service industries (Fullerton, 2003; Gruen et al., 2000; Harrison-Walker, 2001). When
customers identify with a relational partner and have pleasant feelings about the
relationship they will gladly recommend that partner to people that they care about.
H6. Affective customer commitment is positively related to advocacy.

Marketing
relationships

1377

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1378

Dependence based commitment is also a well-studied phenomenon in relationship

marketing. Customers sometimes remain in a relationship because they find it difficult
to get out of the relationship. For the most part, researchers have identified a positive
relationship between continuance-type commitment and customer retention (Fournier
et al., 1998; Fullerton, 2003; Grayson and Ambler, 1999). Bansal and Taylor (1999)
found that consumer perceptions about the ease of switching were positively related to
switching intentions in financial services. Anderson and Weitz (1992) found that
pledges, contracts and investments (important indicators of continuance commitment)
caused consumers to maintain a relationship. These findings mirror those in the
organizational commitment literature where continuance commitment is positively,
but weakly related to employee retention (Allen and Meyer, 1990; Mathieu and Zajac,
1990). The reason for this is that the consumer may be forced to stay in a relationship
built on continuance commitment but they will look to get out of the relationship when
given an opportunity.
H7. Continuance customer commitment is negatively related to switching
intentions.
In employment relationships, continuance commitment makes a negative impact on
the probability of employees engaging in pro-social behaviours in the workplace (Allen
and Meyer, 1990; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990). Few studies have examined the effect of
continuance commitment on advocacy and positive word of mouth behaviour in a
marketing relationship (Gruen et al., 2000; Fullerton, 2003; Harrison-Walker, 2001).
Consumers who are committed to a service provider by continuance may feel trapped
in the marketing relationship (Fournier et al., 1998). They may react against these
feelings of entrapment by spreading negative word of mouth communications against
their captors or at the very least, failing to act as advocates on behalf of their relational
partner (Fullerton, 2003; Harrison-Walker, 2001).
H8. Continuance customer commitment is negatively related to advocacy
intentions.
Affective commitment and continuance commitments are not orthogonal constructs
and individuals may feel both psychological states at any point in time (Allen and
Meyer, 1990). Continuance commitment has been shown to undermine the positive
effects of affective commitment in marketing relationships. Fullerton (2003) found that
continuance commitment moderated the relationship between affective commitment
and both customer retention and advocacy. The nature of this interactive effect was
such that the relationship between affective commitment and both customer retention
and advocacy became less positive as customers experienced higher levels of
continuance commitment (Fullerton, 2003). The conceptual rationale for this position is
that consumer feelings about being stuck in the relationship come to over-ride any
positive feelings emerging from identification and attachment. Even if consumers like
a relational partner, they may hope to get out of a relationship if they feel partly
trapped in that relationship. Others who have examined the effects of variables that are
conceptually similar to affective and continuance commitment in organizational
buyer-sell relationships have found evidence that the constructs interact in their effects
on relational dependent variables (Izquierdo and Cillan, 2004; Joshi and Arnold, 1997).

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

These processes have been investigated in the organizational behaviour literature

as well. For example, Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) found that continuance
commitment reduced the positive impact on affective commitment to the organization
on important work-place behaviours. Similarly, Somers and Birnbaum (2000) provided
some basic support for the position that there is a moderating relationship between
affective and continuance commitment on employee behaviours in the workplace. For
the most part, we would expect that continuance commitment in a marketing
relationship would negatively impact the positive effects of affective customer
commitment on both switching and advocacy intentions.
H9. There is an interaction between affective and continuance customer
commitment such that the negative relationship between affective customer
commitment and switching intentions becomes less negative at higher levels
of continuance customer commitment.
H10. There is an interaction between affective and continuance customer
commitment such that the positive relationship between affective customer
commitment and advocacy intentions becomes less positive at higher levels of
continuance customer commitment.
Methodology and measures
The hypotheses were tested using a closed-ended survey in three service settings;
banking services, telecommunications services and grocery retail services. These
service settings were selected in part because of ease in data collection because they are
widely consumed. In addition, they differ in terms of their service attributes including
degree of tangibility and the degree to which credence is in a core feature of the service.
Thus there is good potential to generalize the findings across service industries.
Participants were asked to reflect upon their relationship with their bank,
telecommunications service provider and grocery store. The data in the banking
survey was collected by personal interview from consumers who were randomly
approached after leaving a particular branch at a particular Canadian bank located in a
large Canadian city. The data in the telecommunications survey was collected by mall
intercept in a large Canadian city over two days. The data in the grocery retail survey
was collected by store exit-survey over three days in a large Canadian city. The refusal
rate for the mall-intercept survey and the store exit-survey was approximately 40 per
cent. The refusal rate was approximately 60 per cent in the bank-exit interview. The
higher refusal rate in the bank setting may have been a partial result of the interview
being conducted on the street (rather than indoors as was the case in the other service
settings). These processes resulted in 220 completed surveys in the banking service
setting, 206 for telecommunications services and 208 in retail grocery services.
Overall service quality was measured with three items previously employed by
Taylor and Baker (1994). Affective and continuance commitment were each measured
with three items drawn from the Allen and Meyer (1990) organizational commitment
scale. While the full Allen and Meyer (1990) affective and continuance commitment
scales each consist of eight items, other marketing scholars (Fullerton, 2003; Bansal
et al., 2004) have used a three-item subset of each scale to operationalize these constructs
in a marketing context. Switching and advocacy intentions were each measured with
three behavioural intention items adapted from Zeithaml et al. (1996). Alternative

Marketing
relationships

1379

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1380

scarcity was measured by two items developed by Fullerton (2005). In the banking,
telecommunications and grocery retail settings, all items (except one of the service
quality items) were measured on a nine-point Likert scale. One service quality item was
measured on a nine-point semantic differential scale. This was consistent with the way
that the scale was used by Taylor and Baker (1994) with no detrimental effect on the
reliability of the scale. While this survey was not pre-tested, all survey items had been
used in previous studies. A complete listing of the items employed in this study and
reports the scale reliabilities in each service setting can be found in Table I. All scales
possessed acceptable reliability in each service setting by surpassing the 0.80 criterion
established by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). The measurement and structural models
were tested using AMOS 3.2 (Arbuckle, 1996). All models were estimated from the
covariance matrix with maximum likelihood estimation. In specifying the affective
commitment by continuance commitment interaction term, the methods prescribed by
Ping (1995) were used in this study. In the examination of interaction effects with
cross-sectional survey data it was necessary to mean centre all data before proceeding
with regression or SEM approaches to data analysis (Aitken and West, 1991).
Results
The measurement model offered an acceptable fit to the data in the banking services
setting (x2 159:5df104, p, .01; CFI 0:99; RMSEA 0:05; GFI 0:92, AGFI 0:89),
the telecommunications services setting (x2 151df104, p, .01; CFI 0:99;
RMSEA 0:05; GFI 0:92, AGFI 0:88) and the retail grocery service setting
(x2 154:5df104, p, .01; CFI 0:99; RMSEA 0:05; GFI 0:92, AGFI 0:88). The
specific items employed in this study, item factor-loadings, squared multiple correlations
for the items and scale reliabilities for each service setting are shown in Table I.
Convergent validity is established because all factor loadings are highly significant and
also have item squared multiple correlations (SMCs) of greater that 0.6 (Bagozzi and Yi,
1988). Discrminant validity was assessed according to the methods outlined by Fornell
and Larcker (1981). Strong discriminant validity was demonstrated because the squared
correlation between a pair of constructs was less than the average variance extracted
(AVE) of each construct (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Table II shows a matrix of latent
variable correlations, with AVE shown on the diagonal, for each service setting.
The integrated model put forward in the conceptual development offered a very
promising fit to the data in all three service settings. This theoretical model had a good
fit to the data in the financial service (x2 189df123, p, .01; CFI 0:99; RMSEA 0:05;
GFI 0:92, AGFI 0:88), grocery retail service (x2 235df123, p, .01;CFI 0:97;
RMSEA 0:07; GFI 0:89, AGFI 0:85) and telecommunications service settings
(x2 202:2df123, p, .01 ; CFI 0:99; RMSEA 0:05; GFI 0:91, AGFI 0:87).
Table III summarizes the path coefficients for all paths hypothesized in the model.
In examining this hypothesized model in more detail, all ten hypotheses received
some support. H1 was supported as service quality was negatively and significantly
related to switching intentions in all three service settings examined in this study. This
finding was consistent with a considerable body of literature in the area of services
switching (Bansal and Taylor, 1999; Zeithaml et al., 1996). There was also strong
support for H2 as service quality was significantly and positively related to advocacy
intentions in all three service settings, a finding that was also consistent with a wide
body of literature on the relationship between service quality and advocacy (Anderson,

Grocery CFA
Loadings SMC

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

Service quality
(a 0.96 grocery; a 0.96 banking;
a 0.97 telephone)
I believe the general quality of Xs services
high
Overall, I consider Xs service to be
excellent
The quality of Xs service is: (1 poor;
9 excellent)
Affective commitment
(a 0.97 grocery; a 0.97 banking;
a 0.98 telephone)
I feel emotionally attached to X
X has a great deal of personal meaning for
me
I feel a strong sense of identification with X
Continuance commitment
(a 0.98 grocery; a 0.98 banking;
a 0.96 telephone)
It would be very hard for me to switch
away from X right now even if I wanted to
My life would be disrupted if I switched
away from X
It would be too costly to switch from X
right now
Advocacy intentions
(a 0.98 grocery; a 0.98 banking;
a 0.98 telephone)
Say positive things about X to other people
Recommend X to someone who seeks your
advice
Encourage friends and relatives to do
business with X
Switching intentions
(a 0.98 grocery; a 0.97 banking;
a 0.99 telephone)
Do less business with X in the next year
Take some of your business to one of Xs
competitors
Switch to a competitor of X
Alternative scarcity
(a 0.97 grocery; a 0.98 banking;
a 0.95 telephone)
Aside from X there are few choices in this
market
I have too few options to switch from X

Banking CFA
Loadings SMC

Telephone CFA
Loadings SMC

0.97

0.93

0.95

0.91

0.92

0.85

0.96

0.92

0.95

0.91

0.98

0.96

0.91

0.83

0.92

0.85

0.96

0.92

0.97

0.93

0.98

0.96

0.96

0.93

0.97
0.96

0.94
0.91

0.98
0.97

0.95
0.94

0.98
0.96

0.96
0.92

0.94

0.88

0.96

0.93

0.96

0.92

0.98

0.96

0.98

0.95

0.97

0.95

0.98

0.97

0.96

0.93

0.97

0.94

0.96

0.93

0.96

0.92

0.97

0.94

0.98

0.97

0.98

0.96

0.98

0.97

0.98

0.96

0.98

0.96

0.98

0.96

0.96

0.93

0.96

0.93

0.98

0.96

0.98
0.96

0.96
0.93

0.97
0.94

0.95
0.88

0.99
0.97

0.98
0.94

0.96
0.97

0.93
0.94

0.97
0.99

0.94
0.97

0.97
0.94

0.93
0.88

Marketing
relationships

1381

Table I.
Items, factor loadings and
squared multiple
correlations

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1382

Table II.
Latent variable
correlation matrix and
average variance
extracted (AVE)

Table III.
Integrated model:
parameter estimates, fit
statistics and variance
explained

Grocery retail services

Service quality (SQ)
Affective commitment (AC)
Continuance commitment (CC)
Switching intentions (SI)
Advocacy intentions (AI)
Alternative scarcity (AS)
Banking services
Service quality (SQ)
Affective commitment (AC)
Continuance commitment (CC)
Switching intentions (SI)
Advocacy intentions (AI)
Alternative scarcity (AS)
Telephone services
Service quality (SQ)
Affective commitment (AC)
Continuance commitment (CC)
Switching intentions (SI)
Advocacy intentions (AI)
Alternative scarcity (AS)

SQ

AC

CC

SI

AI

AS

0.89
0.75
20.45
20.70
0.82
20.39

0.93
2 0.54
2 0.75
0.86
0.41

0.94
0.44
2 0.68
0.87

0.94
20.79
0.34

0.95
20.57

0.93

0.89
0.47
20.13
20.68
0.62
20.08

0.96
2 0.11
2 0.87
0.75
2 0.08

0.94
0.05
2 0.38
0.86

0.92
20.74
20.01

0.95
20.27

0.95

0.91
0.74
0.14
20.73
0.73
0.28

0.94
0.12
2 0.78
0.86
0.23

0.94
2 0.22
0.03
0.87

0.96
20.80
20.29

0.96
0.12

0.90

Service quality-switching (H1)

Service quality-advocacy (H2)
Service quality-affective commitment (H3)
Alternative scarcity-continuance
commitment (H4)
Affective-switching (H5)
Affective-advocacy (H6)
Continuance-switching (H7)
Continuance-advocacy (H8)
Affective *continuance-switching (H9)
Affective *continuance-advocacy (H10)
x2
df
GFI
AGFI
RMSEA
CFI
R 2 affective (%)
R 2 continuance (%)
R 2 switching (%)
R 2 advocacy (%)
Notes: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01; * * *p , 0.001

Banking

Telephone

Grocery

20.35 * * *
0.32 * * *
0.47 * * *

2 0.31 * * *
0.22 * * *
0.74 * * *

2 0.30 * * *
0.38 * * *
0.75 * * *

0.86 * * *
20.71 * * *
0.58 * * *
20.08 * *
20.28 * * *
0.04ns
20.04ns
189
123
0.92
0.88
0.05
0.99
23
74
86
72

0.87 * * *
2 0.55 * * *
0.71 * * *
2 0.08 * *
2 0.10 * *
0.26 * * *
2 0.12 * * *
202
123
0.91
0.87
0.05
0.99
57
76
74
78

0.88 * * *
2 0.52 * * *
0.46 * * *
0.08 *
2 0.31 * * *
0.14 * * *
2 0.08 * * *
236
123
0.89
0.85
0.07
0.97
60
77
63
86

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1998; Zeithaml et al., 1996). The hypothesis (H3) that service quality was positively
related to affective commitment was supported in all three service settings. The
hypothesis that continuance commitment is rooted in scarcity of alternatives (H4)
received support in all three service settings as scarcity of alternatives was
significantly and positively related to continuance commitment.
In examining the effects of customer commitment, there was strong support for the
hypothesis that affective commitment was negatively related to switching intentions
(H5) in all three service settings. Affective commitment was also strongly and
positively related to advocacy intentions (H6) in all service settings examined in this
study, supporting the hypothesis. These findings are consistent with many other
studies in the area of relationship marketing suggesting that the consequences of
affective commitment are uniformly positive (Fullerton, 2003). In terms of the
consequences of continuance commitment there was mixed support for the hypothesis
that continuance commitment leads to customer retention (H7). In two service settings
(banking and telecommunications) continuance commitment was significantly and
negatively related to switching intentions. These findings were consistent with the
hypothesis. In the grocery retail service setting, continuance commitment was
significantly and positively related to switching intentions. This was in contrary to
expectations. The hypothesis that continuance commitment is negatively related to
advocacy intentions (H8) received support in all three service settings. Overall, the
findings suggest that continuance commitment has at best a weak effect on customer
retention but has a decidedly negative impact on word-of-mouth communications.
In terms of the hypotheses regarding the interactive effects of affective and
continuance commitment, both hypothesis received some support. The hypothesis that
there was an interaction between affective and continuance commitment on switching
intentions (H9) was supported in two (telecommunications and grocery retail) service
settings. In both service settings where there was a significant affective-continuance
interaction on switching intentions, it was in the direction hypothesized. The
hypothesis that there was an interaction between affective and continuance
commitment on advocacy intentions (H10) was supported in two
(telecommunications and retail grocery) service settings. In addition, these
significant interactions were in the hypothesized direction. Overall, there was good
support for the position that the degree of continuance commitment present in a
relationship changes the nature of the relationship between affective commitment and
both switching and advocacy intentions.
Theoretical and managerial implications
This study confirms some basic views in the area of relationship marketing. Consistent
with many other studies, affective commitment supports the development of
relationships because the construct was found to be significantly and negatively
related to switching intentions and significantly and positively related to advocacy
intentions. In addition, the results of this study are consistent with the general view
that affective-type commitment plays a significant mediating role in service
relationships. While affective commitment did not completely mediate the effects of
service quality on the two loyalty-related dependent variables examined in this study,
it played a significant partial mediating role. The implication of this finding is that
marketing scholars and practitioners have to focus attention on both the evaluative

Marketing
relationships

1383

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1384

forces (service quality) and the relational forces (customer commitment) that drive
crucial customer behaviours.
The results of this study are also somewhat consistent with other studies that have
examined the simple effects of continuance commitment. At best, continuance
commitment has a weakly negative effect on switching intentions. It is clear that
continuance commitment has a much smaller effect on switching intentions than
affective commitment (see Table III). This is also consistent with other studies that
have concluded that continuance commitment has a weaker effect than affective
commitment on customer retention (Bansal et al., 2004; Gruen et al., 2000; Fullerton,
2003). On the other hand, it was found that continuance commitment may heighten
switching intentions in a marketing relationship as there was a positive relationship
between continuance commitment and switching intentions in the grocery service
setting. The conceptual rationale for this finding may be rooted in reactance theory
(Brehm et al., 1966). There may be some situations where consumers react against their
partners when they feel trapped and express a desire to get out of the relationship as
soon as possible when they have the opportunity to exit the relationship (Fournier et al.,
1998; Fullerton, 2003). In the case of grocery retailing, there are relatively few economic
or psychological switching costs and continuance commitment may be a function
primarily of convenience or perceptions that all retailers are essentially the same. Thus,
they can feel a state of continuance commitment, yet be easily able to switch retailers.
The study is also clearly consistent with other works that have demonstrated that
continuance commitment has a decidedly negative effect on advocacy (Fullerton, 2003;
Harrison-Walker, 2001). Customers who feel trapped in their service relationships will
be very unlikely to act as reference customers on behalf of their relational partners.
This is important because organizations in competitive markets are increasingly
reliant on their existing customer base as a source of new customers (Reichheld, 2003).
This study is one of a small number of studies that have examined potential
interactive effects between the two dominant forms of commitment in marketing
relationships. This is not a well-investigated and understood issue in the area of
relationship marketing. Bansal et al. (2004) hypothesized, but did not find any significant
interaction between affective and continuance commitment on switching intentions in a
study of automotive repair services. While these authors examined only one service
setting, they did acknowledge that interaction effects are sometimes difficult to test with
cross-sectional survey data. (Bansal et al., 2004). Fullerton (2003) in a longitudinal,
experimental design found a significant interaction between affective and continuance
commitment on both switching intentions and advocacy intentions. The findings in the
current study demonstrate that continuance commitment may depress the positive
effects of affective commitment to the service provider. While evidence supporting the
existence of an affective commitment-continuance commitment interaction is not entirely
conclusive, there is a good basis for the conclusion that continuance commitment
undermines the positive effect of affective commitment because significant interactions
were found in two of three service settings examined in this study.
Overall, these findings lend considerable support to the view that commitment is
central to the development of marketing relationships (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). In
particular, the study supports the position that affective commitment is key to the
development and maintenance of effective marketing relationships. Marketing managers
and CRM specialists must look for ways to build identification, attachment and trust in

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

their marketing efforts. It is difficult for marketers to manufacture these conditions out of
thin air because they take time to develop and can only be developed if the organization
seeks to deliver value to its customers through its relationship management efforts
(Rigby et al., 2002). For example, many retail grocery chains are devoting considerable
resources to the development of the retail brand because they have recognized that the
psychological connection that the customer has with the brand is a significant driver of
their patronage intentions, perhaps even a stronger driver than their evaluations of the
stores prices, service and selection (Fullerton, 2005).
On the other hand, these findings may also explain the dissolution of relationships
rooted in continuance commitment once the conditions that create the state of
continuance commitment are removed. Customers who feel bound to their partners
may respond to these feelings with a desire for exit. In addition, these findings also
suggest that continuance commitment undermines the positive role of affective
commitment. While it may seem absurd to develop and manage a relationship
primarily on continuance commitment, many organizations use the mechanisms that
give rise to the psychological state of continuance commitment in creating
relationships. Cellular telephone service providers, membership club programmes
and government services are three prime examples of relationship management efforts
where continuance commitment is frequently at the core. These organizations may
experience some benefits of initial customer retention, but only so long as the
conditions that create continuance commitment are in force. At the same time,
marketers must recognize that their relationship management efforts could build both
affective and continuance commitment. For example, financial service providers in
their efforts to deliver services uniquely suited to attractive customers and enhance
affective commitment may also be creating switching costs that enhance continuance
commitment. In this event, the relationship may not be as strong as the marketer
thinks because of the affective commitment-continuance commitment interaction.
The implication of these findings is that commitment can both enhance and erode
marketing relationships. Affective commitment is the foundation on which
relationships are built. Continuance commitment erodes relationships in three key
ways. First, it has either a weak effect on customer retention, or quite possibly a
detrimental effect on customer retention in some situations. Second, it has a negative
effect on advocacy and customer word of mouth behaviour which is being recognized
as an increasingly important side-effect of effective relationships (Reichheld, 2003).
Third, due to its interactive effect, it erodes the affective commitment based foundation
of marketing relationships. Thus, the extent to which commitment is central to the
development of marketing relationships, depends entirely upon the component of
commitment on which the relationship is being built in the relationship. More
commitment is not necessarily better in a marketing relationship. In the absence of a
concerted effort to develop affective commitment and minimize conditions which give
rise to continuance commitment through its relationship management efforts,
organizations will find that their efforts will be minimally effective at best and entirely
ineffectual at worst.
References
Aitken, L. and West, S. (1991), Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interaction Effects,
Sage, Newbury Park, CA.

Marketing
relationships

1385

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1386

Allen, N. and Meyer, J. (1990), The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and
normative commitment to the organization, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 63
No. 1, pp. 1-18.
Anderson, E. (1998), Customer satisfaction and word of mouth, Journal of Service Research,
Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 5-17.
Anderson, E. and Weitz, B. (1992), The use of pledges to build and sustain commitment in
distribution channels, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 29, pp. 18-34.
Arbuckle, J. (1996), AMOS, Version 3.6, SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL.
Bagozzi, R. and Yi, Y. (1988), On the evaluation of structural equation models, Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 74-94.
Bansal, H. and Taylor, S. (1999), The service switching model (SSM): A model of switching
behavior in services industries, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 200-18.
Bansal, H., Irving, G. and Taylor, S. (2004), A three-component model of customer commitment
to service providers, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 32 No. 3,
pp. 234-50.
Barnes, J. (1997), Closeness, strength and satisfaction: examining the nature of relationships
between providers of financial services and their retail customers, Psychology and
Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 8, pp. 765-90.
Becker, H.S. (1960), Notes on the concept of commitment, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 66
No. 1, pp. 32-42.
Bendapudi, N. and Berry, L. (1997), Customers motivations for maintaining relationships with
service providers, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 73 No. 1, pp. 15-37.
Berry, L. (1995), Relationship marketing of services- growing interest, emerging perspectives,
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 236-45.
Bitner, M. (1995), Building service relationships: Its all about promises, Journal of the Academy
of Marketing Science, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 246-51.
Brady, M. and Cronin, J. (2001), Some new thoughts on measuring perceived service quality:
a hierarchical approach, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 65 No. 3, pp. 34-49.
Brehm, J., Stires, L., Sensing, J. and Shaban, J. (1966), The attractiveness of an eliminated choice
alternative, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology;, Vol. 2, pp. 301-13.
Carman, J. (1990), Consumer perceptions of service quality: an assessment of the SERVQUAL
scale, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 66 No. 1, pp. 33-55.
Cronin, J. and Taylor, S. (1992), Measuring service quality: a reexamination and extension,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 No. 3, pp. 55-68.
Dwyer, R., Schurr, P. and Oh, S. (1987), Developing buyer-seller relationships, Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 51 No. 2, pp. 11-27.
Fisk, R., Brown, S. and Bitner, M. (1993), Tracking the evolution of services marketing
literature, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 69 No. 1, pp. 61-103.
Fornell, C. and Larcker, D. (1981), Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable
variables and measurement error, Journal of Marketing Research., Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 39-50.
Fournier, S., Dobscha, S. and Mick, D. (1998), Preventing the premature death of relationship
marketing, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76 No. 1, pp. 42-51.
Fullerton, G. (2003), When does commitment lead to loyalty, Journal of Service Research., Vol. 5
No. 4, pp. 333-44.
Fullerton, G. (2005), The service quality-loyalty relationship in retail services: does commitment
matter?, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 99-111.

Fullerton, G. and Taylor, S. (2002), Mediating, interactive and non-linear effects in service
quality and satisfaction with services research, Canadian Journal of Administrative
Sciences, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 124-36.

Marketing
relationships

Garbarino, E. and Johnson, M. (1999), The different roles of satisfaction, trust and commitment
in customer relationships, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 63 No. 2, pp. 70-87.

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

Gilliland, D. and Bello, D. (2002), The two sides to attitudinal commitment: the effect of
calculative and loyalty commitment on enforcement mechanisms in distribution
channels, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 24-43.
Gottlieb, J., Grewal, D. and Brown, S. (1994), Consumer satisfaction and perceived quality:
complementary or divergent constructs, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 79 No. 6,
pp. 875-85.
Grayson, K. and Ambler, T. (1999), The dark side of long-term relationships in marketing
services, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 36, February, pp. 132-41.
Gruen, T., Summers, J. and Acito, F. (2000), Relationship marketing activities, commitment and
membership behaviors in professional associations, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 64 No. 3,
pp. 34-49.
Gundlach, G., Achrol, R. and Mentzer, J. (1995), The structure of commitment in exchange,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 59 No. 1, pp. 78-92.
Harrison-Walker, J. (2001), The measurement of word-of-mouth communication and an
investigation of service quality and customer commitment as potential antecedents,
Journal of Service Research, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 60-75.
Heide, J. and John, G. (1992), Do norms matter in marketing relationships?, Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp. 32-44.
Hui, M. and Tse, D. (1996), What to tell consumers in waits of different lengths: An integrative
model of service evaluation, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60 No. 2, pp. 81-90.
Iacobucci, D. (1998), Services: what do we know and where shall we go?, in Swartz, T., Bowen,
D. and Brown, S. (Eds), Advances in Services Marketing, Vol. 8, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.
Izquierdo, C. and Cillan, J. (2004), The interaction of dependence and trust in long term industrial
relationships, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 38 No. 8, pp. 974-94.
Joshi, A. and Arnold, S. (1997), The moderating effect of relational norms on the buyer-seller
dependence opportunism relationship, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 8,
pp. 823-45.
Keaveney, S. (1995), Customer switching behavior in service industries: an exploratory study,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 59 No. 2, pp. 71-82.
McGee, G. and Ford, R. (1987), Two (or more?) dimensions of organizational Ccommitment: a
reexamination of the affective and continuance commitment scales, Journal of Applied
Psychology, Vol. 72 No. 4, pp. 638-42.
Mathieu, J. and Zajac, D. (1990), A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and
consequences of organizational commitment, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 108 No. 2,
pp. 171-94.
Mayer, R. and Schoorman, D. (1992), Predicting participation and production outcomes through
a two-dimensional model of organizational commitment, Academy of Management
Journal, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 671-84.
Meyer, J. and Herscovitch, L. (2001), Commitment in the workplace: toward a general model,
Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 299-326.

1387

EJM
39,11/12

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

1388

Moorman, C., Zaltman, G. and Deshpande, R. (1992), Relationships between providers and users
of marketing research: the dynamics of trust within and between organizations, Journal of
Marketing Research, Vol. 29, August, pp. 314-29.
Morgan, R. and Hunt, S. (1994), The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 2, pp. 20-38.
Nunnally, J. and Bernstein, I. (1994), Psychometric Theory, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Olsen, L. and Johnson, J. (2003), Service equity, satisfaction, and loyalty: from
transaction-specific to cumulative evaluation, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 5 No. 3,
pp. 184-95.
OReilly, C. and Chatman, J. (1986), Organizational commitment and psychological attachment:
the effects of compliance, identification and internalization on prosocial behavior, Journal
of Applied Psychology, Vol. 71 No. 3, pp. 492-9.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. and Berry, L. (1988), SERVQUAL: a multiple-item scale for
measuring consumer perceptions of service quality, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 64 No. 1,
pp. 12-37.
Petty, R., Wegener, D. and Fabrigar, L. (1997), Attitudes and attitude change, Annual Review of
Psychology, Vol. 48, pp. 606-47.
Ping, R. (1995), A parsimonious estimating technique for interaction and quadratic latent
variables, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 32, August, pp. 336-47.
Price, L. and Arnould, E. (1999), Commercial friendships: service provider-client relationships in
context, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 63 No. 4, pp. 38-56.
Pritchard, M., Havitz, M. and Howard, D. (1999), Analyzing the commitment-loyalty link in
service relationships, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 27 No. 3,
pp. 333-48.
Reichheld, F. (2003), The one number you need to grow, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 81
No. 12, pp. 46-55.
Rigby, D., Reichheld, F. and Schefter, P. (2002), Avoid the four perils of CRM, Harvard Business
Review, Vol. 80 No. 2, pp. 101-10.
Rust, R., Zahorik, A. and Keiningham, T. (1995), Return on quality (ROQ): making service
quality financially accountable, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 59 No. 2, pp. 58-70.
Sheth, J. and Parvatiyar, A. (2002), Evolving relationship marketing into a discipline, Journal of
Relationship Marketing, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 3-16.
Somers, M. and Birnbaum, D. (2000), Exploring the relationship between commitment profiles,
work attitudes, employee withdrawal and job performance, Public Personnel
Management, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 353-65.
Taylor, S. (1994), Waiting for service: The relationship between delays and evaluations of
service, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 2, pp. 56-69.
Taylor, S. and Baker, T. (1994), An assessment of the relationship between service quality and
customer satisfaction in the formation of consumers purchase intentions, Journal of
Retailing, Vol. 70 No. 2, pp. 163-78.
Zeithaml, V. (2000), Service quality, profitability and the economic worth of customers: what we
know and what we need to learn, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 28
No. 1, pp. 67-85.
Zeithaml, V., Berry, L. and Parasuraman, A. (1996), The behavioral consequences of service
quality, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60 No. 2, pp. 31-46.

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

This article has been cited by:

1. Ernest Emeka Izogo. 2015. Determinants of attitudinal loyalty in Nigerian telecom service sector: Does
commitment play a mediating role?. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 23, 107-117. [CrossRef]
2. Aitor Imaz, Khandker M. Nurul Habib, Amer Shalaby, Ahmed Osman Idris. 2015. Investigating the
factors affecting transit user loyalty. Public Transport 7, 39-60. [CrossRef]
3. Ingo O. Karpen, Liliana L. Bove, Bryan A. Lukas, Michael J. Zyphur. 2015. Service-Dominant
Orientation: Measurement and Impact on Performance Outcomes. Journal of Retailing 91, 89-108.
[CrossRef]
4. Livia L. Barakat, Jase R. Ramsey, Melanie P. Lorenz, Marlusa Gosling. 2015. Severe service failure
recovery revisited: Evidence of its determinants in an emerging market context. International Journal of
Research in Marketing 32, 113-116. [CrossRef]
5. Angeline Close Scheinbaum, Russell Lacey. 2015. Event social responsibility: A note to improve outcomes
for sponsors and events. Journal of Business Research . [CrossRef]
6. Sarah Tanford, Rhonda Montgomery. 2015. Developing Loyalty Programs for Convention Attendees: An
Exploratory Study. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration 16, 57-77. [CrossRef]
7. Patricia Martnez Garca de Leaniz, Ignacio Rodrguez Del Bosque Rodrguez. 2015. Exploring the
Antecedents of Hotel Customer Loyalty: A Social Identity Perspective. Journal of Hospitality Marketing
& Management 24, 1-23. [CrossRef]
8. Paramaporn Thaichon, Antonio Lobo, Ann Mitsis. 2014. Achieving customer loyalty through service
excellence in internet industry. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences 6:4, 274-289. [Abstract]
[Full Text] [PDF]
9. Paramaporn Thaichon, Antonio Lobo, Catherine Prentice, Thu Nguyen Quach. 2014. The development
of service quality dimensions for internet service providers: Retaining customers of different usage patterns.
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21, 1047-1058. [CrossRef]
10. Sigi Goode, Chinho Lin, Walter Fernandez, James J. Jiang. 2014. Exploring two explanations of loyalty
in application service provision. European Journal of Operational Research 237, 649-657. [CrossRef]
11. Edward Shih-Tse Wang. 2014. The effects of relationship bonds on emotional exhaustion and turnover
intentions in frontline employees. Journal of Services Marketing 28:4, 319-330. [Abstract] [Full Text]
[PDF]
12. Houcine Akrout. 2014. Relationship Quality in Cross-Border Exchanges: A Temporal Perspective.
Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing 21, 145-169. [CrossRef]
13. C. J. Padmavathy, V. Sivakumar. 2014. Dimensions of CRM Effectiveness and its Effect on
Relationship Quality. International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management
3:10.4018/IJCRMM.20120101, 1-17. [CrossRef]
14. Susanne Curth, Sebastian Uhrich, Martin Benkenstein. 2014. How commitment to fellow customers
affects the customer-firm relationship and customer citizenship behavior. Journal of Services Marketing
28:2, 147-158. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
15. Russell Lacey, Pamela A. Kennett-Hensel, Chris Manolis. 2014. Is corporate social responsibility a
motivator or hygiene factor? Insights into its bivalent nature. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
. [CrossRef]

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

16. Paramaporn Thaichon, Antonio Lobo, Ann Mitsis. 2014. An empirical model of home internet services
quality in Thailand. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics 26:2, 190-210. [Abstract] [Full Text]
[PDF]
17. Gordon Fullerton. 2014. The moderating effect of normative commitment on the service quality-customer
retention relationship. European Journal of Marketing 48:3/4, 657-673. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
18. Doren Pick, Martin Eisend. 2014. Buyers perceived switching costs and switching: a meta-analytic
assessment of their antecedents. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 42, 186-204. [CrossRef]
19. Trond Hammervoll. 2014. Service provision for co-creation of value. International Journal of Physical
Distribution & Logistics Management 44:1/2, 155-168. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
20. Randle D. Raggio, Anna M. Walz, Mousumi Bose Godbole, Judith Anne Garretson Folse. 2014. Gratitude
in relationship marketing. European Journal of Marketing 48:1/2, 2-24. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
21. Megha Jain, Shadab Khalil, Wesley J. Johnston, Julian Ming-Sung Cheng. 2014. The performance
implications of powertrust relationship: The moderating role of commitment in the supplierretailer
relationship. Industrial Marketing Management 43, 312-321. [CrossRef]
22. Isabelle Brun, Lova Rajaobelina, Line Ricard. 2014. Online relationship quality: scale development and
initial testing. International Journal of Bank Marketing 32:1, 5-27. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
23. Yunhi Kim, Myung-hwan Cho, Heesup Han. 2014. Testing the Model of Hotel Chain Frequency
Program Members' Loyalty Intentions. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research 19, 35-60. [CrossRef]
24. Shueh-Chin Ting, Liang-Yin Yeh. 2014. Teacher loyalty of elementary schools in Taiwan: the
contribution of gratitude and relationship quality. School Leadership & Management 34, 85-101.
[CrossRef]
25. Chatura Ranaweera, Kalyani Menon. 2013. For better or for worse?. European Journal of Marketing 47:10,
1598-1621. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
26. Danilo C. Dantas, Franois Carrillat. 2013. The relational benefits of personalized communications in
an online environment. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de
l'Administration 30:10.1002/cjas.v30.3, 189-202. [CrossRef]
27. Jana LayHwa Bowden. 2013. What's in a relationship?. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics
25:3, 428-451. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
28. Sanjit Kumar Roy. 2013. Consequences of customer advocacy. Journal of Strategic Marketing 21, 260-276.
[CrossRef]
29. Sampath Kumar Ranganathan, Vivek Madupu, Sandipan Sen, John R. Brooks. 2013. Affective and
cognitive antecedents of customer loyalty towards email service providers. Journal of Services Marketing
27:3, 195-206. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
30. Patria Laksamana, David Wong, Russel P.J. Kingshott, Fatimah Muchtar. 2013. The role of interaction
quality and switching costs in premium banking services. Marketing Intelligence & Planning 31:3, 229-249.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
31. Margaret Anne CraigLees, Jennifer Harris, Amalia E. Maulana. 2013. Websites and revisiting behaviour:
an investigation of the relative role of predictors. Marketing Intelligence & Planning 31:3, 250-271.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
32. Jung-Kuei Hsieh, Yi-Ching Hsieh. 2013. Appealing to Internet-based freelance developers in smartphone
application marketplaces. International Journal of Information Management 33, 308-317. [CrossRef]

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

33. Elaine Wallace, Leslie de Chernatony, Isabel Buil. 2013. Building bank brands: How leadership behavior
influences employee commitment. Journal of Business Research 66, 165-171. [CrossRef]
34. Muhammad Sabbir Rahman, Abdul Highe Khan, Masum Murtaza, Md. Mahmudul Haque, Bashir
Hussain. 2012. Experience as a Marketing Tools: A Distinct Thinking under Developing Country's
Consumers' Perspective. Journal of Applied Sciences 12, 2295-2303. [CrossRef]
35. Nasreen Khan, Sharifah Latifah Sye Kadir, Muhammad Sabbir Rahman. 2012. An Empirical Research
on Conceptualisation of Relational Value. Trends in Applied Sciences Research 7, 829-844. [CrossRef]
36. Sarah Tanford, Rhonda Montgomery, Kathleen B. Nelson. 2012. Factors that Influence Attendance,
Satisfaction, and Loyalty for Conventions. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism 13, 290-318. [CrossRef]
37. Yam B Limbu, Bruce A Huhmann, Bing Xu. 2012. Are college students at greater risk of credit card
abuse? Age, gender, materialism and parental influence on consumer response to credit cards. Journal of
Financial Services Marketing 17, 148-162. [CrossRef]
38. Sarah Tanford, Carola Raab, Yen-Soon Kim. 2012. Determinants of customer loyalty and purchasing
behavior for full-service and limited-service hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31,
319-328. [CrossRef]
39. Edith Andrsen, Helene Lundberg, Tommy Roxenhall. 2012. Designing for commitment in regional
strategic networks. Management Research Review 35:6, 531-552. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
40. David Moyes. 2012. Rural small firm service quality: an exploratory study. The TQM Journal 24:3,
248-259. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
41. Joung-Hae Bang, Jin-Young Seol, Min-Sun Kim, Eun-Hyung Lee. 2012. The Effect of the Length of
Relationship and Commitment in the Context of Mobile Telecommunication Industry. The Journal of
Information Systems 21, 47-68. [CrossRef]
42. Sarena Saunders, Michel Rod. 2012. Brand network maps. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and
Healthcare Marketing 6:1, 55-70. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
43. Stanley Kam Sing Wong, Canon Tong. 2012. The influence of market orientation on new product success.
European Journal of Innovation Management 15:1, 99-121. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
44. Barbara ater, Vesna abkar, Toma ater. 2011. Commitment in marketing research services: two
alternative models. Journal of Business Economics and Management 12, 603-628. [CrossRef]
45. Jana Bowden, Leigh Wood. 2011. Sex doesn't matter: the role of gender in the formation of studentuniversity relationships. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education 21, 133-156. [CrossRef]
46. Dev Jani, Heesup Han. 2011. Investigating the key factors affecting behavioral intentions. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 23:7, 1000-1018. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
47. Jana Lay-Hwa Bowden. 2011. Engaging the Student as a Customer: A Relationship Marketing Approach.
Marketing Education Review 21, 211-228. [CrossRef]
48. Nurdilek Dalziel, Fiona Harris, Angus Laing. 2011. A multidimensional typology of customer
relationships: from faltering to affective. International Journal of Bank Marketing 29:5, 398-432.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
49. LiWei Wu. 2011. Beyond satisfaction. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal 21:3, 240-263.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
50. Toma ater, Barbara ater. 2010. Product and relationship quality influence on customer commitment
and loyalty in B2B manufacturing relationships. Industrial Marketing Management 39, 1321-1333.
[CrossRef]

Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA At 04:11 06 April 2015 (PT)

51. Wansoo Kim, Chihyung Ok, Kevin Patrick Gwinner. 2010. The antecedent role of customer-to-employee
relationships in the development of customer-to-firm relationships. The Service Industries Journal 30,
1139-1157. [CrossRef]
52. Xin Guo, Angus Duff, Mario Hair. 2010. The antecedents and consequences of commitment in bank
corporate relationships: evidence from the Chinese banking market. Asia Pacific Business Review 16,
395-416. [CrossRef]
53. Philippe Aurier, Gilles NGoala. 2010. The differing and mediating roles of trust and relationship
commitment in service relationship maintenance and development. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science 38, 303-325. [CrossRef]
54. Rodolfo Vzquez-Casielles, Leticia Surez lvarez, Ana Maria Daz Martn. 2010. Perceived justice
of service recovery strategies: Impact on customer satisfaction and quality relationship. Psychology and
Marketing 27:10.1002/mar.v27:5, 487-509. [CrossRef]
55. Kjell Toften, Trond Hammervoll. 2009. Niche firms and marketing strategy. European Journal of
Marketing 43:11/12, 1378-1391. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
56. Hean Tat Keh, Yi Xie. 2009. Corporate reputation and customer behavioral intentions: The roles of trust,
identification and commitment. Industrial Marketing Management 38, 732-742. [CrossRef]
57. Kjell Toften, Trond Hammervoll. 2009. Niche Firms and the Role of Commitment: An Exploratory
Study of Seafood Exporters. Journal of Food Products Marketing 15, 436-452. [CrossRef]
58. Kallol Das. 2009. Relationship marketing research (19942006). Marketing Intelligence & Planning 27:3,
326-363. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
59. Edward Shih-Tse Wang. 2009. Displayed emotions to patronage intention: consumer response to contact
personnel performance. The Service Industries Journal 29, 317-329. [CrossRef]
60. David H. Wong, Nexhmi Rexha, Ian Phau. 2008. Reexamining traditional service quality in an ebanking
era. International Journal of Bank Marketing 26:7, 526-545. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
61. Mark S. Johnson, Eugene Sivadas, Ellen Garbarino. 2008. Customer satisfaction, perceived risk and
affective commitment: an investigation of directions of influence. Journal of Services Marketing 22:5,
353-362. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
62. Shintaro Okazaki. 2008. Determinant factors of mobilebased wordofmouth campaign referral among
Japanese adolescents. Psychology and Marketing 25:10.1002/mar.v25:8, 714-731. [CrossRef]
63. J.M. Zolkiewski, P. Naud, S.R. Waller. 2008. Modeling the Effect of Losing a Key Individual on Internal
and External Relationships. Journal of business market management 2, 25-39. [CrossRef]
64. Won Jae Seo, B. Christine Green, Yong Jae Ko, Seunghwan Lee, Jarrod Schenewark. 2007. The Effect of
Web Cohesion, Web Commitment, and Attitude toward the Website on Intentions to Use NFL Teams
Websites. Sport Management Review 10, 231-252. [CrossRef]
65. Patrick E. Murphy, Gene R. Laczniak, Graham Wood. 2007. An ethical basis for relationship marketing:
a virtue ethics perspective. European Journal of Marketing 41:1/2, 37-57. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
66. Zoe S. Dimitriades. 2006. Customer satisfaction, loyalty and commitment in service organizations.
Management Research News 29:12, 782-800. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]