Modelling Relationship Quality in a Business-to-Business Marketing Context: The Jordanian Banks and their Online SME Customers.

Abstract

This study provides an understanding on how Relationship Quality is conceptualised in business-to-business marketing relationships. It investigates the relationships of Jordanian Banks with their small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs) customers in terms of Commitment, Satisfaction, Trust, Communication, Transparency, Understanding, and Cooperation. It examines the antecedents and outcomes of the quality of corporate customer relationships by developing a conceptual model which empirically tests this relationship. This research builds and validates a research model based on the literature survey and uses a mixed methods approach. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews to achieve the goal of refining the initial research model. The second stage is a quantitative empirical study that uses a questionnaire and tests the empirical model generated in the first stage. This integration of methods provides a more complete view of this emerging area of marketing theory. Using Structural Equation Modelling; research findings support the use of a secondorder relationship quality construct consisting of Trust, Commitment, and Satisfaction as a direct outcome of a relationship and is named ¿Attitudinal Loyalty¿. Antecedents including; Transparency, Communication, Understanding and Cooperation were found to have a positive impact on relational outcome in a business-to-business context in Jordan. The importance of Transparency emerged as one of the most significant determinants of Relationship Quality, which is considered to be a new finding and not common among previous studies. Communication appears to make the biggest contribution overall and have direct and indirect relationships with other variables. It is therefore a major source of success in a business relationship. This research has several implications for the theory and practice. An important issue is the affects on change management. It requires the establishment of business communications to strengthen existing relationships and to form new ones. This implies developing an interactive approach with other parties. This study gives the banking industry an insight for developing their marketing strategy. It also provides a tool to assess the portfolio of relationships, which helps in targeting specific customers. Furthermore, Transparency in the flow of information imposes cultural change. Studying the Jordanian market can help to provide an insight into an emerging economy. Several qualitative findings showed that the relationship between banks and their small and medium enterprises is interesting. All this enriches and adds to the originality of this work and contributes to existing theory by investigating how relationships between partners can be enhanced.