Mediating effects of relationship quality on customer relationships: an empirical study in Hong Kong
Purpose ‐ To build and test a model of customer relationships, with particular reference to the financial services sector, relating the perceived quality of the relationship to one antecedent and two long term consequences. Design/methodology/approach ‐ Data
collected by street interviews with 207 consumers of financial services in Hong Kong were analysed by the research tool for this study is a questionnaire-based survey on the quality of financial services in Hong Kong. Customers were interviewed on the streets in the major commercial districts
in Hong Kong and a total of 207 completed questionnaires were collected and subjected to factor analysis. The model was tested for goodness of fit and construct reliability. Findings ‐ The findings confirm that there are significant relationships among relationship quality, information
sharing, the expectation of continuing interaction and customers' willingness to recommend their service provider to others. Research limitations/implications ‐ Future research should apply the model proposed in this study and the findings to other service sectors and other geographic
locations, in order to enhance its generalizability. Practical implications ‐ The study provides strong evidence that financial service providers need to cultivate good-quality relationships with customers, especially through regular and open information sharing, in order to
maintain them in the long-term. Originality/value ‐ The main contribution of this study is to demonstrate that relationship quality is a significant mediating variable between the antecedents and consequences of customer relationships. The expectation of a continuing relationship
is also found to be strongly related to customers' willingness to recommend "their" service providers to others.
Keywords: Buyer-seller relationships; Financial services; Hong Kong; Knowledge sharing
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 25 September 2007
- Incorporating Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science
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