Title: The effects of performance, environmental uncertainty and relational norms on customer commitments to suppliers over the duration of customer-supplier relationships

Authors: Robert C. Fink, William L. James, Kenneth J. Hatten

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Worcester State College, 486 Chandler Street, Worcester, MA 01886, USA. ' Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA. ' School of Management, Boston University, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA

Abstract: This paper investigates customer commitments to suppliers based on customer performance outcomes, supplier quality and delivery performance, the presence of relational norms and customer perspectives of environmental uncertainty over the duration of the customer-supplier relationship. Customer commitments to suppliers during short, intermediate and long-term relationships are investigated with the results showing that the influences of performance, relational norms and environmental uncertainty differ as the duration of the relationship extends over time. These results also offer suppliers insights into how they could vary their marketing and sales strategies to influence customer loyalty over time.

Keywords: customer relationship management; CRM; relational marketing; commitment theory; supplier loyalty; customer loyalty; relational governance; supplier quality; delivery performance; uncertainty; customer commitment; customer-supplier relationships.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2008.021220

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2008 Vol.9 No.6, pp.660 - 685

Published online: 13 Nov 2008 *

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