Building long-term marketing relationships: New perspectives on B2B financial services

Abstract

The focus of this study was on the relevance of trust, satisfaction and commitment in maintaining a long-term relationship (intention to stay) with an exchange partner in a Business-to-Business (B2B) context in the financial services industry. The perceptions of 238 B2B clients of a leading South African provider of development capital were investigated. Since support could not be found for the existence of trust, commitment and satisfaction as distinct individual dimensions, this study provides empirical support for the amalgamation of some well-established individual dimensions into broader, more holistic dimensions as drivers of long-term relationship building.Contrary to expectations, B2B banking clients participating in this study appeared to regroup individual dimensions, in a heuristic fashion, to form new dimensions that influenced their attitude towards staying in a B2B relationship. As a result, building long-term marketing relationships seems to be a less complicated process than previously thought. Against this background, the primary contribution of the study is that it highlights the need for marketing practitioners to reconsider their current relationship-marketing strategies. As the findings of the study are inconsistent with conventional wisdom, they also challenge marketing academics to reconsider the theoretical foundations of relationship building in a B2B context.

The Role of Corporate Ethical Management on Trade Relationship Trust and Commitment: B2B

“…In the case of B2B companies, given the fact that the market competition environment has already been changed into a global competitive environment and the huge size and importance of the B2B market, more studies on active B2B transaction relations are considered necessary in the future. Existing previous studies regarding B2B transactions focused on salespersons' competence, the quality of service to improve transaction relations, and relationship marketing to maintain continuous relationships and improve transactions [5,[8][9][10]. However, there is a need for studies to understand the relationship between corporate ethical management and trust in companies or transaction commitment in establishing long-term oriented relationships in business-to-business (B2B) transactions.…”

“…For B2B companies, it is becoming important to establish long-term and friendly relationships with transaction partner companies to secure price competitiveness and expand the market. However, in the environment of B2B companies, it is difficult to have monopoly power due to the evolution of technology and intensifying competition [5,8]. Therefore, B2B companies are further experiencing intense competition.…”

“…The important differences between B2C and B2B relationships include the complexity of industrial materials and services, diversity of industrial demand, remarkably small number of customers, large purchase volumes per customer, and close and lasting relationships between suppliers and customers [8]. In the case of B2B, the possibility of a business forming long-term transaction relationships with customers is higher because the need to create value is relatively large compared to B2C [1,5,8]. It is particularly important for most companies that perform B2B transactions to maintain long-term transaction relationships with transaction partners to improve work efficiency and effectiveness.…”

“…Standards for determining right and wrong in terms of ethical aspects can be applied to all business activities. Generally, a corporate is an organization for profit [5]; as this objective can be achieved through selfish actions, the theory that ethics are completely irrelevant in business has thus far been dominant [5][6][7]. However, over time, a new theory has emerged-profitgenerating companies also have a role of social responsibility and obligation and that companies acting ethically would generate more revenue and perform better [5,7].…”

Marketing in Banking Sector and Digital Ecosystems

“…In the study of B2B marketing in banking Theron, Terblanche and Boshoff [8] found the possibility for transformation through development of some well-established individual intentions into broader attitude as drivers of longterm relationship building in B2B sphere.…”