Impact of relational benefits on trust in the Asian context: Alternative model testing with satisfaction as a mediator and relationship age as a moderator

Abstract

Although it is an established phenomenon in the literature that relational benefits have many positive outcomes, the comparative effect of each type of benefit on different types of trust when customer satisfaction is the mediator, in particular in the Asian context, remains unexplored in the services literature. Therefore, this study, using several alternative models, aims to identify the impacts of confidence benefit, social benefit, and specific treatment benefit on competence, contractual, and goodwill trust, along with an investigation of the mediation impact of customer satisfaction. The study also explores the moderation impact of relationship age on the relational benefits–customer satisfaction relationship. The study's findings from partial least squares‐based structural equation modeling analysis confirmed that ensuring confidence benefit produces a higher level of competence trust and contractual trust in comparison to that achieved by social benefit and special treatment benefit, whereas the latter two types of benefit are crucial for developing goodwill trust. Although customer satisfaction was found to be a significant mediator between relational benefits and the three dimensions of trust, the moderation effect of relationship age was not significant in any model. The study's managerial and theoretical implications are presented in the final section of the paper.

An empirical investigation of the factors affecting customer lifetime value

“…Internet service providers need to keep on investing in monitoring and measuring the current customer's satisfaction and expectations. They should carry out various measures to provide confidence benefits to their customers, like Fatima, Mascio, and Johns (2018) found that it could lead to a higher level of competence trust from customers. Fourth, management should reward loyal customers by offering them special treatment, such as price breaks, tailored deals for their needs, and better and more customised services.…”

Customer satisfaction in Asia

“…Fatima, Mascio, and Johns () examine the role of customer satisfaction in the relationship marketing context in Bangladesh. Specifically, they investigate the impacts of three types of relationship benefits (i.e., confidence benefit, social benefit, and specific treatment benefit) on three types of trust (i.e., competence, contractual, and goodwill trust), along with the mediation roles of customer satisfaction between relationship benefits and trust.…”

How does satisfaction of solar PV users enhance their trust in the power grid? - Evidence from PPAPs in rural China

“…For the latter, trust played a certain intermediary or mediation role when scholars discussed the relationship among satisfaction of service quality [ 39 ], organizational culture and leadership performance [ 40 ], and manufacturer–supplier [ 41 ]. Accordingly, some scholars also used satisfaction as an intermediary variable to discuss the influence between trust with green perceived quality, green perceived risk [ 42 ], and relationship benefits [ 43 ].…”