- Title
- Customer relationship management: examining the central proposition in the online context
- Creator
- Keating, Bryon
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2006
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The research aims to identify the drivers that lead to the delivery of superior service and the development of effective relationships with customers. The research problem can be presented in the following general terms 'How do firms create effective and enduring relationships with their customers in the online context?' In addressing this research problem, three research issues and sixteen hypotheses have been identified from a review of the literature. To address the hypotheses, resolve the research issues and answer the research problem, the present study applied a three-stage methodology. Each of these stages addressed a separate research issue. The first research issue related to gaining a better understanding of how the principal constructs of service quality, relationship quality, and customer loyalty interact. It was investigated using a survey of online shoppers. Hypotheses 1 to 6 proposed that contextual differences did not significantly affect the ways in which service quality, relationship quality, and customer loyalty were perceived. However, the results showed mixed support for a model in which relationship quality mediated the effect of service quality on customer loyalty in the online context, with a partial mediating model preferred in the online banking context. The second research issue related to the effect perceived financial risk, and was resolved by testing hypotheses 7 and 8. The findings revealed that perceived financial risk had only a moderate effect on some of the service-quality dimensions, and no effect at all on relationship quality. This suggests that the commonly cited concerns about financial security in the online context had minimal effect on the way in which service was evaluated in the present study; nor did financial risk have any significant effect on whether customers would continue to have a relationship, or develop loyalty, with a particular firm. The third and final research issue was concerned with the effect of the service-delivery channel. Hypothesis 9 to 16 proposed that the online service-delivery channel affected perceptions of service quality, relationship quality and loyalty, and also affected the interactions of these constructs. The investigation of these hypotheses suggests that firms that operate in multiple channels need to give careful consideration to the nuances of the channel in developing their service-delivery and relationship-building strategies. The major finding of this study was to confirm that the central proposition of customer-relationship management theory is supported in the online context-that is, while the operational context influences the extent to which effective service enhances the relationships between a firm and its customers, and their resulting perceptions of customer loyalty; there is general support for a formative relationship in which effective service will enhance the quality of the relationship between a firm and its customer, and increase loyalty perceptions from the customer. The study has also revealed that the service delivery channel has a significant affect on the central proposition of customer-relationship management theory, and the interactions of the key relationship marketing constructs. Perceptions of financial risk were not observed to significantly affect either service quality or relationship quality perceptions.
- Subject
- customer service; business management; customer relationship management; online shopping
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1311075
- Identifier
- uon:22136
- Rights
- Copyright 2006 Bryon Keating
- Language
- eng
- Hits: 482
- Visitors: 632
- Downloads: 0