An Exploratory Investigation into the Antecedents of Satisfaction, Brand Attitude, and Loyalty within the (B2B) ECRM Industry

Abstract

The following exploratory study considers a model explaining brand loyalty relative to the electronic Customer Relationship Management (hereafter referred to as eCRM) industry. The model focuses specifically on B2B relationships, and includes customer satisfaction, attitude, brand trust, affect, value, and resistance to change as model constructs. This model, exploratory in nature, begins to help sift out the relative direct and indirect influences of an increasingly complex number of known antecedents to customer loyalty. Particularly noteworthy is our failure to find a direct relationship between e-satisfaction and loyalty. Rather, we find that the e-satisfaction loyalty relationship appears mediated by brand attitudes in this study. We also report evidence that postconsumption affect appears more closely related to brand attitude than e- satisfaction. Service provider trust also emerges as an important antecedent to brand attitude and satisfaction in this exploratory study. Managerial and research implications of the tentative results reported herein are presented and discussed.