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Customer Satisfaction in Industrial Markets : Dimensional and Multiple Role Issues
Homburg, Christian
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Rudolph, Bettina
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W009_Costumer Satisfaction in Industrial Markets.pdf
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URL:
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https://ub-madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/42543
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URN:
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urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-425436
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Dokumenttyp:
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Arbeitspapier
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Erscheinungsjahr:
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1999
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Titel einer Zeitschrift oder einer Reihe:
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Reihe: Wissenschaftliche Arbeitspapiere / Institut für Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung
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Band/Volume:
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W009
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Ort der Veröffentlichung:
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Mannheim
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Verlag:
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Inst. für Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung, Univ. Mannheim
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ISBN:
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3-89333-169-7
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Auflage:
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[Nachdr. der Ausg.] Koblenz, 1997
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Sprache der Veröffentlichung:
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Englisch
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Einrichtung:
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Fakultät für Betriebswirtschaftslehre > Business-to-Business Marketing, Sales & Pricing (Homburg 1998-)
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Fachgebiet:
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330 Wirtschaft
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Abstract:
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It has been said that in industrial markets relationships are long-term oriented, enduring, and
complex (Ford 1980; Hakansson, 1982; Hutt and Speh 1992; Turnbull and Wilson 1989). The
relationships between buyers and sellers are often bilateral and the products need to be
customized to the buyers´ needs. Therefore, the customer is no longer a passive buyer, but an
active partner. Against this background, the satisfaction of the customer may play an
important role in establishing, developing, and maintaining successful customer relationships
in industrial markets.
Clearly, the construct of customer satisfaction for industrial customers is of sufficient
importance both theoretically and managerially to warrant more attention. In spite of the
apparent importance of the concept, customer satisfaction in industrial markets remains a
rather primitive concept. It is almost never conceptually defined, nor explicitly
operationalized, when it is used. However, before customer satisfaction can play a positive
role in its envisioned applications, it must be based on adequate conceptualization and
suitable measurement methodologies, which, most researchers agree, are presently lacking.
In contrast to most of the studies in this area, we focus on customer satisfaction for industrial
firms, specifically customer satisfaction in customer-supplier relationships. Customer
satisfaction in marketing channels, i.e., satisfaction of a dealer with the overall relationship
with a manufacturer (see Gassenheimer, Sterling, and Robicheaux 1989; Ruekert and
Churchill 1984; Schul, Little, and Pride 1985), thus is not considered in this paper.
Our article makes several contributions: First and most important, our purpose is to develop a
multiple-item measure of industrial customer satisfaction and assess its psychometric
properties. Second, the influence of the identified dimensions of customer satisfaction on
overall satisfaction is analyzed. Third, as buying decisions in industrial companies are usually
not individual but group decisions (see, e.g., Haas 1989; Lilien and Wong 1984; Webster and
Wind 1972a), we analyze differences in customer satisfaction between functional categories
of the members of the buying center (referred to as "multiple role issues"). A buying center
may be defined as an "informal, cross-sectional decision-unit, in which the primary objective
is the acquisition, importation, and processing of purchasing-related information" (Spekman
and Stern 1979, p. 56).
The paper is organized as follows. In the first section we review the relevant literature. In the
two sections to follow we describe the research method and the scale development and
validation. After this multiple role issues are analyzed. Finally we discuss theoretical,
methodological, and managerial implications and offer directions for future research.
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Zusätzliche Informationen:
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Der Titel wurde anläßlich der Gründung des IMU aus einer Schriftenreihe des ZMU (Zentrum für
Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung) an der WHU Koblenz übernommen.
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