Deborah E. Rosen

Evaluating relationships: are satisfaction and quality enough?

This paper examines the current literature and trends in the measurement of service relationships. The authors present evidence from two industry studies which suggests that satisfaction and/or quality as currently conceptualized are not sufficient diagnostic tools to assess the health of a relationship, certainly not sufficient when only one relationship partner’s outcomes are assessed. Two studies which explore service relationship satisfaction, are presented as illustrations to demonstrate that firms engaged in partnering relationships need to consider changing the way they evaluate the ability of their systems to satisfy partners as the relationship progresses. Process issues and value‐enhancing components in addition to satisfaction and quality are among the critical dimensions to evaluate in order to fully assess the health of a relationship.

Student Attitudes Toward College Courses: An Examination of Influences and Intentions

This study combines research in education and services marketing to develop and test a model of seven factors hypothesized to be significant in student attitudes toward the classes they take and behavioral intentions that may be influenced by those attitudes. Based on a review of relevant literature and a series of focus groups, a survey was developed and administered to students in eight different required classes, two each in four different subject areas, at a university in the northeastern United States. The results show that factors related to the physical environment in which the course is conducted, the course topic, and the course execution, in addition to the instructors personality, are significant influences on students’ attitudes toward their classes. The evidence also indicates that emphasizing student participation in the class can have a positive effect on student commitment to excellence and appreciation of other students’ contributions to the learning experience.

Marketing Relationship Management: Antecedents to Survival and Dissolution

ABSTRACT Though investing in relationships in order to continue them seems intuitive, is every relationship worth further investment? For those partnerships in unstable conditions, it is important to know which ones are headed for dissolution and which ones have the potential to survive. In addition to assessing the economic value of continuing a partnership, this paper argues that the behavioral quality of a relationship should also be considered if relationship management is to be successful. A Partnership Survival Framework (PSF) is offered, wherein conflict response behaviors are shown to be predictive of not only survival but also the quality of a relationship. Here, the PSF is proposed and tested. Support is found for the framework and theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Web Site Design: Building a Cognitive Framework

Usability is rapidly becoming recognized as a crucial element in Web design. Usability addresses the question: How easy is a system for visitors to learn, to use and to remember? Usability impacts the quality of the user’s experience. How, then, does an organization contemplating an online presence choose design elements and a composition that facilitate usability thus encouraging visitors to enter a Web site as well as become repeat visitors? Cognitive psychology offers one perspective that may provide some guidance for site design based upon how individuals process information. The research presented in this paper addresses the question: What factors, if used in site design, will encourage surfers to enter a Web site? Through the development of the Web Site Preference Framework, the authors provide evidence that by making a Web site conducive to information processing preferences, Web pages can be designed that will facilitate viewers entering the site.

Means-End Theory: Getting the Service Customers's Attention

ABSTRACT In todays technically sophisticated, information-rich environment, consumers are bombarded with information. Consequently colleges and universities must develop ways to get the prospective student to give their promotional material more than a cursory glance. Pre-purchase service evaluation has received little attention beyond the nature of cues used by consumers to categorize service alternatives. The studies presented in this paper examine the usefulness of Means-End Theory in developing effective recruitment brochures. Empirical evidence is presented that demonstrates college brochures that emphasize attributes (e.g., cost, location) over consequences (e.g., getting a job) or values (e.g., security) will generate greater interest in an educational institution.

Reconceptualizing Trust: An Evolutionary Process Model

The literature has, historically, acknowledged that trust evolves between parties, indicating a dynamic state of affirirs. Yet trust has generally been operationalized as a static state of affairs within the relationship; that is, it either exists or does not exist between partners. One question that has been overlooked is how do the partners in a relationship come to trust one another or fail to trust? Perhaps even more important to an understanding of trust is the question of whether trust itself changes throughout the life of a relationship.

Relationship Marketing: Viewing the State-of-the-Art Across Perspectives

Relationship marketing has emerged as one of the dominant frameworks guiding marketing theory and practice. Yet, recent evidence suggests that there is no consistency in efforts at theory development in the field to date. There are several reasons for this diagnosis. First, relationship marketing has been examined from various perspectives within the field of marketing. While it is understandable that relationship marketing would focus on different issues in different contexts (e.g., services versus channels versus business-to-business markets) no synergy has developed among the various findings. Second, as a result of the compartmentalized approach, key constructs such as trust, equity, and commitment, have been operationalized many different ways. Again, this fragmentation leads to an incomplete picture and findings of limited practical application. Third, most of the scholarly research, regardless of perspective, has focused on relationship formation and not relationship maintenance, redefinition and dissolution. The primary purpose of this paper, therefore, is to develop a general theoretical framework for examining marketing relationship development as a dynamic process over which relationships continue to evolve. The proposed framework is based on the premise that the nature of dominant influencing constructs--trust, equity, and commitment, for example--change as a relationship develops, and that the relative importance of the dimensions of each construct may vary at different phases of a relationship.

Developing Effective Service Brochures: A Preliminary Assessment of Means-End Theory

Pre-purchase service evaluation has received little attention beyond the nature of cues used by consumers to categorize service alternatives. Presented are the preliminary results of a study that examines the usefulness of means-end theory in developing effective promotional material. Findings indicate that promotional materials emphasizing the initial level of the means-end hierarchy will generate greater interest in the service.

Toward an Understanding of Mature Marketing Relationship Phenomena

Much of the focus of models and studies of marketing relationships has been on relationship formation with scant attention being paid to the mature relationship. A mature marketing relationship, one which is ongoing between buyer(s) and seller(s), exists when the parties to a relationship have gone beyond formation. The initial boundaries of parties to the relationship have been established and some level of commitment exists. A key turning point in the shift from formation to maturity occurs when there has been an investment of some form (time, Personnel money) in the relationship. Yet, how these investments are managed, how parties to a relationship behave once a relationship has been initiated has not been specifically addressed in the marketing relationship literature.