Antecedents and Consequences of Liking in Retail Service Relationships in China and Greece

Abosag, Ibrahim; Baker, Tom; Hall, Kris; Voulgari, Aliki; Zheng, Xiaoyuan

Abstract

The marketing literature has provided a limited examination of the concept of liking, and even this has mainly occurred within business-to-business or advertising contexts. In this paper, the authors propose a model of the intervening role of liking in the customer-service provider relationship in two countries, China and Greece. The antecedents of liking include three key service constructs, namely customer education, customer participation, and service quality. The outputs of liking are proposed to be affective trust and affective commitment, which in turn influence (behavioral) loyalty. The research model is tested using samples from China (N=277) and from Greece (N=306). The model is largely supported in both samples. Therefore, the authors suggest that liking in financial services has an important role in the customer-service provider relationship. Implications for international businesses are discussed.

Citation

Abosag, I., Baker, T., Hall, K., Voulgari, A., & Zheng, X. (2017). Antecedents and Consequences of Liking in Retail Service Relationships in China and Greece. International Business Review, 26(3), 566-578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2016.11.003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Nov 28, 2016
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 27, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 27, 2016
• Journal: International Business Review
• Print ISSN: 0969-5931
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-6149
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 566-578
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2016.11.003
• Keywords: International Marketing, service marketing, liking, loyalty, financial services, China, Greece.
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Accepted version of an article published by Elsevier.