AAB, LINDA ELIZABETH; PHD

                         GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, 1994
 
                         BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, MARKETING (0338); BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, MANAGEMENT (0454)
 

                         Relationship marketing is an emerging area within the marketing discipline. One topic of interest in
                         relationship marketing concerns relationship quality. Previous research has examined antecedents and
                         consequences to relationship quality from the perspective of an individual buyer and individual seller.
                         This study examines two antecedents and two consequences to relationship quality from the
                         perspective of a business-to-business services environment involving networks consisting of multiple
                         buyers and sellers. The first antecedent to relationship quality which is tested concerns the importance
                         of various characteristics of the social network between the service provider and client teams. Personal
                         interaction as determined by the structure of social networks and communication opportunities have
                         been demonstrated in other research settings to have profound impacts on attitudes and behaviors. The
                         second antecedent which is tested concerns the importance of the corporate reputation of the service
                         provider for the relationship quality as perceived by the client. Firm attributes are known to be especially
                         important for the selection of service providers, however, their importance for ongoing business
                         relationships has not been studied. Hence, the research examines the importance for relationship quality
                         of the personal interactions between network members as compared to the importance of the firm
                         attributes. Relationship quality is important to firms if it can be related to future interaction and/or positive
                         word-of-mouth recommendations to other potential clients. These are the consequences which are
                         examined. The data included 31 service provider-client networks and was analyzed using factor analysis,
                         regression, canonical and cluster analyses. The results suggest that the social network characteristics are
                         important for the perceptions of relationship quality. Specifically, network size, density, centrality,
                         multiplexity of ties and tie strength are all shown to be significant to relationship quality. Homophily
                         between the most influential service provider-client dyad was not significant. Corporate reputation is
                         likewise shown to directly impact the perceptions of relationship quality. Higher quality relationships are
                         shown to result in greater likelihood for future interactions and for enhanced positive word-of-mouth
                         recommendations.

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