Product and relationship quality influence on customer commitment and loyalty in B2B manufacturing relationships

The article examines how product and relationship quality influence customer commitment along with their combined effect on customer loyalty The results show that product quality influences positive and negative calculative commitment With regard to relationship quality its social dimensions such as cooperation and trust have a much greater influence on commitment than its technical dimensions such as knowledge transfers and adaptation On the social side cooperation and trust positively influence affective and normative commitment with trust also positively affecting positive calculative commitment while on the technical side the only significant link is between adaptation and normative commitment As for the consequences of commitment affective commitment positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty while negative calculative commitment positively influences behavioral loyalty In addition to indirect effects product quality also directly positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty The results imply that customer loyalty depends more on emotional (affective commitment) than on rational (negative calculative commitment and product quality) motivation to continue the relationship (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved