External effectiveness of service management - A study of business-to-business relationships in Mexico, Canada and the USA

The purpose of the present study was to determine, across three distinct national contexts, to what extent the creation of customer-perceived value, as determined by the measure of the firm's external effectiveness, was deemed important and implemented within a professional business-to-business service industry (commercial banking). External effectiveness is a measure of business performance reflecting the client's judgement of satisfaction service quality, future purchase intentions and willingness to recommend the service firm to others. It was postulated that strong relationships would contribute to external effectiveness and that, in order to be effective, a service firm needs to be client-oriented and develop managerial processes and an organizational culture compatible with the creation of client-perceived value, the driver of longer-term profitability. In all three countries, the higher the business client rated the strength of the relationship with their bank the higher was their assessment of external effectiveness. However, the banks' service management processes supporting the work of the account manager and the dominant organizational culture were not congruent with the bankers' perception that their organizations were client-orientated. Important differences were found in the banking relationships and managerial processes in Mexico as compared to Canada and the USA.