Innovation as a key to strengthen the effect of relationship benefits on loyalty in retailing

This work aims to attempt an in-depth study of the link between relationship benefits and store loyalty, examining the moderating role of the retailer’s degree of innovation in these relations.,An equations model has been contrasted based on 820 valid individual structured questionnaires administered to consumers of 13 trade names in four retail distribution sectors (food, textile, electronics and household goods).,The results provide evidence of the positive influence of relationship benefits on store loyalty and in particular the benefits stemming from trust. The links between social and special treatment benefits in relation to loyalty are, however, significantly stronger in the less innovative establishments.,This paper provides evidence of the moderating role of innovation on the relationship between social benefits and special treatment benefits and loyalty.,Technology may be used as a differentiation tool. The retailer should concentrate its investments on information and communications technology solutions that contribute to enhance the customer experience at the point of sale without neglecting the social dimension to increase the benefits of trust and ultimately, customer loyalty.,The paper provides an in-depth examination of the retail innovation variable which is scarcely analysed in the literature, offering support for the idea that innovation at the point of sale plays a moderating role in the links between relational benefits and customer loyalty.

[1]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[2]  Danny Miller,et al.  Psychological and Traditional Determinants of Structure. , 1986 .

[3]  David J. Miller,et al.  The structural and environmental correlates of business strategy , 1987 .

[4]  James C. Anderson,et al.  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH , 1988 .

[5]  C. Grönroos.  Relationship approach to marketing in service contexts: The marketing and organizational behavior interface , 1990 .

[6]  F. Damanpour.  Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis Of Effects Of Determinants and Moderators , 1991 .

[7]  M. Browne,et al.  Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit , 1992 .

[8]  A. Satorra,et al.  Corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. , 1994 .

[9]  Alan Dick,et al.  Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework , 1994 .

[10]  J. Sheth,et al.  Relationship marketing in consumer markets: Antecedents and consequences , 1995 .

[11]  L. Berry.  Relationship marketing of services—growing interest, emerging perspectives , 1995 .

[12]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Building service relationships: It’s all about promises , 1995 .

[13]  Robert A. Peterson,et al.  Relationship marketing and the consumer , 1995 .

[14]  K. Reynolds,et al.  Customer-sales associate retail relationships , 1996 .

[15]  Rajshekhar G. Javalgi,et al.  Service loyalty: implications for service providers , 1997 .

[16]  Faïz Gallouj,et al.  Innovation in services , 1997 .

[17]  Paul R. Messinger,et al.  A Model of Retail Formats Based on Consumers' Economizing on Shopping Time , 1997 .

[18]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Relational benefits in services industries: The customer’s perspective , 1998 .

[19]  Walfried M. Lassar,et al.  Why do customers switch? The dynamics of satisfaction versus loyalty , 1998 .

[20]  K. Ruyter,et al.  Investigating drivers of bank loyalty: the complex relationship between image, service quality and satisfaction , 1998 .

[21]  M. Joseph,et al.  Service quality in the banking sector: the impact of technology on service delivery , 1999 .

[22]  K. Reynolds,et al.  Customer benefits and company consequences of customer-salesperson relationships in retailing , 1999 .

[23]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[24]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters , 2000 .

[25]  Naveen Donthu,et al.  An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity , 2000 .

[26]  Mary Jo Bitner.  Service and technology: opportunities and paradoxes , 2001 .

[27]  S. Gopalakrishnan,et al.  The Dynamics of the Adoption of Product and Process Innovations in Organizations , 2001 .

[28]  R. Lowson.  Retail Operational Strategies in Complex Supply Chains , 2001 .

[29]  David Walker,et al.  Measuring and managing brand loyalty , 2001 .

[30]  Paul G. Patterson,et al.  Relationship benefits in service industries: a replication in a Southeast Asian context , 2001 .

[31]  Ananthanarayanan Parasuraman,et al.  Techno-Ready Marketing: How and Why Your Customers Adopt Technology (Маркетинг технологий: как и почему Ваши потребители принимают технологии) , 2001 .

[32]  Dwayne D. Gremler,et al.  Understanding Relationship Marketing Outcomes , 2002 .

[33]  Rolph E. Anderson,et al.  Customer loyalty in e-commerce: an exploration of its antecedents and consequences , 2002 .

[34]  Wayne D. Hoyer,et al.  Service Orientation of a Retailer's Business Strategy: Dimensions, Antecedents, and Performance Outcomes , 2002 .

[35]  S. Kantamneni,et al.  POS and EDI in retailing: an examination of underlying benefits and barriers , 2002 .

[36]  A. Ranchhod,et al.  Measuring customer satisfaction: A platform for calculating, predicting and increasing customer profitability , 2002 .

[37]  Margaret Craig-Lees,et al.  Technology‐enabled service delivery: An investigation of reasons affecting customer adoption and rejection , 2002 .

[38]  G. Odekerken-Schröder,et al.  Store Satisfaction and Store Loyalty Explained by Customer- and Store-Related Factors , 2002 .

[39]  P. Patterson,et al.  A cross-cultural study of switching barriers and propensity to stay with service providers , 2003 .

[40]  M. Uncles,et al.  Customer loyalty and customer loyalty programs , 2003 .

[41]  G. Odekerken-Schröder,et al.  Assessing the Impact of a Retailer's Relationship Efforts on Consumers' Attitudes and Behavior , 2003 .

[42]  C. Bhattacharya,et al.  Consumer–Company Identification: A Framework for Understanding Consumers’ Relationships with Companies , 2003 .

[43]  Jillian Dawes Farquhar,et al.  Contact management and customer loyalty , 2003 .

[44]  Young-Gul Kim,et al.  Identifying key factors affecting consumer purchase behavior in an online shopping context , 2003 .

[45]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[46]  Debra A. Laverie,et al.  Developing parsimonious retailer equity indexes using partial least squares analysis: a method and applications , 2003 .

[47]  H. Yen,et al.  Internet retail customer loyalty: the mediating role of relational benefits , 2003 .

[48]  C. Prahalad,et al.  Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value creation , 2004 .

[49]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing , 2004 .

[50]  Mercedes Marzo-Navarro,et al.  The benefits of relationship marketing for the consumer and for the fashion retailers , 2004 .

[51]  A. Wong,et al.  The role of emotional satisfaction in service encounters , 2004 .

[52]  A. Payne,et al.  A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management , 2005 .

[53]  A. Ball,et al.  Service personalization and loyalty , 2006 .

[54]  U. Johansson,et al.  Creating and consuming experiences in retail store environments: Comparing retailer and consumer perspectives ☆ , 2006 .

[55]  Allard C. R. van Riel,et al.  Technology readiness and the evaluation and adoption of self-service technologies , 2006 .

[56]  G. Foxall,et al.  Influence of personality traits on satisfaction, perception of relational benefits, and loyalty in a personal service context , 2006 .

[57]  H. P. Thao,et al.  Internet use, customer relationships and loyalty in the Vietnamese travel industry , 2008 .

[58]  Stephen W. Brown,et al.  Service-Logic Innovations: How to Innovate Customers, Not Products , 2008 .

[59]  Michael R. Mullen,et al.  Structural equation modelling: guidelines for determining model fit , 2008 .

[60]  Barton A. Weitz,et al.  Supply Chain Management and Retailer Performance: Emerging Trends, Issues, and Implications for Research and Practice , 2009 .

[61]  Yongquan Hu,et al.  A Case Study of Online Retail Innovation System on Alibaba Taobao , 2010, 2010 International Conference on E-Business and E-Government.

[62]  B. Edvardsson,et al.  Expanding understanding of service exchange and value co-creation: a social construction approach , 2011 .

[63]  Johann Füller,et al.  Co-Creation in Virtual Worlds: The Design of the User Experience , 2011, MIS Q..

[64]  J. Füller,et al.  Why Co‐Creation Experience Matters? Creative Experience and its Impact on the Quantity and Quality of Creative Contributions , 2011 .

[65]  Meredith E. David,et al.  Do relationship benefits and maintenance drive commitment and loyalty , 2011 .

[66]  W. Reinartz,et al.  Retailing Innovations in a Globalizing Retail Market Environment , 2011 .

[67]  Adegoke Oke,et al.  Innovation Strategy, Human Resource Policy, and Firms' Revenue Growth: The Roles of Environmental Uncertainty and Innovation Performance , 2012, Decis. Sci..

[68]  V. Savalei,et al.  When can categorical variables be treated as continuous? A comparison of robust continuous and categorical SEM estimation methods under suboptimal conditions. , 2012, Psychological methods.

[69]  Eleonora Pantano,et al.  Innovation in Retail Process: From Consumers’ Experience to Immersive Store Design , 2012 .

[70]  Jamie Carlson,et al.  An E-Retailing Assessment of Perceived Website-Service Innovativeness: Implications for Website Quality Evaluations, Trust, Loyalty and Word of Mouth , 2012 .

[71]  R. McAdam,et al.  Innovation in Small-Scale Retailing , 2013 .

[72]  Konstantinos Koronios,et al.  Functional vs relational benefits: what matters most in affinity marketing? , 2014 .

[73]  A. Fiore,et al.  Enhancing consumer-brand relationships on restaurant Facebook fan pages: maximizing consumer benefits and increasing active participation. , 2014 .

[74]  Torben Tambo,et al.  Collaboration on technological innovation in Danish fashion chains: A network perspective , 2014 .

[75]  Daniel Kindström,et al.  The evolution of service innovation research: a critical review and synthesis , 2014 .

[76]  Eleonora Pantano,et al.  Innovation drivers in retail industry , 2014, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[77]  Lars Witell,et al.  Exploring dualities of service innovation: implications for service research , 2015 .

[78]  Robert F. Lusch,et al.  Service Innovation: A Service-Dominant Logic Perspective , 2015, MIS Q..

[79]  Juan C. Londoño,et al.  Conceptualising and measuring consumer-based brand–retailer–channel equity , 2016 .