Relational Benefits, Value, and Satisfaction in the Relationships Between Service Companies

摘要

In the context of relationship marketing, it is of great importance for a company to identify elements that contribute most to value creation and thus to customer satisfaction. Among the value antecedents are relational benefits. Although relational benefits have been widely studied in the field of tourism business-to-consumer relationships, they have so far received little attention in the context of relationships between companies. Therefore, this article aims to analyze empirically a model that reflects the influence of different types of relational benefits received by the customer on relationship value and the impact thereof on customer satisfaction in the context of relationships between travel agents and their suppliers. As a result, we identify 3 types of relational benefits with unequal influence on relationship value. In particular, confidence benefits and special treatment benefits emerge as the main drivers of value in the relationship between the travel agency and its main service supplier. In turn, relationship value is a strong antecedent of customer satisfaction with the main supplier.