A disaggregated approach to establishing the antecedents and outcome of relationship quality in the South African banking industry

Abstract

Practitioners and academics are showing greater interest in the relationship quality between firms and their customers due to its positive association with customer loyalty. To improve relationship quality, it is imperative to identify its antecedents. The purpose of this study was, by following a disaggregated approach, to establish the predictability of three antecedents (customer intimacy, communication effectiveness and relationship investment) on relationship quality and one of its outcomes, namely customer loyalty. Data were collected from 258 South African banking customers by means of self-administered questionnaires. Results showed that customer intimacy and communication effectiveness predict all three relationship quality dimensions, namely satisfaction, trust and commitment. In contrast, relationship investment predicted only trust. Finally, although commitment did not predict loyalty, both satisfaction and trust did, with satisfaction being the strongest predictor of customer loyalty.