Modeling relationship quality in the parcel delivery services market

Purpose – The aim of this study is to develop a structural model and test it in the parcel delivery services business‐to‐business market in order to identify how services quality influences relationship quality and to determine the interactions between constructs of relationship quality. Design/methodology/approach – A structural model was developed using frameworks suggested by Gwinner et al. , Hennig‐Thurau et al. and Bingguang et al. Online survey research was employed to survey the respondents. Structural equation modeling was employed to estimate structural model and test hypotheses. Findings – The research demonstrated that services quality does not have direct influence on commitment, but impacts it indirectly through various relational benefits. The results imply that services quality is not enough for commitment‐based loyalty to develop. Relational benefits are essential. The results demonstrated that special treatment benefits, social benefits and confidence benefits are intricately related and have effect on each other. Main findings of the study demonstrated that in parcel delivery services industry there exist context‐specific relationships between constructs of relationship quality. The research found out that the interactions between constructs of relationship quality in parcel delivery services industry are different. Moreover, the empirical study confirmed the existence of industry‐specific direct and indirect loyalty drivers. Research limitation/implications – The developed relationship quality model is intentionally limited to parcel delivery services industry in order to examine industry‐specific relationships between the constructs. The model could be extended in order to model competition and effects of change in relationship quality on customer life‐time‐value. Practical implications – The model can be used by managers of parcel delivery companies to assess loyalty and commitment of clients. Originality/value – This study is the first attempt to identify how services quality influences relationship quality, test relationships between constructs of relationship quality and examine context‐specific relationship in the parcel delivery market.