In recent years, many retail industries have come to be dominated by a few extremely large competitors. For example, Wal‐Mart, Kmart, and Target prevail in the discount competitive set. Such customers are referred to as key accounts and are “treated differently” by selling firms. The...

Purpose – Although service guarantees are generally believed to give firms a competitive edge, much remains to be learned about the value of, and return on, this customer relationship management strategy. This study aims to examine the influence of implicit service guarantees on two important...