Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1998

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Business Administration

Major Professor

Sarah Gardial

Committee Members

Robert Woodruff, Mark Moon, Larry Williams

Abstract

Academic researchers and marketing practitioners are exploring and examining ways to improve customer retention through improved customer relationships. Buyer salesperson relationships are a "hot" topic with both academic researchers and practitioners, especially in business-to-business markets where the salesperson is a key component of the offering in establishing, developing, and maintaining customer relationships.

The purposes of this dissertation was 1) to develop a conceptual model of buyer-salesperson relationships from the buyer's perspective and 2) to test this model empirically. To accomplish the first purpose, a qualitative study was undertaken with purchasing agents from the hospital supply industry. From this study, a theoretical model emerged from the data. The following constructs represent the core of this conceptual model: functional value, social value, customer satisfaction, personal trust, and personal loyalty. The conceptual model and its constructs offer a new and unique way of understanding buyer-salesperson relationships.

To accomplish the second purpose of this dissertation, the conceptual model developed from the qualitative study was empirically tested. The proposed theoretical model showed an acceptable fit with the data, confirming and validating both the measurement model and the theoretical model. Of the seven proposed hypotheses, six hypotheses were confirmed. Conceptualization and confirmation of the theoretical model and its hypotheses makes a significant contribution to the literature.

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