More and more companies are faced with fierce competition; ergo, companies are consistently trying to build a long term relationships with their customer. In addition, a decade ago, relationship marketing gained more and more credibility among the companies and is still a topic of discussion today. Therefore, this study is aimed to describe how service firms can use relationship marketing as a strategy to develop customer satisfaction.   A theoretical framework has been developed derived from a review of the existing literature in order to describe how service firms can use relationship marketing as a strategy to develop customer satisfaction. Five different tactics have been empirically investigated, namely the service quality, brand image, price perception, value offers and communication. A qualitative method has been chosen for this study. Three different companies have been studied within the banking sector and have been led by an inductive and deductive approach which will aim to investigate the aforementioned theoretical framework.   The analysis of the empirical findings exposed and discovered some relevant findings. Indeed, empirical evidence suggests that four main customer relationship tactics have a role on customer satisfaction and trust; namely the service quality, the brand image, the price perception and the human capital. These tactics have been identified as having a crucial role on gaining customer satisfaction.

La relation interpersonnelle présente une place importante dans l’instauration et le développement de la relation client. Cette importance est surtout évidente dans le secteur des services et surtout dans le contexte socioculturel des pays asiatiques. Le « renqing » (la norme de réciprocité dans le contexte asiatique) joue un rôle important dans la création et le suivi de la relation interpersonnelle. Il consiste en un mécanisme de stabilisation et d’harmonisation de la relation entre des individus au sein des sociétés asiatiques en se basant sur l’échange de faveurs et sur l’obligation mutuelle. Ce concept a été intégré dans le cadre de notre recherche au niveau la relation interpersonnelle entre le personnel en contact et le client dans le contexte de prestation de service bancaire au Vietnam. En adoptant une perspective dyadique, nous étudions le « renqing » du personnel en contact et du client, de l’un envers l’autre, et leurs impacts sur la qualité de la relation client au niveau interpersonnel comme institutionnel. L’enquête empirique par questionnaire sur le terrain de service bancaire au Vietnam nous permet de vérifier nos propositions de recherche. Le « renqing » du personnel en contact envers le client contribue à déterminer son comportement d’adaptation dans la prestation de service au client. Par ailleurs, le « renqing » du client envers le personnel en contact est un déterminant de la confiance interpersonnelle, qui influe ensuite sur la qualité de la relation du client envers la banque. Enfin, dans une perspective dyadique, notre recherche confirme la proposition exploratoire d’une part en ce qui concerne l’impact du renqing du personnel en contact sur le renqing du client et d’autre part en ce qui concerne l’impact indirect du renqing du personnel en contact sur la confiance interpersonnelle du client à travers deux variables médiatrices : le renqing du client et le comportement d’adaptation. Notre recherche permet de confirmer le rôle essentiel du « renqing » dans le modèle de relation client dans le contexte culturel du Vietnam. En effet, l’examen d’une perspective dyadique du concept de « renqing » nous permet de comprendre la manière par laquelle la réciprocité mutuelle entre le personnel en contact et le client renforce la relation client dans le contexte socio-culturel d’un pays asiatique. / Personal relationship plays an important role in creating and developing customer relationship. This important role has been confirmed in the service field and especially in Asian culture. “Renqing” (the norme of reciprocity in Asian context) has a critical role in creating and maintaining personal relationship. “Renqing” is considered a stable mechanism and helps to harmonize personal relationships in Asian societies based on favor exchange and reciprocal obligation. This variable is included in our study in the relationship between frontline employees and customers in the context of Vietnamese banking service. With the dyadic approach, we studied the “renqing” variable of frontline employees and customers in their relationship and their impacts on the relationship quality. “Renqing” of frontline employees have an effect on the employees’ adaptive behavior in service delivery. In terms of customers, “renqing” for frontline employees is a variable affecting interpersonal trust and through this trust it affects the quality of the relationship between customers and the bank. Finally, with the dyadic approach, our research confirms the suggestions on the effects of “renqing” of employees on “renqing” of customers and the indirect effect of employees’ “renqing” on customers’ trust through the two mediator variables: “renqing” of customers and adaptive behavior. Our research allows us to confirm the role of “renqing” variable in the customer relationship model in the Vietnamese context. Indeed, the study with the dyadic approach to “renqing” variable enables us to understand the way reciprocity between frontline employees and customers strengthens customer relationship in the context of an Asian country.

With the increasing popularity of online shopping, various new business models are emerging in this area. A successful example is great discount online shops, which quickly attract the attention from Chinese online shopping customers. In order to avoid the risk perception of customers caused by information asymmetry, and maintain competitiveness, great discount online shops should increase their customers’ trust. In this research, a number of key factors are tested from both sellers’ aspect and customers’ aspect. The finding shows both objective influencing factors, such as security, reputation of the online shop, reputation of the products’ brands, sellers’ service quality, and customers’ cognitive factors, such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, have significant correlation with customers’ trust to great discount online shop. Among them, the objective influencing factors are more influential and have stronger effect on customers’ trust in ability, integrity and benevolence to the online shops. These findings will further shed light on how to build trust with the customers of great discount online shops.

China’s import cross-border e-commerce (CICBEC) business model differs from other online shopping business models in both the participators and transaction processes. Government as an important participator has greatly promoted the healthy and rapid development of this business model. As a vital topic in all kinds of businesses, customer trust is also a core research topic in online shopping. Many scholars have studied customer trust in traditional online shopping while few of them focused on cross-border online shopping, let alone the CICBEC business model. The government is a new participator, whose contribution on customer trust is not clear. Also, other known variables’ influences on customer trust are still worthy of discussion. This research aims to address existing research gap by contributing to Lee and Turban (2001)’s Customer Trust in Internet Shopping (CTIS) Model and constructing a new customer trust model. A number of influencing factors of customer trust were defined and tested in this research. It shows that influencing factors from four participators, the e-retailers, e- commerce platforms, government and third-parties, have a significant correlation with customer trust. The final results show that order fulfillment, government actions, e-retailer reputation, information quality, e-commerce platform security and e-commerce platform reputation have significant influences on customer trust.

Background: The concept of the chatbot has been around for nearly 60 years. However, service providers have recently increased the integration of chatbots in distinct industries due to the growth in digitalization and advanced technology. Not only that, chatbots can support service providers in becoming more efficient and reducing overhead costs. As a result, this transformation in service offering has influenced customers in various forms. Thus, this study explores Generation Z's perceptions and experiences using chatbots, with a focus on the influence these systems have on their trust. There is little information about this topic, and this study should aid organizations in learning how to better meet customer expectations, which could lead to more promising customer satisfaction in the future. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate customer perceptions and trust in chatbots which is a form of advanced technology in a customer service setting. The aim is to gather empirical evidence from customers' social reality to answer the research question of this investigation. Method: This research conducted an exploratory qualitative study with an inductive research approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 respondents from Generation Z, located in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany to achieve a broad perspective regarding their experiences with chatbots. The respondents were selected using the snowball and networking sampling method. The research paradigm of this study is interpretivism, which supports the examination in exploring and gaining knowledge about this phenomenon. Conclusion: The aim of this study was achieved, and the gathered empirical evidence presents further knowledge regarding customers' experiences with chatbots. This study and other relevant examinations prove that the increase of digitalization in customer service settings has an influence on customer experience. Primarily, the empirical findings indicate that there is an overall lack of trust in advanced technology due to the issue of privacy. Although Generation Z has grown up alongside the worldwide digital transformation, they remain cynical and distrustful of the future of technology. Thus, it occurs that there is a lack of customer trust in chatbots. However, this is confirmed by the fact that customers are sharing low pre-expectations towards chatbots. As a result, customers experience a more dissatisfied feeling towards the service provider. On the other hand, the empirical findings reveal that customers' loyalty remains unaltered towards businesses.

Research question: How do AI solutions influence digital customer experiences in Swedish retail companies? Purpose: This study explores how AI technologies affect customer experiences in    Swedish retail by interviewing customers about their perceptions and interactions. The goal is to better understand these experiences and improve how AI is integrated into retail customer relationship management.  Method: This study used qualitative research to explore how AI affects digital customer experiences in Swedish retail. By conducting semi-structured interviews and analyzing podcasts, it gathers detailed insights into customer perceptions and industry trends. With a goal to gain a thorough understanding of AI's role in improving digital retail experiences. Conclusion: AI solutions impact digital customer experiences in Swedish retail in various ways. They improve convenience and personalization but also create concerns about impersonality and data privacy. To get the most out of AI and build customer trust, it is important to balance technological effectiveness with a human-centric approach.

Product innovation, a crucial source of competitive advantage, is a company’s lifeblood to thrive in global, dynamic markets. M&A enable firms to access new markets faster and acquire complementary technologies, knowledge, and resources to facilitate product innovation. Despite global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain shortages, and M&A failure rates of 70% to 90%, firms continue to invest in M&A. Scholars seek to shed light on the conditions that create and destroy value in M&A, specifically the post-acquisition integration phase. While the effects of acquisitions on customers are an underexplored field today, customer relationships are engines for insights into changing expectations that drive product innovation. Today’s economy enables customers to switch to the competition faster than ever, and on top of that, firms see changes in customer networks after acquisitions. Research discusses the antecedents and outcomes of customer orientation but overlooks the role of customers in M&A. The post-M&A integration stage is the M&A phase where the ultimate value is destroyed or created. This study focuses on customer orientation and organizational complexity and their moderating effect on the post-M&A integration and product innovation performance relationship, concentrating on 188 innovation-centered majority acquisitions. It addresses the research question: How and to what extent do (1) customer orientation and (2) organizational complexity impact the relationship between post-M&A integration and product innovation performance? With that, this research uniquely connects the well-defined constructs of product innovation performance, post-M&A integration, customer orientation, and organizational complexity, and uses a mixed-method approach to investigate the research questions and conceptual model.Quantitative study one provides evidence that post-M&A integration had a significant positive effect on product innovation performance, especially for firms with high customer orientation, which positively moderated the main effect. Organizational complexity negatively moderated the post-M&A integration-product innovation performance relationship. When organizational complexity was relatively high with mean customer orientation, the effect of post-M&A integration on product innovation performance flipped from positive to negative. Under the conditions of relatively high customer orientation with mean organizational complexity, the effect of post-M&A integration on product innovation performance flipped from negative to positive. The results indicate that post-M&A integration was positively related to product innovation performance only for organizations with low organizational complexity. To a certain extent, customer orientation helped alleviate this negative impact of organizational complexity. Overall, study one has shown that a balanced approach of customer orientation and organizational complexity would be recommended. Study one also suggests combining the, in the literature separately considered, efficiency (synergy) and stakeholder theories. The inductive, qualitative study two, conducted with 25 semi-structured interviews, provides insights into how complexity resulting from acquisitions and the relationship with customers should be effectively managed during acquisition integrations to enable product innovation. The findings suggest that acquisitions are inflection points for customers, and customer trust is a crucial influencer of customer decisions. The themes drawn from this study reveal several areas acquirers can proactively manage to impact customer trust: the acquirer’s brand, and reputation, early customer involvement, communication, familiarity with and proximity to the customer, and the responsiveness and reliability to customer inquiries. The confidence in the business partner, that their interactions are based on integrity and reliability is critical and affects the customer-acquirer relationship; even more so when the acquirer is not known to the customer of the acquired firm. While customers should have a seat at the table, the timing of their involvement is critical. Leading innovation-driven acquisition integrations with a customer-centric mindset entails change initiatives that target employees, customers, and partners of the involved firms. The effective interplay of people, agile business processes, and connected, compatible technology between organizations is the foundation for achieving the anticipated value and synergies from integrating the acquired firm into the acquirer’s business. All of that cannot be done without evaluating the impact on the external business environment. Unfavorable decisions taken earlier in the acquisition cycle contribute to challenges later, requiring mitigation plans to be able to achieve the anticipated acquisition goals. The developed management framework guides practitioners to drive product innovation with a well-orchestrated post-acquisition integration process that balances customer orientation and organizational complexity. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Purpose: The effects of deceptive advertising practices on customer loyalty towards mobileservice providers have been investigated empirically by this study. The main contribution ofthis study is to investigate the perceived deception-customer loyalty relationship under themoderating effect of corporate image and mediating effect of customer trust. The study is done in the context of Pakistan’s telecommunication sector.Existing literature is insufficient to explain perceived deception and customer loyalty relationship. We proposed a model to test and explain the interrelationship of deception,trust, loyalty and corporate image. Research Methodology: we have adopted quantitative research method, according to needof our study. A total sample of 232 respondents has been achieved with the help of selfadministeredquestionnaire. Measurement scale for perceived deception were taken fromChaouachi & Rached (2012) and for corporate image, customer trust and customer loyaltyhave been found from Aydin & Özer (2005). Analysis & Findings: Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used for analysis.Correlation analysis, simple and multiple regression analysis were conducted under theinferential statistical part. The findings have rejected the proposed hypothesis that perceiveddeception is negatively associated with customer trust and loyalty. We found customer trustas a mediator between perceived deception and customer loyalty while corporate imagemoderates the relationship between perceived deception and customer trust. Research Limitations: the study could not achieve highly representative sample of overallpopulation as Facebook was selected to conduct survey due to time constraint. Implications and future research: The study shows that deception in advertising perceivedby customer does not affect trust and loyalty in a negative way which suggests that there areadditional factor that can explain the relationship further. A comparative study withqualitative focus could be revealing in this context.

Artificially intelligent chatbots are rapidly gaining popularity in customer service, and they can offer businesses benefits such as increased stock prices and low-cost, efficient service. However, customer trust and satisfaction with these chatbots are often low. Most current research focuses on which business benefits artificially intelligent systems can yield, and less focus lies on how to create satisfactory experiences for the customers. This study examines which chatbot characteristics that build customer trust and satisfaction, and identifies the types of inquiries where customers prefer artificially intelligent chatbots over human customer service agents. An online questionnaire was conducted with 47 participants, primarily 18-24-year-old females from Sweden, with a university degree and high comfort with modern technology. The data analysis, using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and an investigation of the mean and median scores, revealed no characteristic was significantly more important for trust than for enhancing experience. However, anthropomorphism was indicated to have some importance for trust, though not statistically significant. Machine reading comprehension, perceived accuracy, and privacy concerns were found to be important for a positive customer experience. Participants preferred artificially intelligent chatbots over human customer service agents only for basic information inquiries. The findings support existing theories such as the service quality model and can provide guidance for businesses wanting to implement artificially intelligent chatbots in customer service.

Bankbranschen befinner sig i en ständig förändring, där traditionella bankkontor avvecklas och de digitala banktjänsterna tillkommer. Detta har skapat en ny sorts relation mellan bankernas kunder och banken, där den fysiska relationen har minskat och den digitala relationen har ökat. Således var det relevant att studera hur kundernas förtroende för banken har påverkats när bankerna digitaliserar sina tjänster. Syftet med studien är att undersöka digitaliseringen av banktjänsters påverkan på kundernas förtroende för banken. Studien utgår från en kvantitativ metod. Den kvantitativa metoden baseras på en positivistisk och deduktiv ansats som utgår från teorier och testar studiens tre hypoteser. Studiens empiriska data samlades in i form av en Internetenkät. Internetenkäten besvarades av 182 respondenter. I den teoretiska referensramen presenteras teorier som har för avsikt att klargöra studiens bakgrund. Digitalisering, osäkerhet och risk är de teorier som utgör studiens påverkande faktorer mot kundförtroendet för banken. Resultatet visar att digitalisering av banktjänster, upplevd osäkerhet i användningen av digitala banktjänster och upplevd risk i användningen av digitala banktjänster har ett negativt samband med kundernas förtroende för banken. / The banking industry is constantly changing. Where traditional banking offices are discontinued and the digital banking services are added. This has created a new kind of relationship between the bank’s customers and the bank, where the physical relationship has decreased and the digital relationship has increased. It then became relevant to study how the bank’s customers has been affected when banks digitize their services. The purpose of this study is to explore the digitization of banking services impact on customer’s trust to the bank. The study is based on a quantitative method. The quantitative method is based on a positivistic and deductive approach which is based on theories and tests the three hypotheses of the study. The empirical data was collected by an Internet survey. The Internet survey was answered by 182 respondents. The theoretical frame of reference presents theories that intend to clarify the background of the study. Digitization, uncertainty and risk are the theories that make up the study’s influencing factors towards customer trust in the bank. The result shows that digitization of banking services, the perceived uncertainty in the digitization of banking services and the perceived risk in the digitization of banking services has a negative correlation with customer trust in the bank.