Business relationships have been studied as a driver for firm competitiveness through relationship marketing, but not as a strategic advantage when entering an economy. Prior research has identified several dimensions of market entry drivers from host country, home-location, sector-related as well as firm-level perspectives. This research study takes a managerial perspective and argues that relationships and their benefits are pivotal during market entry strategy formulation. It asserts that firms should alter their market entry strategies, specifically for emerging economies, taking into consideration the net gains of a client. This study used a mixed method design involving exploratory research and explanatory research. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to make sense of the use of relationship benefits when entering the African market. An online self-administrative questionnaire was also used to gather further insights of attributes that individuals use when entering the East African Community (EAC) market. The findings revealed that institutions do stipulate the rules of the game in an emerging market. Although the research results were not conclusive regarding a wholly owned subsidiary being favoured for entry into an emerging market with stronger institutions, it was conclusive in indicating that firms still favour joint ventures into the EAC. Relationship building is time consuming and many who are given the opportunity to interact with clients still do not grasp the merits of building these relationships. This could be the reason why in general individuals still rely on social benefits like friendships; interactions beyond business relationships; sharing of information and knowledge with the client as opposed to psychological benefits. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / zkgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Forming and fostering B2B relationships are increasingly requiring communication between individuals in the opposite spectrum of culture dimensions such as individualism. Thus, establishing trusted and committed global partnerships involve designing communication processes that minimize differences and promote goal congruence. The behavior of business customers, in a global context, is an understudied field deserving greater attention in marketing research. This study unveils a universal and parsimonious model, highlighting the role of communication in shaping relationship quality, and including national culture as moderator. The study was conducted on a sample of managers and buyers from the USA (n=169) and Brazil (n=110). Factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied in order to validate the instrument, discover the relevant dimensions of communication and examine the relationships in the model. Four significant factors revealed the existence of a globally relevant, parsimonious and highly explanatory communication model that includes elements of quality, interaction, mutuality, and socialization. In addition, elements of social and functional relationship benefits are found to improve the quality of business relationships more than any other factor in the global model. In addition, culture was found to play a significant role on the intensity that most predictors have on increasing or decreasing buyer's trust in and satisfaction with the supplier. As a result, the model can aid both researchers and practitioners in understanding the important elements of communication and relationship benefits for buyers in the global marketplace.

A review of the literature reveals that companies‟ brands and their management have dominated the marketing of goods and services to consumers but the idea of measuring brand equity has been slow to take hold in business to business (B2B) marketing. On-going relationships between businesses and their industrial customers are receiving renewed interest in marketing and the building of strong customer relationships has been suggested as means of gaining a competitive advantage particularly for service businesses. The importance of benefits recieved through relationships indicates that customer value is not linked to the the product or service received, but is also derived from the benefits recieved from relationships with the organisation. The study seeks to determine the importance relationships have on the brand equity of organisations that operate in a B2B services environment. This is achieved by focusing on the drivers of brand equity in a B2B services environment, consisting of price, product quality, service quality and relationship benefits.The findings offer important insightas to the drivers of brand equity in the B2B services industry. The results indicate that the benefits a buying organisation receives from having a relationship with the organisation providing the service is significant to improving itsbrand equity . The other drivers that significantly influence the brand equity of the orgnsiations providing the service is the quality of the product or service it provides followed by the price.The research involved a two phase approach. Phase one involved face-to-face interviews with five Learning and development professionals from various industries in South Africa, namely Financial Services, Manufacturing, Telecommunications and Retail sectors. The data gathered from the interviews, together with the reviewed literature was used to develop an instrument that was used to measure the importance relationship benefits have on brand equity in the B2B services environment . One hundred and twenty one questionairres were processed. The data was subjected to inferential and multivariate statisical analysis.This research provides both an academic contribution to the relationship marketing field as well as a practical implication for marketing managers within B2B service organisations. The main contribution for academic purposes involves confirmation from hypothesised relationships. This research is of specific value to managers who are responsible for increasing brand equity within their organisations. With a more dedicated focus on improving the benefits the buying organisation receives from the organisation providing the service will allow managers to improve their brand equity. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Social media has provided both companies and customer with new opportunities. Customers are increasingly integrating social media into their daily lives and companies has noticed these new traditional medias and started to take advantage of them through brand communities. The new behavior occurring on brand communities is what research call customer engagement behavior and goes beyond transactional behavior. However, customer engagement has not been fully researched on different social media platforms. The most researched platform to date is Facebook. And with the rapid growth of social media and the constant development of new platforms it is of importance to understand customer engagement behavior on different social media platforms to further being able to adapt to each unique platform. Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the frequency of customer engagement behavior and its affect on perceived relationship benefits and ultimately, relationship outcomes. This based on three different social media platforms where one company were present with brand communities and then compare the outcome of each platform with each other. Hypothesis: 𝐻1 = The frequency of customer engagement behavior leads to perceived relationship benefits of engaging in a brand community. 𝐻2 = Customer perceived relationship benefits have a positive effect on relationship outcomes. Methodology: Cross-sectional online questionnaires distributed on three different social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Analysed using linear regressions. Findings: The findings indicates that the frequency on which a customer engage in engagement behaviors showed no statistical significance on Facebook, however, the frequency of reading messages, visiting the brand community, and purchasing products did show statistical significance on Instagram. Furthermore, the perceived relationship benefits that showed significance for both Facebook and Instagram was practical and economic benefits. While on Facebook social enhancement was considered an important indicator for relationship outcome and entertainment

No description available.

在日益競爭的商業環境下，企業看待企業客戶的觀點，由傳統競爭觀點轉變為，有越來越多企業選擇與企業客戶建立夥伴關係，Bidault et al.(1998)的研究指出高科技廠商在新產品開發過程中，會協同其供應商共同參與研發設計過程，期望藉此能發揮一加一大於二的綜效效果，為企業帶來更好的績效表現。 Sasser(1990)指出若企業能提高5%的顧客維持率，利潤將可望提高25%~85%，既有的顧客能藉由與企業重複交易與為企業宣傳來吸引新顧客，使企業獲取更好的利潤，因此本研究沿用此一概念，採取量化衡量方式，以統計軟體SPSS17.0版本進行資料分析，試圖探討企業之間如何產生自發性忠誠行為，引用B2C關係行銷的概念於B2B交易情境中討論，將企業客戶視為顧客，以關係利益為前置變數，分別檢驗關係利益三大構面－信心利益、社會利益與特殊對待利益，與企業專屬資產投資的關係與影響企業專屬資產投資的程度，再以專屬資產投資七大分類－實體專屬資產、人力資源專屬資產、特定專屬資產、無形專屬資產、心理層面認同專屬資產、忠誠客戶優惠專屬資產、區位專屬資產，做為衡量企業專屬資產投資程度的指標，並以此做為中介變數，檢驗企業專屬資產投資是否會引發企業具有忠誠行為表現。 經由實證研究顯示，信心利益與企業專屬資產投資並無明顯的正向因果關係，社會利益與特殊對待利益皆與企業專屬資產投資呈現正向因果關係，企業專屬資產投資也對企業自發性忠誠行為表現具有正向影響力，表示企業在交易過程中，如能與企業客戶互動密切並發展出朋友般的關係、給予企業客戶優惠的利益、提供較低的價格、給予折扣等，都能誘發企業客戶進行專屬資產投資，而當企業客戶進行越多的專屬於特定企業的資產投資，則越能對該企業展現忠誠行為，表現在願意再度與企業交易或成為企業的促銷者，宣傳企業的優秀表現於其它廠商，帶給企業更好的績效表現。 本研究從關係行銷的觀點出發，希望能提供企業一些管理上的建議，企業可著重於與企業客戶維持長期的交易，視企業客戶為企業內部顧客，與企業客戶發展出夥伴關係，強化企業客戶的忠誠度，提升企業營運的利潤，來抗衡現今動態的商業競爭環境。 / Nowadays with the business environment becoming much more competitive, in order to build a solid partnership with clients, corporations will try to form specific assets to raise clients’ potential costs of switching associates. The purpose of this research is to build a B2B context about specific assets investment sales and to discuss the enterprise voluntary performance behavior. This research employs the theory of transaction cost economics as fundamental bases to classify specific assets investment into seven major categoriesas following: physical specific asset, human specific asset, idiosyncratic, intangible, psychological identification, loyalty client, and territorial. The research shows specific assets investment has a positive significant impact on loyalty behavior. Besides,this research also test whteher relational benefits have positive effect on specific assets investment, and the result also shows that relational benefits has a positive significant impact on specific assets investment. Lastly, the context provides corporations with management suggestions and academic implication.