How salespeople build quality relationships: A replication and extension

This study, replicates and extends Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990) relatio nship quality model. It examines the antecedents and consequences of relati onship quality between a salesperson and his or her customer using business customers rather than the sample of retail consumers used by Crosby and co lleagues. The original study is further extended by the inclusion of equity as a predictor of buyer-salesperson relationship quality. The setting for this replication is a sales environment where a continuous service is sold to business customers. Approximately 1,000 customers responded to the surve y instrument. These respondents represent a wide range of organizations inc luding manufacturers, government agencies, retailers, and service firms. Fi ndings from the current study suggest that the Crosby and co-workers model of relationship quality is relatively generalizable to different sales sett ings. This is indicated by the fit indices for this replication in a busine ss-to-business sales setting (AGFI = 0.93; CFI = 0.96; RMR = 0.05). Althoug h our research indicates several differences from those reported in Crosby et al., their results are generally supported. Of the eight possible common relationships tested in the replication, six were significant (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the extension proposed by our research is significant. Equity is shown to be a significant predictor of buyer-salesperson relationship qu ality. Fit for the extended model is good (AGFI = 0.93; CFI = 0.96; RMR = 0 .05). The two relationships that were different between our replication and the original study indicate that relationship quality is more important fo r the business-to-business customer in determining how highly they are a sa lesperson than it is for consumers. Furthermore, these findings indicate th at individual consumers Place greater value on salesperson expertise in det ermining their evaluation of a salesperson's effectiveness. Overall, the Cr osby et al. model exhibits some degree of generalizability in the sales env ironment investigated in this replication. Implications of the study for bu ilding buyer-salesperson relationship are discussed, and suggestions are ma de concerning for future research topics. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. Al l rights reserved.