In this paper we investigate the possible presence of switching costs when consumers are offered the opportunity to change their basic health insurance provider. We focus on the specific case of Switzerland which implemented a pure form of competition in basic health insurance markets. We...

The research proposes a methodology allowing both the construction of a brand personality scale and the test of the ability of the scale to predict brand choice. A brand personality scale is developed and tested via exploratory and confirmatory analyses. A brand personality structure composed of...

In the first section, a literature review on identification enables a clear definition of the "Customer-Company Identification" construct to be given. Then in the second section, the conceptual framework and the main hypothesis are exposed. In the third section, an empirical investigation into a...

This conceptual article presents the current criticisms to relationship marketing and important concepts developed in the psychology to understand consumer reactance toward services packaged as formal contracts. A first part presents the numerous questions that researches are raising about the...

The relational approach is often presented as a strategy to retain customers, but it may also be an appropriate approach to encourage customers to complain, as a review of literature shows. Using information contained in complaints and giving the right answers (distributive, procedural and...

The combined pressures of desintermediation, deregulation, and industrial restructuring have helped to redefine the nature and importance of bank-client relationships (Schell, 1996). Directors or treasurers of companies often recognize that their relationship is with the bank account manager,...