Transformations  in
Business & Economics

Product vs. Relationship Value in Business-to-Business Manufacturing Relationships
Tomaz Cater, Barbara Cater

ABSTRACT. The paper’s purpose is to broaden our knowledge of value-based determinants of customer competitive advantage, satisfaction and loyalty in business-to-business relationships. We propose and test a model in which customer competitive advantage and satisfaction are conceived as mediating the relationship between product- and relationship-based value, and attitudinal and behavioural customer loyalty. The empirical analysis uses SEM and is based on 477 customer-supplier relationships in a manufacturing context in a Central and Eastern European environment. The results show that product-based value positively influences customer competitive advantage, while relationship-based value positively influences customer competitive advantage, satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. On the other hand, behavioural loyalty is affected by customer competitive advantage and satisfaction, whereas attitudinal loyalty is affected by customer satisfaction and relationship-based value. The results indicate that Central and Eastern European industrial customers are becoming very similar to Western firms in that they are demanding much more than just low price and acceptable product quality.

KEYWORDS: value, competitive advantage, satisfaction, loyalty, manufacturing, Slovenia.

JEL classification: M10, M31, P2.