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To cite this article: Wei-ping Wu , T. S. Chan & Heng Hwa Lau (2008) Does consumers' personal
reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?, Journal of Marketing Management, 24:3-4, 345-360,
DOI: 10.1362/026725708X306130
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/026725708X306130
JOURNAL OF
MARKETING
MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
This study investigates the mediating role of a consumers personal reciprocity in the
relationships between brand trust, brand loyalty and product familiarity, and future
1
An earlier version of the paper was published in the conference proceedings of Chinese
Management: Sublimiation of Indigenised Research Work (Yau, O.H.M., eds.), Unit for
Chinese Management Development, City University of Hong Kong, 2006.
*Correspondence details and biographies for the authors are located at the end of the article.
JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 2008, Vol. 24, No. 3-4, pp. 345-360
ISSN0267-257X print /ISSN1472-1376 online Westburn Publishers Ltd.
doi: 10.1362/026725708X306130
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purchase intentions. For the purpose of this study, drawing on Morales (2005),
we define personal reciprocity as a consumers conscious tendency to engage in a
reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship with a brand provider. Bagozzi (1995)
argued that reciprocity is embedded in consumer-firm relationships. Fournier et al.
(1998) reiterated that there should be a balance between giving and receiving in a
good consumer-firm relationship. In the Chinese context, reciprocity happens to be
one of the key Chinese social norms rooted deeply in traditional yet still prevailing
Chinese cultural values. Therefore, the study of how personal reciprocity might
be able to have an impact on a consumer-firm relationship in the Chinese context
is intended not only to enrich the existing literature but also to inform practices.
With the theoretical advancements at the domain of consumer-brand relationships
(Fournier 1998; Fournier and Yao 1997), an important research stream that explores
the relationships between brand trust, brand loyalty, and their related outcomes is
emerging. For example, Chauduri and Holbrook (2001, 2002) investigated the chain
of effects that run from brand trust to brand loyalty through to brand outcome.
Delgado-Ballster and Munuera-Alemn (2001) studied the relationship between brand
trust and brand loyalty. These studies have undoubtedly enriched our understanding
of the links between brand trust and brand loyalty and their respective impact on
future purchase intentions.
The relationship between a brand and a consumer may dissolute (Fajer and
Schouten 1995; Perrin-Martinenq 2004) since there are factors such as after-sales
service, speed of repairs and product quality that might lure loyal customers to switch
to competitive brands (Deighton et al. 1994; Lin et al. 2000). Surprisingly, hardly any
systematic empirical investigation has been published that examines how a consumers
personal reciprocity may be leveraged to mediate the relationships between brand
trust, brand loyalty, product familiarity and future purchase intentions of the same
brand.
The central premise of the current study is that a consumers personal reciprocity
plays an important mediating role in extending the positive effects of brand trust,
brand loyalty and product category familiarity to future purchase intentions. Davies
and Chun (2003) suggested that a consumer-brand partnership is a reciprocal one.
In a recent study, Morales (2005) argued that consumers demonstrate personal
reciprocity by rewarding firms for effort directed towards them individually. Schultz
and Bailey (2000) called for the development of reciprocity as a theory base on which
to build customer relationships. Not surprisingly, reciprocity has been treated as one
of the key theoretical pinnacles of a conceptual framework of resource investment
and customer-loyalty (Morais et al. 2004).
We posit that to translate brand trust and brand loyalty into future purchase
intentions of the same brand, personal reciprocity plays an important mediating role.
Similarly, to attract potential consumers who are familiar with a product category
but have yet to patronise a particular brand of that category, personal reciprocity
plays a crucial bridging link. In this paper, we highlight the underlying importance of
personal reciprocity in consumer-firm relationships.
The objective of this study is to develop and test a model of a consumers personal
reciprocity by integrating the literature of brand trust, brand loyalty, product familiarity
and reciprocity in the explanation of future purchase intentions. More specifically,
we demonstrate that there is an alternative path that links brand trust and brand
loyalty to future purchase intentions through the mediator, personal reciprocity. The
findings will help firms to design more effective relationship marketing practices by
specifically targeting those existing reciprocity-minded customers who already have
Wu, Chan and Lau Does consumers personal reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?
trust in and are loyal to their brands. In addition, we explore a possible link between
product familiarity, a consumers personal reciprocity and future purchase intentions.
The investigation of this possible link is equally important, as we will be able to
demonstrate for the first time whether a consumers personal reciprocity mediates
the relationship between product familiarity and future purchase intentions. The
findings will be of great significance to practicing managers in their formulation and
implementation of relationship marketing strategies. By capitalising on a potential
consumers reciprocal proneness, firms may be able to attract those potential
customers who are familiar with a product category but have yet to patronise a
particular brand of that category.
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intentions (Sderlund 2002). Consumers who are highly familiar with a particular
product category may patronise any firms that provide such products. Nevertheless,
little is known about how the effects of product familiarity may be extended to future
purchase intentions through the mediation of consumers personal reciprocity. We
posit that consumers who are familiar with a product category can be attracted to
patronise a particular brand through the mediation of consumers personal reciprocity,
since people seem to have an innate desire to repay favours (Regan 1971).
Wu, Chan and Lau Does consumers personal reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?
brand trust, brand loyalty, and product familiarity, to consumers personal reciprocity,
and then to future purchase intentions. In an optimal situation of consumer-firm
relationships, reciprocation of investments is expected of each other. Customers
believe that resources they are investing in the seller are being reciprocated in
an equitable fashion and satisfaction with the transaction generates and supports
an ongoing relation between exchange partners (Dorsh and Carlson 1996). We
expect that consumers personal reciprocity will play a partial mediating role in the
relationships between brand trust and brand loyalty and future purchase intentions.
This is because brand trust and brand loyalty have both been found to be positively
related to purchase intentions in the existing literature (Garbarina and Johnson,
1999; Morgan and Hunt 1994). However, to advance the existing literature, we
contend that an alternative path exists, linking both brand trust and brand loyalty
to future purchase intentions via consumers personal reciprocity. Consumers who
display brand trust and brand loyalty are more likely to engage in a reciprocal and
mutually beneficial relationship with the brand provider. By willingly disclosing their
personal information to the firm, consumers expect the firm to reciprocate with
better products or services and other related benefits such as product information
updates. Consequently, they are more likely to repeatedly patronise the same brand.
In another word, reciprocity acts as the mediating channel that extends effects of
both brand trust and brand loyalty onto future repeat intentions. In addition, we
argue that the relationship between product familiarity and future purchase intention
is fully mediated by consumers personal reciprocity. Those potential customers who
are familiar with a product category can be attracted to purchase a particular brand
through the mediation of personal reciprocity. For the purpose of this study, we define
personal reciprocity as a consumers conscious tendency to engage in a reciprocal and
mutually beneficial relationship with a brand provider.
Brand trust and personal reciprocity
Drawing on the aforementioned definitions of Delgado-Ballester and MunueraAlemn (2001) and of Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), we define brand trust as
an average consumers confidence in and reliance on a brand to perform its stated
function. Trust gives the customer confidence in the equity and reliability of the
service or product that is offered by a firm (Garbarino and Johnson 1999), and gives
Brand
Loyalty
Brand
Trust
H2
H1
H3
Product
Familiarity
Personal
Reciprocity
H4
Future
Purchase
Intention
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confidence in the credibility of the firm (Macintosh and Lockshin 1997). Before
committing resources to a retailer, a customer must have some measure of assurance
that the retailer will make the necessary reparations (Dorsch and Carlston 1996). Trust,
clearly, is one such measure of assurance since it can effectively check opportunistic
behaviour which is one of the key causes of transaction costs (Bendapudi and Berry
1997). Therefore, consumers who have confidence in a brand are often ready to
engage in a reciprocal relationship with the provider of the brand by disclosing their
personal information since they are confident that their favours will not be taken for
granted and the providers will not misuse their personal information. Moreover, they
also expect that their favours would be reciprocated with such benefits as a sense of
security, reliable quality products, and related services. Brand trust can obviously
enhance a consumers conscious tendency to reciprocate with the provider. Hence,
we offer our first hypothesis.
H1 Brand trust is positively related to a consumers personal reciprocity.
Wu, Chan and Lau Does consumers personal reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?
METHODOLOGY
Sampling and data collection
The sampling frame is printer owners in Hong Kong. Chinese culture is well known
to be relationship rich and oriented toward the long term (Hofstede 1991). Hong
Kong, therefore, provides a supportive cultural context for studying the issues that
are related to consumer-firm relationships. In addition, most of the existing studies
on consumer relationship proneness have been conducted in Western countries.
Empirical investigation in a non-Western context can help test the generalisability of
the theories that come from the West. Hong Kong, as a former British colony, has a
political, legal, and economic system that is comparable to those of Western economies
such as the UK and the USA, and thus other contextual interferences are minimised.
We decided to conduct empirical tests within a particular product category, as it is
considered appropriate to study issues such as brand trust and brand loyalty within a
single product category (Delgado-Ballester and Munuera-Alemn 2001; Warrington
and Shim 2000). In the selection of a product category, we conducted two focus
group interviews with 11 university students in each group. Each interviewee was
asked to suggest the product category with which they were most familiar. The
product categories that were most frequently identified by the interviewees were
printers, mobile phones, clothing, and cosmetics. The female interviewees had a
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Wu, Chan and Lau Does consumers personal reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?
Independent variables
Brand trust (a = .87). The brand trust scale was adapted from those used in Chaudhuri
and Holbrook (2001) and Delgado-Ballester and Munuera-Aleman (2001). There are
three items on the brand trust scale rated on a 7-point Likert scale that ranges from
1, strongly disagree, to 7, strongly agree. The items include I rely on this brand,
This brand is trustworthy, and The quality of this brand is very good.
Brand loyalty (a = .86). The brand loyalty scale consists of three items, such as, I
have a strong sense of loyalty to this brand, I am proud of being the owner of this
brand, and I like this brand. The items were adapted from Garbarino and Johnson
(1999).
Product familiarity (a = 0.81). The product familiarity scale was developed from
a detailed consultation of the relevant literature such as Coupey et al. (1998) and
Grewal et al. (1998). The scale consists of two items. They are How knowledgeable
are you about printers? rated on a 7-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 not
knowledgeable at all to 7 very knowledgeable, and Please rate how familiar you
are with printers rated on a 7-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 extremely
unfamiliar to 7 extremely familiar).
Dependent variable
Future purchase intentions (a = 0.78). This scale comprises the two items, Are you
willing to repurchase the products of this brand in the future? and Are you willing to
give first consideration to this brand for future purchases? rated on a 7-point Likert
scale that ranges from 1 not at all willing to 7 extremely willing. The two items
were developed from Fournier (1998) and Garbarino and Johnson (1999). This is
designed to assess how willing the respondent (owner of a printer) is to repurchase
the same brand printer.
Mediating variable
Personal reciprocity (a = 0.81). The scale was adapted from the measures that were
used in Stone and Woodcock (1995) and in Ambler et al. (1999), and are rated on a
7-point Likert scale that ranges from 1 strongly disagree to 7 strongly agree. The
items are I hope that the provider of this brand can offer me some individualised
products/services, I am willing to give my personal information to the provider of
this brand so that I can be better served, and I am willing to cooperate with the
provider of this brand. This scale is designed to capture a consumers reciprocal
needs with the provider of a brand.
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(=.709***)
(=.378***)
Brand
Loyalty
(=.243***)
(=.138*)
Brand
Trust
(=.386***)
Personal
Reciprocity
(=.354***)
(=-.056, n.s.)
(=.003, n.s.)
(=.249***)
Product
Familiarity
(=.180**)
Future
Purchase
Intention
Wu, Chan and Lau Does consumers personal reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?
df
x2
Mediating Model
55
230.709
Nested Model 1
56
246.379
Nested Model 2
57
271.621
NFI
CFI
IFI
0.895
0.916
0.918
15.669***
0.888
0.911
0.910
40.912***
0.876
0.900
0.898
x2
Nested Model 3
(Direct Model)
58
276.979
46.270***
0.874
0.898
0.896
Note: x2 = the difference between the mediating model and a nested model.
*** = p<0.001. This indicates the differences between the mediating model and the three
nested models are significant. Therefore, the mediating model is a model with a better
goodness of fit.
Nested Model 1 is a nested model in which one path, brand trust reciprocity, is dropped
from the mediating model in Figure 2. Nested Model 2 is a nested model in which two paths,
brand trust reciprocity and brand loyalty reciprocity, are dropped from the mediating
model. Nested Model 3 (Direct Model) is a nested model in which three paths (brand trust
reciprocity, brand loyalty reciprocity, and product familiarity reciprocity) are
dropped from the mediating model.
Variables
Means S.D
1. Reciprocity
4.31
1.30
2. Brand Loyalty
3.97
1.42
.308***
3. Brand Trust
4.95
.99
.368***
.499***
4. Product Familiarity
3.20
1.32
.183***
.335***
.238***
5. Future Purchase
Intentions
4.30
1.14
.545***
.524***
.512***
*** p<0.00
.210***
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(=.712***)
Brand
Loyalty
(=.233***)
(=.128*)
(=.425***)
Brand
Trust
(=.374***)
Personal
Reciprocity
(=.358***)
Future
Purchase
Intention
(=.169**)
(=.274***)
Product
Familiarity
Wu, Chan and Lau Does consumers personal reciprocity affect future purchase intentions?
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