Investigating the effect of brand relationship quality on customer's behavioral intentions after service failure studied by Management Research and Development Center

Master's Thesis in Executive Management

Abstract

Even the best service providers make mistakes in providing their services. Since many services are dependent on the labor force and service production and its consumption are inseparable, the lack of service in service organizations is quite obvious, that is why brands are very vital for the service sector, because the intangible nature of services makes it difficult for the consumer to assess its content and quality, and brands can play an important role in reducing the risks caused by purchasing and consuming services. be considered a potential partner in a relationship.  Many researchers in service recovery believe that the quality of the relationship between the customer and the organization affects the reactions of customers to service failure, and some of them suggest that customer relationships are an important barrier for service companies against service failure and can reduce customer dissatisfaction from service failure. In this dissertation, an attempt has been made to investigate the impact of the brand relationship quality framework presented by Fournier on the behavioral intentions of customers after service failure. which includes word-of-mouth advertising and repeat purchase intentions. In this regard, by studying the theoretical foundations and the results of previous researches and according to the theoretical model of the research, which is derived from the research of Zhi and Heung in 2012, the effect of brand relationship quality on customers' behavioral intentions after service failure was investigated by presenting seven hypotheses and using the structural equation model. The statistical population of this research includes 136 participants in the training and research courses of the Management Research and Development Center who were randomly selected. After checking the validity of the questionnaire by the supervisors and consultants, the reliability of the questionnaire was checked using Cronbach's alpha test. The fit of the conceptual model using different indicators has been meaningful and favorable, and six of the seven hypotheses of the research were confirmed. The findings of this research show that the variable of brand relationship quality has a significant direct and indirect effect on behavioral intentions, and in general, it can be said that the quality of brand relationship in this research plays a significant role in reducing negative emotional response and improving behavioral intentions, and the more the institution can create a better relationship with its customers so that this relationship leads to the building of a brand relationship with the customer, in case of service failure, it can be largely safe from its negative effects.

Key words: service failure. , documentation theory, brand relationship quality, Fournier's framework, emotional responsiveness, behavioral intentions

Chapter One

Research Overview

Introduction

Even the best service providers make mistakes in providing their services. One reason for failure in service[1] is the dependence of many services on the workforce, which unconsciously leads to more inconsistency of the staff compared to mechanical production processes. The variable functions of service and failure in service are also caused by the inseparability of service production and consumption, because services are often consumed at the same moment of production, and this issue prevents measuring the quality of service before providing it. (Klein, Gansean, Hess, 2003)

Many researchers in service recovery have proposed that the quality of the customer's relationship with the organization affects the customer's reactions to service failure. Some of them suggest that customer relations provide an important buffer for service companies against service failures, and this causes less customer satisfaction. (Tax, Brown, Chandershken, 1998)

Nowadays, the brand of an organization can be used as a tool for differentiation. The brand relationship quality framework [2] was proposed by Fournier [3] in 1998 and it expresses the role of the brand in the lives of customers and also identifies their needs. The brand relationship somehow compares the relationship between the brand and the consumer to human interactions. (Xie & Heung, 2011) This framework can create strong mental connections between the customer and the brand and increase the customer's tolerance towards the defects that occur during the service delivery process.

Saba Management Research and Development Center is the first center to provide management courses with the license of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, which as a service organization, despite many efforts, can still be subject to failure. Therefore, investigating the impact of the brand relationship quality framework in this organization on the behavioral intentions of scholars and people present in its courses can determine whether, according to the documents of individuals about dereliction of duty, the brand relationship quality framework can act as a protective factor for this organization or not. Also, the interest of people to participate in free training courses or to complete the skills learned in the university has caused the educational institutions to grow inclusively in recent years and there is a tight competition to attract people among them. In the meantime, people are looking for institutions that best meet their educational needs at all stages, and if they notice any lack of service1, they can easily switch to another choice or cause negative word-of-mouth advertising2 with their negative reactions. And in this way they endanger the competitive advantage of the institution.

The education department as a service department should act in such a way as to create the most value for the customer and since this value does not lie in the service itself but in the mind of the customer, the brand of the institution can play a significant role in shaping this value. When a customer becomes interested in using a brand over time and by taking advantage of the desired services, a kind of relationship between the customer and the brand is formed, which makes the customer feel close to the brand and it is difficult for him to switch to other brands. Management Development Center is one of the reputable brands in the field of management training, which plays a significant role in promoting management training by holding training courses for managers and employees of organizations, as well as conducting comprehensive management courses. As an educational service institution, this center is not exempted from service failure. According to the questions made by the officials of this center, some of the deficiencies that cause the dissatisfaction of the students of the institution are as follows:

Incompleteness of the educational content of the classes and not matching with the objectives of the courses

Insufficient expertise of some professors to hold the course

Physical limitations of the educational space such as insufficient teaching aid equipment, lighting problems and space layout

In some cases, the organizers of the courses They don't know enough about the course and they can't properly guide people.

If these problems are repeated in different courses, people will lose their desire to participate in other classes of the institute. On the other hand, the competition in this field has intensified in recent years and institutions such as the Business Education Center, Industrial Management Organization, Insurance Research Institute, etc. They are active in this field that if the management development center cannot satisfy people, they can easily take advantage of the services provided by competitors and this will lead to the loss of competitive advantage. 2-1 Necessity of the research topic The good performance and competitive advantage of an educational institution obviously depends on the ability of the institution to satisfy customers by providing appropriate services. It is not always possible to satisfy the customers and despite the efforts of the institution to provide optimal services, there is a possibility of service failure. When this happens, it causes the customer's dissatisfaction and his complaint, and finally ends in negative consequences such as losing the customer, complaining to the authorities, and negative word-of-mouth advertising. (Singh, & Lee, 2011) despite the importance of this issue and its negative consequences in the long term as well as the increase in the intensity of competition in the service sectors, this issue has not been addressed much in Iranian articles and researches and there is a feeling of need to study in this field.

An organization's brand can be used as a tool to create differentiation in such a way that organizations spend a lot of money to identify and maintain the brand's position in the mind of the customer, because it is not enough to only provide services, but also to create a distinctive image in The mind of the customer has become an important goal for organizations. This is also evident in Iranian organizations, and in recent years we have seen the attention of Iranian managers to the brand category. Among the subjects that have been discussed in the field of brand, the category of brand relationship is not well known.