Fatores explicativos da manutenção do relacionamento no contexto B2B: um estudo no setor de serviços de tecnologia da informação

Abstract

The increasing of the service’s industry in today’s economy, driven by information technology (IT), transformed the demand, supply and business environment. With the changes in the industrial context, competition has spurred companies to seek ways to stay in the increasingly competitive markets. Given this scenario, relationship marketing is considered a more responsive possibility to consumer needs with value expansion and maintenance of relationships. It is also possible to achieve an advantage over competitors through the creation of closer long-term customer relations. IT, besides contributing to global level changes, has also been strategic for companies. Being so, the IT service providers have perceived relations as important tool for their success and maintenance of relationships. In this context, this study tried to analyze the existing relation among constructs of relationship marketing and the maintenance of the relationship according to the perception of customers of IT service providers. Through the review of the literature on relationship marketing contexts in businessto-business (B2B), two models were developed: the first one based on the literature review and the second one considering two additional control variables related to the context (relationship length and the level of alternative suppliers). The models were tested based on a survey with 270 managers responsible for contracting IT services, after being measured based on scales already validated. The statistical technique used to examine the data was Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through which the two models developed were tested to identify the relationship between the variable of relationship marketing and maintaining relationships in the studied context. Results indicated that the conceptual model presented better fit to the data, showing that commitment was the most important construct, from customer’s perspective, for the maintenance of relationships in the context of IT. Furthermore, it was found that the dependence on supplier has a strong influence on relational mediators - trust, commitment and relationship satisfaction. This research contributes to increasing knowledge about the constructs of relationship marketing in the context of B2B IT services.