Antecedents and Consequences of Customer-Company Identification: Expanding the Role of Relationship Marketing

This article presents an empirical test of organizational identification in the context of customer-company (C-C) relationships. It investigates whether customers identify with companies and what the antecedents and consequences of such identification are. The model posits that perceived company cha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied psychology 2005-05, Vol.90 (3), p.574-585
Main Authors: Ahearne, Michael, Bhattacharya, C. B, Gruen, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Advertising. Marketing. Consume behavior
Aged
Applied psychology
Behavioural psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Brand Names
Brands
Business Organizations
Companies
Consequence
Consumer Attitudes
Consumer Behavior
Consumer behaviour
Corporate image
Customer relations
Drug Industry
Drug Prescriptions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Identification
Interprofessional Relations
Male
Marketing
Middle Aged
Models, Organizational
Organizational Affiliation
Organizational behavior
Physicians - psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Quality of Services
Sensory perception
Social Identification
Social identity
Social identity theory
Studies
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Summary:This article presents an empirical test of organizational identification in the context of customer-company (C-C) relationships. It investigates whether customers identify with companies and what the antecedents and consequences of such identification are. The model posits that perceived company characteristics, construed external image, and the perception of the company's boundary-spanning agent lead to C-C identification. In turn, such identification is expected to impact both in-role behavior (i.e., product utilization) as well as extra-role behavior (i.e., citizenship). The model was tested in a consultative selling context of pharmaceutical sales reps calling on physicians. Results from the empirical test indicated that customers do indeed identify with organizations and that C-C identification positively impacts both product utilization behavior and extra-role behavior even when the effect of brand perception is accounted for. Second, the study found that the organization's characteristics as well as the salesperson's characteristics contributed to the development of C-C identification.
ISSN:0021-9010
1939-1854
DOI:10.1037/0021-9010.90.3.574