Investigating the effect of intimacy in shaping the behavioral intentions of insurance customers towards new services: The mediating role of belief and attitude

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 MSc. Business Administration, University of Guilan

2 University of Guilan

10.29252/jbmp.19.43.171

Abstract

Objective: Intimacy, as an important feature of close service relationships, has the potential and significant impact on improving consumer behavior. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of customer intimacy on improving their beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions in consuming new services.
Methodology: The present research is practical from the perspective of purpose and from the perspective of implementation method and data collection is among the descriptive and survey research. Data were collected by using questionnaire (with validity and reliability) from new services customers of Iran Insurance Company in Rasht and available non-probability sampling method. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, eight hypotheses were proposed and these hypotheses were analyzed by structural equation modeling and PLS software.
Findings: Findings show that intimacy has a positive and significant effect on the beliefs, attitudes and behavioral intentions of customers of Iran insurance services. The mediating effect of beliefs and attitudes on the relationship between intimacy and behavioral intentions was also confirmed.
Conclusion: Intimacy can improve attitudes, customer loyalty and positive WOM by reducing uncertainty in complex shopping situations such as new insurance services. Therefore, managers of insurance companies should adopt relationship marketing strategies and service customization and facilitate the establishment of an intimate relationship with customers by strengthening the appropriate communication skills of their sales representatives.

Keywords

References

  1.  

    1. Aaker, J., Fournier, S., & Brasel, S. A. (2004). When good brands do bad. Journal of Consumer research, 31(1), 1-16.
    2. Ahmad, M. Ahmed, M. (2020). A Study of Customer Orientation and Customer Commitment in the Food Sector of Pakistan.The Lahore Journal of Business. 8(2), 1-32.
    3. Ahn, J., & Back, K. J. (2018). Influence of brand relationship on customer attitude toward integrated resort brands: a cognitive, affective, and conative perspective. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 35(4), 449-460.
    4. Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. (1980), Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior, Prentice Hall.
    5. Akbari, M., Aletaha, S., Farkhondeh, M., Pourrajabi, A. (2017). Investigation of the Effect of Role Characteristics and Personal Factors on the Performance of the Sales Force (Case Study: Pasargad Insurance offices in Gilan. Insurance Research, 1(2), 115-143. (in Persian)
    6. Amiri, N., Nopasand Asil, S., Akbari, M. (1394). The influence of consumers' beliefs on their impulse buying in an online environment. New Marketing Research Journal, 5(3), 21-34. (in Persian)
    7. Ashkani, M., Esfidani, M. (1395). Influence of Consumer Brand Relationship on Brand Evangelism. Brand Management, 3(4), 157-180. (in Persian)
    8. Asiegbu, I. F., Powei, D. M., & Iruka, C. H. (2012). Consumer attitude: Some reflections on its concept, trilogy, relationship with consumer behavior, and marketing implications. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(13), 38-50.
    9. Aziz, S., Husin, M. M., Hussin, N., & Afaq, Z. (2019). Factors that influence individuals’ intentions to purchase family takaful mediating role of perceived trust. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 31(1), 81-104.
    10. Balaji, M. S., Kumar Roy, S., & Kok Wei, K. (2016). Does relationship communication matter in B2C service relationships?. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(2), 186-200.
    11. Barcelos, R., Dantas, D., Sénécal, S., & Rossi, C. (2016). The Effect of Brand Intimacy on Consumer Responses: An Application on a Social Media Context. Rediscovering the Essentiality of Marketing, 209-214.
    12. Basir, L., Rahim nia, F., Poursalimi, M. (1395). Survey The Effect of Service Innovation on Behavioural Intention of Customers with Mediating role of Experiential Marketing Case of: Five-Star Hotels in Mashhad City. New Marketing Research Journal, 6(2), 36-19.  (in Persian)
    13. Bearden, W. O., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2011). Handbook of marketing scales: Multi-item measures for marketing and consumer behavior research. Sage publications.
    14. Beetles, A. C., & Harris, L. C. (2010). The role of intimacy in service relationships: an exploration. Journal of Services Marketing, 24(5), 347-358.
    15. Bick, G., Brown, A. B., & Abratt, R. (2004). Customer perceptions of the value delivered by retail banks in South Africa. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 22(5), 300-318.
    16. Bhatti, T., & Husin, M. M. (2019). An investigation of the effect of customer beliefs on the intention to participate in family Takaful schemes. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 11(3), 709-727.
    17. Brahmana, R., Brahmana, R. K., & Memarista, G. (2018). Planned behaviour in purchasing health Insurance. The South East Asian Journal of Management, 12(1), 53-64.
    18. Bruner, I. I., & Gordon, C. (2010). Marketing scales handbook. GCBII Productions.
    19. Bügel, M. S., Verhoef, P. C., & Buunk, A. P. (2011). Customer intimacy and commitment to relationships with firms in five different sectors: Preliminary evidence. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 18(4), 247-258.
    20. Carr, C. L. (2007). The FAIRSERV model: Consumer reactions to services based on a multidimensional evaluation of service fairness. Decision Sciences, 38(1), 107-130.
    21. Casidy, R., & Wymer, W. (2016). A risk worth taking: Perceived risk as moderator of satisfaction, loyalty, and willingness-to-pay premium price. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 32, 189-197.
    22. Chen, S. C., & Quester, P. G. (2015). The relative contribution of love and trust towards customer loyalty. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 23(1), 13-18.
    23. Chen, M. F., & Wang, L. H. (2009). The moderating role of switching barriers on customer loyalty in the life insurance industry. The Service Industries Journal, 29(8), 1105-1123.
    24. Chu, K., Lee, D. H., & Kim, J. Y. (2019). The effect of verbal brand personification on consumer evaluation in advertising: Internal and external personification. Journal of Business Research, 99, 472-480.
    25. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (second ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    26. Cuganesan, S. (2008). Calculating customer intimacy: accounting numbers in a sales and marketing department. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 21(1), 78-103.
    27. Dalto, C. A., Ajzen, I., & Kaplan, K. J. (1979). Self-disclosure and attraction: Effects of intimacy and desirability on beliefs and attitudes. Journal of Research in Personality, 13(2), 127-138.
    28. Davari, A., & Rezazadeh, A. (1392). Structural equation modeling with PLS. Tehran: Jahad University, 215(2), 224. (in Persian)
    29. Eric, S. Creating customer intention to buy through customer intimacy strategy. International Journal of Economic Research, 15(3), 935-945
    30. Esfandyari, A. (1398). Investigating the relationship between customer trust, customer commitment, intimacy and customer respect Parsian Bank in Tehran. Masters Disseration, Islamic Azad University, Damavand Branch, Management. (in Persian)
    31. Fournier, S. M. (1996). A consumer-brand relationship framework for strategic brand management. PHD Thesis. University of Florida.
    32. Gómez, M., Martín‐Consuegra, D., Díaz, E., & Molina, A. (2018). Determinants and outcomes of price premium and loyalty: A food case study. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 17(1), 64-74.
    33. Khodadad Hosseini, H., Samiei, N., Ahmadi, P. (1397). The Effect of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Behavior; Investigating the Role of Brand Equity, Brand Relationship Quality and Attitude towards Brand. Consumer Behavior Studies Journal, 5(1), 37-59. (in Persian)
    34. Habryn, F. (2014). Customer intimacy analytics: Leveraging operational data to assess customer knowledge and relationships and to measure their business impact. KIT Scientific Publishing.
    35. Hair Jr, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C., & Sarstedt, M. (2016). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Sage publications.
    36. Harun, N. A., Noor, M. N. M., & Rahman, A. H. A. (2018). Relationship Marketing in Insurance Industry: A Systematic Analysis of Literatures. In First Padang International Conference On Economics Education, Economics, Business and Management, Accounting and Entrepreneurship.
    37. Huete-Alcocer, N. (2017). A literature review of word of mouth and electronic word of mouth: Implications for consumer behavior. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1256.
    38. Husin, M. M., & Ab Rahman, A. (2016). Do Muslims intend to participate in Islamic insurance?. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, 7(1), 42-58.
    39. Jeon, S., & Kim, J. S. (2016). Effects of service failure on consumer responses across failure types: A moderating role of intimacy. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 24(1), 46-53.
    40. Khoa, B. T. (2020). The Antecedents of Relationship Marketing and Customer Loyalty: A Case of the Designed Fashion Product. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 7(2), 195-204.
    41. Liang, T. P., Li, Y. W., & Turban, E. (2009). Personalized services as empathic responses: The role of intimacy. PACIS 2009 Proceedings.
    42. Mohaghegh Montazeri, M. (2020). Designing a Model of Factors Affecting Intimacy and its Impact on the New Service Performance. Master Thesis. University of Guilan.
    43. Mulia, D., Usman, H., & Parwanto, N. B. (2020). The role of customer intimacy in increasing Islamic bank customer loyalty in using e-banking and m-banking. Journal of Islamic Marketing, Ahead of Print.
    44. Nitzl, C., Roldan, J. L., & Cepeda, G. (2016). Mediation analysis in partial least squares path modeling. Industrial management & data systems, 116(9),1849-1864.
    45. Nora, L. (2019). Trust, commitment, and customer knowledge: Clarifying relational commitments and linking them to repurchasing intentions. Management Decision, 57(11), 3134-3158.
    46. Nysveen, H., Pedersen, P. E., & Thorbjørnsen, H. (2005). Intentions to use mobile services: Antecedents and cross-service comparisons. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 33(3), 330-346.
    47. Olya, H. G., & Altinay, L. (2016). Asymmetric modeling of intention to purchase tourism weather insurance and loyalty. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), 2791-2800.
    48. Osei, G. (2017). Customer Intimacy Adoption and its impact on Organisational Performance. Journal of Research in Marketing, 8(1), 600-616.
    49. Omar, O. E. (2007). The retailing of life insurance in Nigeria: an assessment of consumers' attitudes. The Journal of Retail Marketing Management Research, 1(1), 41- 47.
    50. Peltola, R. (2020). Customer understanding in a case company's contract manufacturing business. Master's thesis. Turku University of Applied Sciences.
    51. Ponder, N., Holloway, B. B., & Hansen, J. D. (2016). The mediating effects of customers’ intimacy perceptions on the trust-commitment relationship. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(1), 75-87.
    52. Samadi, M., Hajipour, B., Dehghan, M. (2009). Examining the Effects of Brand Dimensions on Customer Repurchase Intention in Refah Retail Store in Tehran. Strategic Management Thought, 3(2), 149-165.
    53. Solomon, Micheal, R. (2017). Concumer Behavior: buying, having, and bieng. Translate: Kambiz Heydarzadeh.. Marketing Publication. Tehran. (in Persian)
    54. Soper, D. S. (2020). A-priori sample size calculator for structural equation models [Software]. 
    55. Tabrani, M., Amin, M., & Nizam, A. (2018). Trust, commitment, customer intimacy and customer loyalty in Islamic banking relationships. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 36(5), 823-848.
    56. Thorbjørnsen, H., Supphellen, M., Nysveen, H., & Egil, P. (2002). Building brand relationships online: A comparison of two interactive applications. Journal of interactive marketing, 16(3), 17-34.
    57. Treacy, M., & Wiersema, F. (1993). Customer intimacy and other value disciplines. Harvard business review, 71(1), 84-93.
    58. Wang, T., & Lee, F. Y. (2020). Examining customer engagement and brand intimacy in social media context. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 54, 102035.
    59. Westland, J. C. (2010). Lower bounds on sample size in structural equation modeling. Electronic commerce research and applications, 9(6), 476-487.
    60. Witell, L., Kowalkowski, C., Perks, H., Raddats, C., Schwabe, M., Benedettini, O., & Burton, J. (2020). Characterizing customer experience management in business markets. Journal of Business Research, 116, 420-430.
    61. Yim, C. K., Tse, D. K., & Chan, K. W. (2008). Strengthening customer loyalty through intimacy and passion: Roles of customer–firm affection and customer–staff relationships in services. Journal of marketing research, 45(6), 741-756.
    62. Yuan, S., Liu, L., Su, B., & Zhang, H. (2020). Determining the antecedents of mobile payment loyalty: Cognitive and affective perspectives. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 100971.
    63. Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1996). The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of marketing, 60(2), 31-46.
Journal of Business Management Perspective
Volume 19, Issue 43 - Serial Number 43
October 2020
Pages 171-196

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 27 January 2021
  • Revise Date: 05 March 2021
  • Accept Date: 05 March 2021

Share

How to cite

Statistics