Internet-based relationship quality: a model for Jordanian business-to-business context

This study provides an understanding of how the use of Internet-based technologies can affect the quality of business-to-business marketing relationships in the Jordanian Banking industry. It investigates the relationships of Jordanian Banks with their small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) customers in terms of commitment, satisfaction, trust, communication, transparency, understanding, and cooperation. It examines how the use of Internet-based communications can affect the quality of corporate customer relationships by developing a conceptual model which empirically tests the relationships between Jordanian Banks and SMEs. This research builds and validates a research model based on the literature survey and uses a mixed method approach. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews to achieve the goal of refining the initial research model. The second stage is a quantitative empirical study that uses a questionnaire and tests the empirical model generated in the first stage. This integration of methods provides a more complete view of this emerging area of marketing theory. This research finds that online banking has a positive impact on Relationship Quality (RQ) in a business-to-business context in Jordan. Six different constructs of Relationship Quality were found to be critical in this research: trust, commitment, satisfaction, transparency, communication, understanding and cooperation. The importance of transparency emerged as one of the most significant determinants of Relationship Quality, which is considered to be a new finding and not common among previous studies. Communication appears to make the biggest contribution overall and have direct and indirect relationships with other variables. It is, therefore, a major contributor to the success of Relationship Quality and further increases the importance of using e-banking technology.