Retailers’ satisfaction gaps with supplier performance and their impact on commitment and behavioral intentions

Purpose This study aims to examine how satisfaction gaps – defined as discrepancies between the importance buyers assign to supplier attributes and their satisfaction with supplier performance – shape commitment and behavioral intentions in business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Design/methodology/approach Using an importance-performance perspective, the authors distinguish between satisfaction gaps on economic attributes (price, product quality, availability and packaging) and relational attributes (sales representative support, customer service and information sharing) and examine their effects on affective and calculative commitment, purchase intention and switching intention. Field survey data from retail buyers were used to test the proposed relationships. Findings Economic and relational satisfaction gaps significantly weakened calculative commitment, while relational satisfaction gaps also significantly weakened affective commitment. Both types of gaps significantly reduced purchase intention and increased switching intention. Comparative tests showed that the economic satisfaction gap had statistically comparable effects on purchase and switching intentions, whereas the relational satisfaction gap had a significantly stronger effect on purchase intention than on switching intention, contrary to initial prediction. Research limitations/implications Despite the theoretical contributions and empirical insights, this study has several limitations that open avenues for future research. First, this study relies on cross-sectional survey data, which limits the ability to make strong causal inferences about the relationships among satisfaction gaps, commitment and behavioral intentions. Also, the empirical context is confined to beauty product retailers, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other B2B industries. In addition, this study does not explicitly examine boundary conditions or moderating factors that may shape the impact of satisfaction gaps, among others. Practical implications The findings of this study offer several implications for managers responsible for managing supplier–retailer relationships. First, the results indicate that suppliers should not rely solely on economic value creation when seeking to maintain strong relationships with retail partners. Second, the findings highlight the importance of monitoring the alignment between the importance retailers assign to key supplier attributes and the supplier’s perceived performance on those attributes. Third, the results suggest that economic incentives or relational incentives alone may not be sufficient to secure long-term retailer loyalty. Finally, this study underscores the need for organizations to incorporate both economic and relational performance indicators into their internal performance management systems. Originality/value The findings extend B2B relationship marketing research by demonstrating the potential diagnostic value of satisfaction gaps and by showing that economic and relational performance shortfalls may affect different forms of commitment and behavioral responses in different ways.