Customer satisfaction in industrial markets: opening up the concept

The purpose of this paper is to “open up” the concept of customer satisfaction in industrial markets through arguing for a broader, contextually sensitive perspective to the phenomenon in its real‐life settings. The conceptual argumentation put forward in this paper is based on an action‐oriented research project on customer satisfaction in industrial markets conducted in two globally operating case organizations, the first one in paper machine manufacturing and the second one in production of high quality steel for industry. On the basis of the three steps highlighted in this paper – the inner context of a business relationship, the connected network of the customer‐supplier relationship, and the outer context of the connected network – it is argued that one can gain a more complete understanding of the context within which customer satisfaction actually emerges in industrial markets. The main function of the three steps proposed in this paper is to structure the inherent complexity and multiple facets of different contexts affecting customer satisfaction as a managerial phenomenon.