Relationship Quality and the Theory of Planned Behavior models of behavioral intentions and purchase behavior

Abstract

Using real-life purchase behavior data of apparel and survey information, this study compares the Relationship Quality and the Theory of Planned Behavior models. The attitude towards the buying behavior, the subjective norm and perceived behavioral control (antecedents of the buying intention in the Theory of Planned Behavior) are better predictors of behavioral intentions than Relationship Quality. In both models intentions fully mediate the impact of attitudinal antecedents on behavior, both in terms of purchase incidence and purchase behavior (amount spent, number of visits, and types of products bought). Frequency and recency of prior buying behavior and, to a lesser extent, its monetary value, predict subsequent purchase incidence, above and beyond the impact of attitude and intention. Attitudinal antecedents of behavior significantly predict buying behavior, but they become insignificant when buying behavior is included in the model.

Introduction

One of the basic models to explain purchase intention and/or behavior in a non-contractual customer–firm relationship is the Satisfaction–Profit Chain or Relationship Quality Model (RQ): high levels of relationship quality result in accordingly high levels of purchase intention and behavior (Reichheld, 1996). Many authors have used relationship quality concepts such as trust (e.g. Morgan and Hunt, 1994), commitment (e.g. Pritchard et al., 1999) and satisfaction (e.g. Zeithaml et al., 1996) as antecedents of behavioral intention. Research does confirm the intuitive impact of these antecedents of relationship quality on behavioral intentions (e.g., Ebner et al., 2002). Another widely used model to predict (buying) behavior is the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991, Ajzen, 2002, Armitage and Connor, 2001, Ouelette and Wood, 1998): attitude towards the behavior along with the impact of relevant reference people (referred to as the subjective norm) and the perceived control a customer has over the behavior under study (referred to as perceived behavioral control), result in the formation of a behavioral intention, which in turn results in behavior (Ajzen, 1991, Ajzen, 2002). The meta-analysis by Armitage and Connor (2001) shows the effectiveness of the approach in a wide variety of contexts. However, examples of the use of the Theory of Planned Behavior in a customer–firm relationship context are scarce.

Behavioral intentions do not evidently translate in objectively measured buying behavior and profitability. The TPB encounters the same problem as the RQ approach of predicting behavior. Therefore, the usefulness of both models to predict real buying behavior has been questioned (for an overview, see Foxall, 1997, Foxall, 2005). Most reported research lacks objective measures of real behavior to prove that behavioral intentions mediate the impact of the attitudinal antecedents under study. When measures of actual behavior are available, these models often fail in predicting behavior, and typically show low correlations between attitudinal measures such as intentions and real behavior (Foxall, 2005). Previous studies have suggested a large number of intrapersonal and situational variables that may have the potential to improve the predictive power of these models (for an overview, see Foxall, 1997). In many of these studies, prior or past (buying) behavior has been suggested as one of the factors that may improve the predictive power of these cognitively inspired frameworks. The important role of past behavior is particularly prominent in research in the data mining context suggesting that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior (Bauer, 1988, Kaslow, 1997, Magidson, 1988, Reinartz and Kumar, 2000; etc.). Therefore, one might question the usefulness of survey-based attitudinal or intention antecedents in the presence of behavioral information. Although some insights indicate that attitudinal antecedents do play a separate role even when combined with past behavior (Thogerson, 2002, Davies et al., 2002), research on the added value of attitudinal antecedents for the explanation of actual buying behavior is scarce.

This study investigates the effectiveness of the RQ versus the TPB model in predicting real-life buying behavior in a customer–firm relationship context. Moreover, the mediating role of intentions is assessed, above and beyond the effects of past behavior. The study is based on a combination of behavioral and self-reported measures in the context of apparel retailing. The first contribution of the study is that it is based on a substantial sample of a combination of real-life purchase and survey data. Many studies only explain intentions and generally assume that they are good predictors of behavior. Checking this assumption of the mediating role of intentions is a second relevant contribution. The third contribution of this study is that it investigates whether attitudinal antecedents of intentions have an added value to predict purchase behavior above and beyond actual past behavior. Finally, a fourth contribution consists of comparing two frequently used models of consumer behavior, the Relationship Quality Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior, to assess their relative robustness and predictive power.