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The authors first propose and test a cognitive-affective-- conative baseline model: Perceived service quality (both tangible company-related and employee-related factors) is modeled antecedent to satisfaction and trust, which in turn are antecedents to customer loyalty responses (word of mouth and traditional loyalty). These relationships are then hypothesized to be moderated by high versus low knowledge, a moderation based on central versus peripheral processing. The results show that employee service quality has a greater impact than company service quality on trust and on satisfaction in both knowledge groups. The relationship of trust to word of mouth is both direct and indirect through satisfaction for both knowledge groups, but the relationship of trust to loyalty is both direct and indirect through satisfaction only for the high-knowledge group; for the low-knowledge group, the relationship of trust to loyalty is indirect only, through satisfaction.
The focus of marketing has evolved from transactional exchange to include durable relationships established between exchange parties (Barksdale, Johnson, and Munshik 1997; Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987; Morgan and Hunt 1994; Webster 1992). However, recent research has begun to explore moderating effects within this research paradigm. For example, Fournier, Dobscha, and Mick (1998) contended that relationship marketing is very powerful in theory construction, but very weak in practice. They criticized that firms attempt to implement relationship marketing with all customers without regard to a particular customer's relational orientation: Not all customers have the same orientation toward building long and sustained relationships with their suppliers (Anderson and Narus 1991; Jackson 1985; Garbarino and Johnson 1999).
Other variables may also affect the effectiveness of relationship marketing. For example, it has long been proposed that customers' knowledge may affect information and decision-making behaviors (e.g., Brucks 1985). The major purpose of this study is to explore the moderating effect of knowledge on the relationships between perceived service quality (company and employee), satisfaction, trust, and customer loyalty responses (word of mouth and repurchase loyalty). We will first discuss the relationships between the key constructs within the cognitive-affective-- conative loyalty framework of Oliver (1997, 1999) and then the moderating effects of knowledge on these relationships. There may be different mechanisms in building an effective exchange relationship with a low-knowledge customer versus a high-knowledge customer, especially in the service business...