Customer-perceived value: A substitute for satisfaction in business markets?

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the value construct. Delivering superior value to customers is a major concern of management in many business markets of today. From an empirical point of view, however, it is still not clear how the construct interacts with other prominent marketing variables. For example, researchers have recently questioned the role of satisfaction and called for a replacement of the construct by customer value as a more powerful predictor of behavioral outcomes in business markets (Gross 1997).

Research Objectives and Methodology

The present study investigates the interaction between the two fundamental constructs: customer-perceived value (CPV) and satisfaction. It addresses three specific research questions: (1) How can CPV be conceptualized and measured in a business-to-business relationship? (2) Do CPV and satisfaction represent two theoretically and empirically distinct constructs? and (3) Which of both constructs is...