Relationship commitment is defined as “a psychological force that binds an individual to
maintenance of the relationship with a specific target” (Jones et al., 2008, p. 474). This
definition suggests that commitment reflects different underlying psychological states
concerning one’s relationship with the target of interest or target of commitment.
This finding is consistent with previous
research findings that personal relationship is the key to bind the customer to the
company in the development of the individual-to-individual relationship (Iacobucci and
Ostrom, 1996). Pesämaa and Hair (2007) suggest that personal relationships based on
friendships are consequences of people working together, within or between companies;
thus, personal relationships are as important as the services or products an organization sells. Vlachos et al. (2010) argue that consumers’ trust and interpersonal liking of service employees significantly influences consumers’ emotional attachment or commitment to the supplier. Hennig-Thurau (2004) suggests that service employees’ social skills create customer commitment.