This research explores the impact of interactive communication on business-tobusiness
(B2B) relationships. In the past decade the internet and especially social media
as a mode of communication has grown rapidly in both consumer and business markets.
Drawing on marketing channels and communications literature this paper identifies the
dimensions of interactive communication and develops a theoretical framework to
examine their impact on satisfaction, commitment, and advocacy. Media synchronicity
theory and the concept of the internet as an alternative to the real world are used to
distinguish between digital and non-digital modes of communication. Relationship
marketing is used to identify the dimensions of interactivity: rationality, social
interaction, contact density, and reciprocal feedback. The framework developed is used
to explore the influence of face-to-face (F2F), digital, and traditional, impersonal
communications on the dimensions of interactivity.
Hypotheses linking the mode of communication: personal, digital, and impersonal with the dimensions of interactivity and relational outcomes are empirically examined with data from the commercial printing and graphic design industry.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis is used to analyze the measurement and structural model.
Personal, F2F communication has the greatest impact on social interaction, reciprocal
feedback, and number of contacts. Digital communication has a weaker effect on these
dimensions and impersonal communication has the weakest effect. Personal and Digital
have equal impacts on rationality and rationality is the only dimension of interactivity
positively associated with relationship satisfaction. Contact density has a negative impact on relationship satisfaction and this negative impact is greater with personal
communication that it is with digital. The study shows that affective commitment leads to advocacy in a B2B channel, but trust and calculative commitment have no impact on
advocacy. The findings of the study have implications for both managers and researchers
regarding the mode and content of communications in B2B relationships.
Communication’s importance stems from its function in coordinating channel
activities (Anderson and Narus 1984; Mohr and Nevin 1990), increasing trust and
commitment (Morgan and Hunt 1994), enabling rational decisions, enhancing positive
emotions (Anderson and Narus 1990; Mohr and Spekman 1994), driving brand value,
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identifying customer’s needs (Duncan and Moriarty 1998), and reducing uncertainty
(Moriarty and Spekman 1984). Increased levels of communication aid in the development
of group benefits (Peters and Fletcher 2004) and change the focus of exchange from
transactional to more relational (Mohr and Nevin 1990). According to Groonroos (1996)
interaction is the set of joint activities that take place in a relationship.