Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

associations based on their perception of this experience instead of brand awareness. The findings indicate that high
switching costs have positive effects on perceived quality and brand loyalty, while high quality of alternatives has
negative effects on brand associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. Customer employee rapport was found to
have positive effects on brand associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. Furthermore, customer-employee
rapport had the stronger effect on brand loyalty compared to the effects of switching costs and quality of alternatives,
which shows importance of this affective factor for the development of B2B brand equity.
Research Implications/Limitations
The study highlights the relevance of affective factors and their impact on B2B brand equity. Taking into consideration
these findings, future studies can replicate this study in other B2B settings. Furthermore, future studies can examine the
impact of other affective factors besides customer-employee rapport on B2B brand equity.
Practical Implications
The study provides marketing managers with a clear overview of how B2B brand equity is developed across different
dimensions. The study contributes to their understanding of the factors, which have significant impact on the process of
brand equity development. The findings highlight how brand equity can be increased by focusing on more affective and
emotional interaction between a customer and a company employee.
Originality/Value
The study contributes to branding research by demonstrating that besides the cognitive factors, as for example switching
costs and quality of alternatives, the affective factors such as customer-employee rapport have important impact on B2B
brand equity. The study makes a theoretical contribution by considering the factors, which were not examined in prior
research on B2B brand equity. In addition, the study provides empirical evidence about the hierarchy of effects between
four dimensions of brand equity.
Keywords: Brand equity, customer-employee rapport, switching costs, quality of alternatives, organizational decision
making
Paper Type: Research paper
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