An empirical study of the antecedents and consequence of calculative commitment in B2B services

This research proposes and empirically analyses a model that considers switching costs and attractiveness of alternative service providers as antecedents to calculative commitment, and repurchase intentions as one of its consequences. Given that calculatively committed customers are important in fading relationships, we test these constructs amongst dissatisfied business services customers because research on the continuation of troubled business relationships is scarce. Data was collected online from 416 businesses using a key informant approach. Results support the contention that the antecedents of calculative commitment are attractiveness of alternative service providers and switching costs, specifically, benefit-loss costs, customer-service provider relationships costs and post-switching costs. Repurchase intentions was found to be a consequence of calculative commitment.