IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/guc/wpaper/6.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Using Agency Theory in Understanding Switching Behavior in B2B Service Industries “I”

Author

Listed:
  • Ehab M. Abou Aish

    (Faculty of Management Technology, The German University in Cairo)

  • Wael A. Kortam

    (Cairo University, Cairo - Egypt)

  • Salah S. Hassan

    (George Washington University, USA)

Abstract

Understanding switching behavior is a cornerstone in sustaining customer led marketing efforts especially in services which depend on long-term relationships with the customers and where the switching process is compound and costly for both the customer and the service provider. The issue of understanding the motives and barriers behind agency-brand switching behavior still needs further conceptual support and empirical investigation in service industries context, where the emphasis placed on investigating the actual switching motives without trying to conceptualize the issue, which if done will result in better understanding for the whole switching process. In this paper, the authors attempt to bridge this gap in the literature by examining the criterion validity of the switching behavior model using the agency theory, as the relation between the business company (principle) and an Advertising agency (the agent) could be described as agency relationship. Furthermore, this approach helps in supporting the efforts for retaining the business-to-business customers, strengthening the relationship with them, developing and adopting globally integrated customer led strategies in different countries, a trend which is expected to dominate the marketing field in the future due to the increasing role of the agency brand selection and switching in today’s world markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Ehab M. Abou Aish & Wael A. Kortam & Salah S. Hassan, 2008. "Using Agency Theory in Understanding Switching Behavior in B2B Service Industries “I”," Working Papers 6, The German University in Cairo, Faculty of Management Technology.
    • Handle: RePEc:guc:wpaper:6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://mgt.guc.edu.eg/wpapers/006abouaish_kortam_hassan2008.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Armstrong, Peter, 1991. "Contradiction and social dynamics in the capitalist agency relationship," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-25.
    2. Anthony A. Atkinson, 1978. "Standard Setting in an Agency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(13), pages 1351-1361, September.
    3. Alanson P. Minkler, 1993. "The Problem with Dispersed Knowledge: Firms in Theory and Practice," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 569-587, November.
    4. Hunt, Herbert III & Hogler, Raymond L., 1990. "Agency theory as ideology: A comparative analysis based on critical legal theory and radical accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 437-454.
    5. Barry Mitnick, 1975. "The theory of agency," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 27-42, December.
    6. Minkler, Alanson P, 1993. "The Problem with Dispersed Knowledge: Firms in Theory and Practice," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 569-587.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Munazza Saeed & Ilhaamie Binti Abdul Ghani Azmi, 2016. "Brand Switching Behaviour of Muslim Consumers: Development of a Conceptual Model," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 5(4), pages 31-39, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Foss Kirsten & Foss Nicolai & Klein Peter G. & Klein Sandra K., 2002. "Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Diego Iribarren, 2003. "From Economic Activity to Understanding Spaces," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2003_01, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    3. Wolfgang Kerber & Simonetta Vezzoso, 2004. "EU Competition Policy, Vertical Restraints, and Innovation: An Analysis from an Evolutionary Perspective," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200414, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    4. Diego Iribarren, 2003. "From Economic Activity to Understanding Spaces," Method and Hist of Econ Thought 0303001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Cayer, Mario & Minkler, Lanse, 1998. "Dualism, dialogue and organizations: Reflections on organizational transformation and labor-managed firms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 53-77.
    6. Reiter, Sara Ann & Williams, Paul F., 2002. "The structure and progressivity of accounting research: the crisis in the academy revisited," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 575-607, August.
    7. Minkler, Lanse, 2004. "Shirking and motivations in firms: survey evidence on worker attitudes," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 863-884, June.
    8. Loasby, Brian J., 1998. "The organisation of capabilities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 139-160, April.
    9. Markus C. Becker & Francesco Zirpoli, 2003. "Organising new product development Knowledge hollowing-out and knowledge integration," DRUID Working Papers 03-05, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    10. Nicolai J. Foss & Jens Frøslev Christensen, 1996. "A Process Approach to Corporate Coherence," DRUID Working Papers 96-7, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    11. Mihret, Dessalegn Getie, 2014. "How can we explain internal auditing? The inadequacy of agency theory and a labor process alternative," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 771-782.
    12. Rost, Katja & Graetzer, Gitte, 2014. "Multinational Organizations as Rule-following Bureaucracies — The Example of Catholic Orders," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 290-311.
    13. Diego Iribarren, 2003. "From Economic Activity to Understanding Spaces," Econometrics 0303008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Richard P. Adelstein, 2003. "Knowledge and Power in the Mechanical Firm: Planning for Profit in Austrian Perspective," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2005-015, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    15. Nathalie Lazaric & Alain Raybaut, 2007. "Knowledge, Hierarchy and incentives: Why human resource policy and trust matter," Post-Print hal-00453292, HAL.
    16. Markus C. Becker, 2012. "Distributed Knowledge and its Coordination," Chapters, in: Richard Arena & Agnès Festré & Nathalie Lazaric (ed.), Handbook of Knowledge and Economics, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Fikret Adaman & Pat Devine, 2002. "A Reconsideration of the Theory of Entrepreneurship: A participatory approach," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 329-355.
    18. C. Paul Hallwood, 1994. "Network‐trading between Multinational Corporations as a Barrier to Host‐country Enterprises," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 12(2), pages 193-210, June.
    19. Richard Adelstein, 2005. "Knowledge and Power in the Mechanical Firm: Planning for Profit in Austrian Perpsective," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 18(1), pages 55-82, January.
    20. Nicolai J. Foss, 1996. "Austrian and Post-Marshallian EconomicsThe Bridging Work of George Richardson," DRUID Working Papers 96-4, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Brand switching; agency theory; business to business marketing; service marketing; international advertising research;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:guc:wpaper:6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr.Dina Yousri (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmguceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.