Antecedents to Customer Dependency in Buyer–Seller Relationship: A BOP Retailer Investigation

Abstract

Relationship marketing research extensively covers such variables as customer dependence, satisfaction, trust and loyalty, which play an important role in building and maintaining long-term relationships. Countries like India have a huge base of unorganized markets and the relationship between the customer and the seller is healthy. In such an environment, the dependency of customer and retailer is an important issue. We attempt to identify the determinants of customer dependence through the literature and conceptual model development. We conducted a survey to study the customer dependence in the relationship between a grocery retailer in a rural area and the local residents. Variables such as product familiarity, customer dependence, switching cost, attractiveness of alternatives, supply uncertainty and product importance are studied in the article.