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RELATIONSHIP-SPECIFIC INVESTMENT, GUANXI BEHAVIOR, AND SALESPERSON-OWNED CUSTOMER LOYALTY TRANSFER [Social Behavior and Personality (New Zealand)](Social Behavior and Personality (New Zealand) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Customer loyalty has been gaining attention as firms face increasing competition. However, customer loyalty consists of a mixture of loyalty to the firm, as well as to the specific salesperson. By using dyadic data from both buyers and sellers, we investigated the influence of salespersons' and selling firms' behaviors on these 2 types of customer loyalty, and the moderating effect of employees' brand-building behavior in the loyalty transfer process. Our results showed that both salesperson's and selling firm's behaviors can promote the 2 kinds of loyalty, and that salesperson-owned loyalty is positively related to loyalty to the selling firm. Contrary to our prediction, employees' brand-building behavior exerted a significant, negative moderating effect on salesperson-owned loyalty transfer. Keywords: customer loyalty, salesperson-owned loyalty, selling firm loyalty, guanxi behavior, relationship-specific investment, brand-building behavior. An increasing number of firms are putting substantial effort into establishing and maintaining customer loyalty in an attempt to increase sales and market share (Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996). Firm owners and managers have recognized that not only are loyal customers less price sensitive and willing to pay higher prices than are new customers (see e.g., Krishnamurthi & Raj, 1991; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990), but they also provide the firm with trade leverage and valuable time to respond to competitive moves (Aaker, 1991). In addition, managers of firms have found that loyal customers reduce their marketing costs because attracting a new customer costs about six times more than retaining an existing one (Rosenberg & Czepiel, 1983). The focus in previous studies on customer loyalty has been on purchasing behavior and researchers have suggested that customer loyalty could be manifested by customer brand preference and commitment (Bennett & Rundle-Thiele, 2002). Findings in studies on relationship marketing (Palmatier, Houston, Dant, & Grewal, 2013; Palmatier, Scheer, Houston, Evans, & Gopalakrishna, 2007; Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007) motivated us to question whether or not customer loyalty is always beneficial for the selling firm. There are two types of customer loyalty. Salesperson-owned loyalty is the customer's intention to behave in a particular manner signaling his/her motivation to maintain a relationship with the focal salesperson (Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007). The establishment of an intimate relationship between the salesperson and the customer is the key to the formation of salesperson-owned loyalty (Bove & Johnson, 2006). Although salesperson-owned loyalty generates favorable outcomes, if customer loyalty to the selling firm is based on a specific salesperson, the loyalty will evaporate if the salesperson leaves the selling firm. This also exposes the firm to the risk of negative consequences if the departing salesperson has defected to the firm's competitors. Employee-centered service strategies and employee mobility amplify the potentially negative impact (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2003) of salesperson-owned loyalty. Loyalty to the selling firm is the customer's intention to behave in a manner that signals his/her motivation to maintain a relationship with the selling firm (Sirdeshmukh, Singh, & Sabol, 2002). However, the customer's intention to continue to do business with the selling firm may be based on the customer's interaction with the salesperson and other employees (Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007). In business-to-business (B2B) marketing, selling firms' loyalty-capturing efforts are manifested as relationship-specific investments (RSIs; Lunnan & Haugland, 2008). As the exchanges increase between manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and others who are channel members, interpersonal relationships, ties, and networks - or guanxi (Ou, Pavlou, & Davison, 2014) - are likely to develop between those who span the boundaries and these ties can be employed as a governance mechanism or as social capital (Gu, Hung, & Tse, 2008). Given the interpersonal and informal nature of guanxi, it can function as a personal loyalty-capturing strategy. Guanxi behaviors are defined as relational efforts to develop and maintain relationships (Shou, Guo, Zhang, & Su, 2011). Only a few studies have been conducted on the competing influences of firms' RSIs and salespeople's guanxi behaviors on salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm. In the current research we attempted to bridge this gap in the Chinese B2B context. Traditionally, interfirm RSIs have been discussed from the perspective of transaction cost or of resource-based views (Palmatier, Dant, & Grewal, 2007; Zhao & Wang, 2011). We provided a new perspective to investigate RSIs and employee behaviors. Third, with regard to strengthening the link, we contended that a salesperson's behaviors leverage the mechanisms acting as moderators between salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm. One assumption in the boundary-spanning context (i.e., making connections between the firm and other entities) is that a boundary spanner is generally viewed as an agent of the firm - a condition that actually varies according to the perception of the firm in terms of its entitativity (Campbell, 1958); that is, the perception of the firm as a pure entity as compared with being a mere aggregation of individuals. Highly entitative firms exhibit more consistent, coherent char- acteristics across the firm. According to social judgment theory (O'Laughlin & Malle, 2002), people apply different information-processing strategies for individuals versus groups, because of differences in the expected entitativity of individuals versus groups. With regard to individuals, people expect attitudinal and behavioral consistency. However, if the group exhibits high entitativity, people are more likely to attribute individual behaviors rather than personal traits to group-level factors, such as organizational management. Therefore, when employees act as brand ambassadors or brand builders (Morhart, Herzog, & Tomczak, 2009), they enhance customers' perceptions of entitativity and create affective bonds for the customers with the firm and the brand. Customers are, therefore, likely to attribute employees' relational behaviors to the firm. In other words, employee brand-building behaviors can be catalysts in the loyalty transfer process. Therefore, we reasoned that examining loyalty transfer or convergence in the Chinese B2B marketing context could be especially relevant to, and illuminating for, the study of customer loyalty as a whole. In addition, we considered that a better understanding of multifocal customer loyalty would aid firms in the development of policies and strategies to utilize personal loyalty. Guanxi Behaviors by Salespersons The formation of guanxi relationships is considered a crucial element for conducting business in China (Lee & Dawes, 2005). In order to decrease their psychological distance from customers as soon as possible, salespersons tend to perform guanxi behaviors actively (Wang, 2007). Guanxi behavior encompasses both affect investment and face management (Shou et al., 2011). Renqing is an integral part of guanxi behavior and refers to emotional responses to various situations in daily life that are guided by sets of social norms for getting along with others. The most important aspect of social norms in Chinese culture lies in showing empathy to others in need and an obligation to repay favors (Wang, 2007). If a person receives a favor, he or she will owe renqing to the benefactors and will be ready to return the favor once the circumstances are suitable (Hwang, 1987). Therefore, in order to return renqing, the staff responsible for procurement of stock in a purchasing business will give priority to the salesperson of the selling firm when making procurement decisions, or will even establish a long-term procurement relationship with the salesperson. Renqing in a bilateral relationship can be a powerful promoter of guanxi commitment in the buyer-seller relationship (Shi, Shi, Chan, Liu, & Fam, 2011). At the same time, in order to preserve the other's face, the boundary spanners of both parties in the interorganizational transaction perform a set of behaviors, such as avoiding criticizing others in public, using circumlocution and equivocation in a criticism of another, and satisfying others' requests (Hwang, 1987). These behaviors can reduce the psychological distance between the two parties and increase their trust in each other, thus boosting the quality of the relationship. According to Zhuang, Xi, and Tsang (2008), guanxi behavior performed by salespersons can create emotional closeness and interaction that the parties find agreeable, reduce the perception of conflict, and increase the willingness of the parties to the transaction to cooperate with each other. Therefore, the performing of guanxi behavior is beneficial to both the firms and the salesperson him- or herself (Lee & Dawes, 2005), ultimately leading to salesperson-owned loyalty. Lee and Humphreys (2007) suggested that, although guanxi behavior is performed by individuals, a personal relationship can be transferred to the culture and assets at the corporate level. Therefore, the salesperson's guanxi behavior may encourage loyalty to the selling firm. Hence, we proposed the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: The guanxi behavior of the salesperson will be positively related to the customer's loyalty to the salesperson. Hypothesis 2: The guanxi behavior of the salesperson will be positively related to the customer's loyalty to the selling firm. Relationship-Specific Investment by the Selling Firm The relationship between RSI and customer loyalty has been supported by the principle of reciprocity (De Wulf, Odekerken-Schröder, & Iacobucci, 2001), according to which it is stated that people should return good in proportion to the good they receive (Bagozzi, 1995). In the buyer-seller relationship, investment of time, effort, and other irrecoverable resources generates psychological bonds that encourage customers to remain in that relationship, and generates an expectation of reciprocation (Smith & Barclay, 1997). The behaviors of one party in the exchange relationship will be proportionally reciprocated by the other, and the party who violates the principle of reciprocity will feel guilty (Li & Dant, 1997). Therefore, to demonstrate his/her loyalty to the other party, the buyer feels an obligation to return because of specific investment in the bilateral relationship. In addition, as an effective way of making a pledge, RSI signals the buyer's commitment to the relationship, which can, in turn, increase the buyer's perception of commitment by the seller (Anderson & Weitz, 1992). In terms of the cost incurred by a buyer when switching from one supplier to another (switching cost; Porter, 1980), specific investment in the transaction can not only increase the switching cost of the buyer, but can also make the seller pay extra costs by switching partners (Williamson, 1985). Research shows that, in the B2B context, switching cost is a source of customer loyalty (Alejandro, Souza, Boles, Ribeiro, & Monteiro, 2011). At the same time, we took the view that the customer loyalty generated by RSI would be shared by the firm and the salesperson. Both managers and salespeople are involved in the decision-making process, which means that the buyer does not attribute the interests obtained from the investment solely to the firm or to the salesperson. Moreover, salespeople, like front-line employees, play an important part in bridging the gap between the buyer and the seller (Frenzen, Hansen, Krafft, Mantrala, & Schmidt, 2010). What is more, no matter how close the customer/salesperson relationship is, it is only when the customer remembers the name of the firm that the salesperson wins a place in the heart of the customer; thus, the brand of the firm strengthens the relationship between the customer and the salesperson (Yim, Tse, & Chan, 2008). Therefore, we proposed the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 3: The relationship-specific investment of the firm will increase salesperson-owned loyalty. Hypothesis 4: The relationship-specific investment of the firm will increase customers' loyalty to the selling firm. Relationship Between Salesperson-Owned Loyalty and Loyalty to the Selling Firm Although salesperson-owned loyalty is, to some degree, independent of the loyalty to the firm, salesperson-owned loyalty can be a significant source of loyalty to the selling firm as long as the salesperson remains employed by that firm (Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007). When the customer has limited recognition of the firm, the customer's trust in the firm is directly influenced by his or her trust in the salesperson (Sirdeshmukh et al., 2002). The positive attitude of the customer toward the salesperson can be transferred to loyalty to the firm via affect transfer. Furthermore, if the firm pays more attention to, and addresses, certain gaps between the firm and specific salespeople, such as inconsistency of objectives, salesperson-owned loyalty is more likely to transfer to loyalty to firm. Findings in previous studies support our hypothesis that salesperson-owned loyalty contributes to loyalty to the selling firm (Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007; Yim et al., 2008). Our hypothesis can be explained by the affect transfer model and attribution theory. The affect transfer model. The affect transfer model is widely used to describe customers' evaluation process of the extended products. By analogy, customers' recognition of the firm can be regarded as the extension of recognition of the salespersons. The extension relies on the fit between the values of the salesperson and those of the firm, as perceived by the customers. Attitudes toward salespeople can be translated into attitudes toward a firm via one of two mechanisms: The first of these is the direct transfer mechanism, or conditioned reflex. In this process it is suggested that, no matter how intimate is the relationship between the salesperson and the customer, customers have to remember the firm's name. Customers can, thereby, associate the salesperson with the firm's name, thus strengthening the relationship between the customer and the salesperson (Yim et al., 2008). The second mechanism is indirect transfer, in which customers positively evaluate products and services after sensing the internal connection between the salesperson and the firm. In this process the transfer is from salesperson to firm. Attribution theory. Attribution theory, also called cognitive theory, is one of the motivational theories by which the motives behind a person's behavior are interpreted (Weiner, 1974). The relevant environment, as well as subsequent behaviors occurring as the environment changes, are explained, manipulated, and predicted in the theory and, according to the theory, changes and adjustments in human behavior are indicated through the alternatives of self-perception and self- recognition. From the perspective of attribution theory, customers attribute the salesperson's behaviors to the firm's behaviors, in terms of such features as how the firm conducts recruitment and training, and the corporate culture. In other words, the salesperson's behavior represents the firm's promise to customers, whereby the customers' loyalty to the selling firm can be boosted. Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 5: Salesperson-owned loyalty will be positively related to loyalty to the selling firm. The Moderating Effect of Employees' Brand-building Behavior on Loyalty Transfer Employees' brand-building behavior refers to employees' contribution to an organization's customer-oriented branding efforts (Morhart et al., 2009). Firms encourage employees to perform brand-building behavior (BBB) to gain customers' loyalty, in the hope that employees, as brand representatives or ambassadors, will aid the customers' loyalty transfer from an individual employee to the firm. The firm will benefit significantly when employees, who are advocates of the brand, actively propagate brand concepts and images. From the perspective of the firm, employees' BBB is, in essence, the strategy of employee branding. In particular, the strategy refers to a process by which employees are trained to interpret the corporate vision accurately, to identify and support the brand image, and to deliver the image to customers (Miles & Mangold, 2004). In the process, psychological contracts can be constructed between the firm and the employees. Miles and Mangold suggested that firms adopting an employee-branding strategy could obtain greater customer satisfaction and generate more customer loyalty, as well as bringing about a decline in turnover rate. However, in employee branding the sole consideration is employee-customer contact, overlooking the impact of employees on stakeholders outside the workplace, which generates a broad concept of employee branding (Morhart et al., 2009). Employees' BBB, which is outcome-oriented, transforms an implicit corporate vision into an explicit brand image, which is then delivered to customers and stakeholders. Berry (2000) suggested that the service provider who delivers the brand image to customers is an important moderator for brand building. Customers' opinions concerning brands of products and services are highly dependent on the behaviors of the front-line employees. Therefore, as the brand representatives, salespeople play an important part in performing brand-building behaviors and in establishing and spreading the corporate image. As previously described, even though salespersons consciously anticipate that they own the customers' loyalty, in order to ensure that a transaction is successfully carried out, the salesperson cannot act independently of his or her relationship with the firm and must attempt to maintain the firm's positive image. From the perspective of employee branding, retention, in-role BBB, and extrarole BBB are the three dimensions of a salesperson's BBB (Morhart et al., 2009), which reflects the efforts made by salespeople to disseminate a positive image of the firm's brand, both at work and outside of working hours. Researchers on employee branding have argued that employees' behavior determines how customers perceive the image of service firms (Miles & Mangold, 2004). In the B2B context, the behaviors of front-line employees have a decisive influence on the establishment of brand image in the minds of customers. The salesperson's BBB will increase the more willing the salesperson is to remain with the firm. Moreover, the potential long-term relationship will make the salesperson more enthusiastic to play this role in actively persuading customers to purchase the firm's products. At the same time, when not at work, the salesperson's extrarole BBB, such as positive word-of-mouth and delivery of feedback from customers to superiors, can also contribute to the promotion of the brand image of the firm (Xie & Li, 2011). Furthermore, the positive brand image projected by salespersons in the minds of customers can also contribute to the customers' loyalty to the brand. Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 6: Salespersons' brand-building behavior will positively moderate the loyalty transfer process from salesperson-owned loyalty to loyalty to the selling firm. Method Data Collection We conducted the research in organizations located in Jiangsu Province, China. In order to avoid inconsistency between brand loyalty and loyalty to the firm we screened the firms by referring to the yellow pages and by gathering information from the Internet regarding the number of the brands these firms owned. We then randomly chose 1,200 suppliers that owned only one brand. To facilitate a high response rate, we telephoned in advance to ascertain the willingness of the firms to participate, and rechecked with them during that telephone call the number of brands they owned. There were 425 suppliers who agreed to participate in our research. We asked each of them to provide us with contact information for one of their key purchasers with whom they had a transaction agreement. We then mailed a survey form to 210 of the suppliers with a stamped and addressed envelope and contacted a further 215 suppliers via email. Two months later, we had received 381 completed survey forms by mail and 210 via email. Of the 381 forms received from the suppliers, we eliminated those with scores lower than four in either of the two items (15 in total). After this procedure, we finally had 334 valid survey forms for analysis. From the suppliers we selected front-line salespeople as respondents. To ensure the respondents were qualified to answer items regarding the firms' RSI, at the beginning of the survey form we provided a brief, clear description of the concept of RSI and then asked the participants about their knowledge of the relationship between their firm and the buyer, as well as the firm's RSI with other firms. Considering the potential bias in selecting preferred buyers, we required the suppliers to select the third largest buyer in terms of annual sales and, in the telephone inquiries prior to sending the survey form, asked them to provide the contact information of an appropriate staff member, for example, the purchasing manager. After concluding the survey of suppliers, we conducted surveys with the buyers identified in the information provided by the 334 suppliers. In order to obtain sufficient paired data, we contacted these respondents individually and conducted an interview by telephone as an alternative means of response to mail and email. One month later, we had received 208 survey forms (70 by mail, 92 by email and 46 by telephone). When processing the buyers' surveys, a similar procedure to that described above was used to verify that the respondents' in the buyer firms were qualified to answer, in that they had some say in making purchasing decisions and had adequate knowledge of the firm's relationship with the supplier. The result of examining the informants' qualification was satisfactory, with only one survey form being eliminated. After the elimination of some unfinished and problematic survey forms, we eventually obtained dyadic data from 192 participants. Measurement We used existing measures from previous research and adapted some items when necessary. We first translated these scales from English into Chinese and then back-translated them into English. With regard to the scales in Chinese, we discussed the meaning, expression, and clarity of these scales with two marketing professors and four marketing graduates in order to make them applicable to the Chinese marketing context and language usage. Furthermore, 25 Master of Business Administration students who had more than two years experience of working in either selling or purchasing positions provided us with many useful suggestions regarding the expression and phrasing of these scales. Finally, we obtained the refined scales, with responses to all measures rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree) unless otherwise noted. We have summarized the final measurement scales for all constructs in the Appendix. Salesperson-reported measures. To measure the selling firm's RSI, we referred to the scales of Anderson and Weitz (1992) and Kang, Mahoney, and Tang (2009) to assess the property-based and knowledge-based RSIs, respectively. Guanxi behavior was measured according to the two dimensions of "saving face" and "affect investment" by adopting the scale developed by Shou et al. (2011). We measured the salespeople's BBB with the scale developed by Morhart et al. (2009). Buyer-reported measures. We adopted the items used to measure sales- person-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm from the scales by Zeithaml et al. (1996) and Palmatier, Scheer, and Steenkamp (2007), respectively. We controlled for two variables suggested by prior researchers. Selling firm consistency. Selling firm consistency is defined as the extent of consistency shown in all the interactions between the buyer and the selling firm. The greater the consistency that can be perceived by the buyer, the greater the loyalty that will be attributed to the selling firm (Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007). We measured the selling firm's consistency using the scale devised by Palmatier, Scheer, and Steenkamp. Buyer's perception of the salesperson's control. Different sources of control can also affect the attribution of customer loyalty. In our research, we proposed that the buyer's perception of the salesperson's control would be specific to the decisions made on RSI. When the buyer perceives that the salesperson is responsible for making the decision regarding RSI, he/she may attribute benefits obtained from the RSI to the salesperson, thus being more loyal to the employee than to the selling firm. We measured the buyer's perception of the salesperson's control by asking who had the final say in making the decision on RSI (1 = the selling firm's senior manager and 7 = the salesperson). Reliability and Validity of Scales We conducted two confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using AMOS version 17.0, to establish goodness-of-fit index (GFI), normed fit index (NFI), comparative fit index (CFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Overall, the measurement model of both parties showed a satisfactory fit (seller sample: c2 = 130.3, df = 74, c2/df = 1.75, GFI = .91, NFI = .93, CFI = .97, RMSEA = .055; buyer sample: c2 = 520.9, df = 371, c2/df = 1.40, GFI = .93, NFI = .96, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .057). All the items loaded significantly on the hypothesized latent constructs (p < .001), signifying convergent validity. All the latent variables, Cronbach's a, and composite reliability (CR), were greater than .70, signifying internal reliability (see Table 1). According to Fornell and Larcker (1981), the average variance extracted (AVE) of each latent should exceed the square of the correlations. The minimum of the AVE was above the acceptable level, suggesting discriminant validity (see Table 1). In conclusion, the measurements of all the constructs were reliable and valid. Hypotheses Testing We conducted two hierarchical multiple regression analyses to test the hypotheses (see Table 2). In the regression equation, the dependent variables were salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm. The interaction term of salesperson-owned loyalty and the salespersons' BBB was added to test the moderation effect. Results The results of the hypotheses testing showed that five of the six hypotheses were supported. The effect of guanxi behavior on both salesperson-owned loyalty (H1, .415, p < .001) and loyalty to the selling firm (H2, .293, p < .001) was positive. Similarly, the results showed that RSI simultaneously contributed to salesperson-owned loyalty (H3, .143, p < .05) and loyalty to the selling firm (H4, .427, p < .001). Furthermore, we had proposed that salesperson-owned loyalty would positively predict loyalty to the selling firm, and this was also supported (H5, .568, p < .001). However, contrary to our expectation, results of the analysis showed that salespersons' BBB significantly and negatively moderated the loyalty transfer process; thus, H6 was not supported. Discussion Theoretical Implications To identify the source of customer loyalty, we followed a method that previous scholars have used to investigate customer loyalty (Beatty et al., 1996; Bove & Johnson, 2006; Macintosh & Lockshin, 1997; Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007; Reynolds & Beatty, 1999; Valenzuela, Mulki, & Jaramillo, 2010), and also examined the influence of the salesperson's behaviors and the selling firm's RSI on customers' loyalty to each. Our results suggested that the influence of both salesperson's guanxi behaviors and the selling firm's behaviors (RSI) is not limited to the interface of these two (Reynolds & Beatty, 1999). We found that salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm not only compete with, but also contribute to, each other. However, we were surprised to find that the salesperson's BBB negatively moderated the loyalty transfer process, with a significance that was completely contrary to our expectation, and this result requires further discussion in the following section. A decade ago, Alder (2001) noted that "when establishing customer loyalty, what needs to be understood is not customer loyalty itself but customers, especially customers' preference, attitudes, anxiety, desires and feelings for happiness and sadness" (p. 193). However, the salesperson's BBB distracts attention from satisfying the customers' requirements, thus failing to win customer satisfaction and trust which, in turn, results in the failure of loyalty transfer. Wentzel (2009) pointed out that the consistency of the salesperson's behaviors can facilitate the establishment of the brand image of the firm; however, compulsory commands by the management to the salesperson to implement BBB may be unfavorable to the formation of the customers' loyalty to the selling firm. In addition, excessive BBB may incur customers' aversion, especially in China, which has a high-context culture. For firms in the B2B context, which is highly dependent on the long-term relationship between salespersons and customers, BBB may give rise to the unfavorable attribution of customer loyalty and to a negative customer experience and, thus, a negative customer perception of the firm. Because there has been little research conducted on this phenomenon, either in China or in other countries and cultures, we used persuasion theory to explain this phenomenon. Elaboration likelihood model. Persuasion is one of the classic research areas of communication and social psychology. The ultimate goal of the salesperson's BBB is to persuade customers to purchase products. In the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, which was proposed by Petty and Cacioppo (1986), it is suggested that there are two routes to changing attitudes, the central route and the peripheral route. The central route refers to recipients' actively processing information and being persuaded by the rationality of the arguments, while the peripheral route emphasizes that, instead of evaluating certain viewpoints and processing information in the messages by using their intelligence, recipients are prone to using cues. With regard to the B2B selling context, the direct introduction of products and services is the central route, and the salesperson's BBB, or even the salesperson's behavior in terms of brand promotion, is the peripheral route. The central route is more applicable in circumstances in which customers are highly engaged. In addition to their high engagement, the purchasing staff members in the B2B context are more professionally qualified and are more familiar with the products and services than are the customers in the context of business-to-customer (B2C) and customer-to-customer (C2C) transactions. Therefore, the adoption of the peripheral route is not appropriate for persuasion in the B2B context, which may explain why we found that salesperson's BBB negatively moderated the loyalty transfer process. Attitude inoculation and attitude resistance. In attitude inoculation theory, introduced by McGuire (1964), it is suggested that, just as the human body is immune to bacteria, individual attitudes could also inoculate against persuasion, which can lead to a change of attitude. That is, in the context of the buyer-seller relationship, relatively weak persuasion, such as the salesperson's BBB, is unsuccessfully utilized to affect the individual buyer's attitude, which, in turn, may be resistant to subsequent persuasion. Attitude resistance is the behavioral process whereby individuals actively take action to maintain their original attitudes. Petty, Tormala, and Rucker (2004) integrated into their research previous scholars' definitions of attitude resistance, and described resistance motivation as the goal of individuals to resist a change of attitude and their desire to maintain original attitudes. They further argued that the outcome of resistance is the emergence of attitude-changing deficiency, minor changes of attitude, or even the reversion to previously held attitudes. Therefore, in the context of the buyer-seller relationship, attitude inoculation and attitude resistance can emerge when the purpose of the salesperson's BBB is recognized by the customer and the customer's attitude becomes unfavorable to the establishment of loyalty to the selling firm. In this situation the salesperson's BBB may even leave a negative impression of the selling firm on customers. Managerial Implications Our research provides some instructive insights for firms in strategies for managing customer loyalty in the B2B context. Selling firms should scrutinize their own, and their salespeople's, behaviors and should manage these behaviors in a way that will avoid the potential risk of the major part of customer loyalty being attributed to the salespeople. Because both the firm's and the salespeople's behaviors can contribute to the formation of both salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm, managers of firms should encourage salespeople to establish stable and long-term relationships with customers through investment in guanxi in order to maintain salesperson-owned loyalty. On the other hand, managers of firms should emphasize RSI, which not only increases customers' loyalty to the selling firm, but also gives a degree of support to the work of front-line employees. The issue here is the conflict between salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm. Managers of firms need to cultivate salesperson-owned loyalty, which is an important source of loyalty to the selling firm. However, as salesperson-owned loyalty increases, the turnover of salespeople poses a greater danger to firms. Therefore, managers in the selling firm should concentrate on decreasing the turnover rate of salespeople by focusing on delivering excellent human resource management in order to ensure that their salespeople are satisfied and have feelings of loyalty to the firm. Our results showed that cultivating the salesperson's awareness of being a brand ambassador is not as simple as we had assumed. The salesperson's BBB demonstrates his or her identification with the firm, leading to a decreased turnover rate, but obsessive BBB may result in the loss of the impact of the individual salesperson's personality, which is not well-liked by customers in the B2B context. In the short term, guanxi behaviors performed by salespeople may contribute to an increase in the firm's market share, sales, and customer loyalty. However, in the long term, a stable commercial relationship may create considerably more long-term benefits for firms than will a transaction exchange based on personal relationships. Therefore, the BBB of salespeople should be carefully handled and it may be more appropriate to have the focus of BBB on internal marketing. What should be reinforced in the process of transaction is not the concept of brand, but the provision of high-quality products and services. Limitations and Directions This research has several limitations. First, philosophically, our investigation is deeply rooted in the Chinese culture, especially with the inclusion of guanxi behavior, and this constrains the generalization of our findings. Moreover, the focus in our research was on behaviors of the selling firms and the salespeople, without considering psychological factors. In addition, the function of the salespeople's BBB still needs to be further investigated. Considering the limitations to the paper, in future research the role of guanxi behavior can be probed, the implementation of which is based on damaging the interests of firms, and salesperson-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm. In addition, no research has been conducted on investigating the antecedents and outcomes of guanxi behavior. Moreover, there is still a lack of a systematic framework regarding customer loyalty to salesperson and customer loyalty to selling firm; thus, future researchers could comprehensively and systematically investigate customer loyalty from both psychological and behavioral perspectives. Although our aim in this research was to discuss the relationship between sales- person-owned loyalty and loyalty to the selling firm, at present, there is still a lack of evidence of a clear mechanism in the loyalty transfer process, and this mechanism should be studied further. References Aaker, D. A. (1991). Managing brand equity. New York: Free Press. 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Power, conflict, and cooperation: The impact of guanxi in Chinese marketing channels. Industrial Marketing Management, 39, 137-149. http:// doi.org/bffzg6 GUOCAI WANG Nanjing University SHANLIANG LI Soochow University XIFENG WANG Nanjing Technological University CHUNYU LU AND CHEN LV Nanjing University Guocai Wang, School of Business, Nanjing University; ShanLiang Li, School of Politics and Public Administration, Soochow University; Xifeng Wang, Economics and Management School, Nanjing Technological University; Chunyu Lu and Chen Lv, School of Business, Nanjing University. This research was funded by the Chinese National Science Foundation Projects (71172065/71202040), the Social Science Youth Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (11YJC630102), and the Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas Studies and the Collaborative Innovation Center for New Urbanization and Governance. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: ShanLiang Li, School of Politics and Public Administration, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province 215123, People's Republic of China. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Appendix Salesperson-Owned Loyalty (Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007) If my salesperson moved to a new firm with similar products, I would likely shift some of my purchases to this salesperson's new firm. I would do less business with this firm in the next few years, if my salesperson changed. I would be less loyal to this firm, if my salesperson moved to a new firm. I would recommend this salesperson to my coworkers even if this salesperson changed firms. If this salesperson changed companies, I would recommend this salesperson to others in my company. Loyalty to the Selling Firm (Zeithaml et al., 1996) I say positive things about XX to other people. I recommend XX to someone who seeks my advice. I encourage friends and relatives to do business with XX. I consider XX as my first firm to buy from. I will do more business with XX in the next few years. Relationship-Specific Investment (adapted from Anderson & Weitz, 1992, and Kang et al., 2009) Property-Based Specific Investment Our company has made significant investment in production and testing equipment dedicated to this focal buyer. Our company has made significant investment in tooling and engineering design dedicated to this focal buyer. Our company has made significant investment in training our people dedicated to this focal buyer. If the transaction were terminated, it would be difficult for our company to redeploy the removed equipment and employees. Knowledge-Based Specific Investment Our company has spent a lot of time with the focal buyer in learning its operation routines and in building relationships with its staff. Our company has made significant adjustments in internal operation processes in order to adapt to this focal buyer's unusual needs and technical specifications. Our company has spent a lot of time and effort in coordinating the operation process of our own suppliers in order to adopt this focal buyer's unusual needs and technical specifications. If the transaction were terminated, it would be difficult for our company to take advantage of the knowledge and experience dedicated to this focal buyer. Employee's Brand-building Behavior (Morhart et al., 2009) Retention I intend to leave [corporate brand name] within a short period of time. I have decided to quit [corporate brand name]. I am looking at some other employer now. In-Role Brand-building Behavior In customer-contact situations, I pay attention to ensuring that my personal appearance is in line with our corporate brand's name. I see that my actions in customer contact are not at odds with our standards for brand-adequate behavior. I adhere to our standards for brand-congruent behavior. Positive Word-of-Mouth I talk up [corporate brand name] to people I know. I bring up [corporate brand name] in a positive way in conversations I have with friends and acquaintances. In social situations, I often speak favorably about [corporate brand name]. Participation I let my supervisor know of ways in which we can strengthen our brand image. I make constructive suggestions on how to improve our customers' brand experience. If I have a useful ideas on how to improve our brand's performance, I share it with my supervisor. Guanxi Behavior (Shou et al., 2011) Saving Face I never criticize XX in public. I respect XX in public. If I have a bone to pick with XX, I will use circumlocution. I try my best to do XX a favor when he asks. I will do XX a favor if he did one for me previously. Affect Investment I present (inexpensive) souvenirs to XX to express good wishes when there is a marriage, promotion, birthday, or other celebration. I send greeting cards or electronic messages to XX during festivals. I often have a lunch or dinner with the sales manager. I regard XX as my friend. Selling Firm Consistency (Buyer's Perception of Selling Firm Consistency; Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007) All the people I deal with at this firm treat me the same. The behaviors of the employees at this firm are very consistent. All the people I deal with at this firm behave in a similar manner. All of the interfaces (people, electronic, etc.) of this firm are consistent. (c) 2014 Scientific Journal Publishers Ltd |