The Effects of Competence-Based, Expressive and Collaborative Service Performance on the B2B Service Relationship

Service performance is considered an essential determinant of successful business relationships. It affects the customer’s repurchase intentions and, therefore, the continuity of the relationship between the service provider and the customer. Yet, due to the complexity of B2B relationships, service performance is a multi-faceted issue. It includes at least three crucial aspects: competence-based, expressive, and collaborative performance. The present paper investigates the effects of these dimensions on the buyer-supplier relationship and analyzes their mediated impact on customer repurchasing intentions. In so doing, we establish a structural equation model and test multiple hypotheses with a sample of 141 purchasing professionals from 23 countries. The findings indicate that expressive and collaborative service performance are more significant determinants of successful business relationships and influence business relationship continuity more than competence-based service performance. Also, relationship performance was found to fully mediate the links between expressive and collaborative service performance with customer repurchase intentions. The study underscores that service providers can ensure business continuity with their customers by investing in expressive and collaborative service performance.