Isabelle Prim
email: isabelle.prim@dauphine.fr

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING OF SERVICES: AN ANALYSIS OF SERVICE QUALITY AND SERVICE ENCOUNTERS THROUGH RELATIONAL NORMS -A DYADIC APPROACH BETWEEN BANK ACCOUNT MANAGERS AND SMES

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING OF SERVICES: AN ANALYSIS OF SERVICE QUALITY AND SERVICE ENCOUNTERS THROUGH RELATIONAL NORMS -A DYADIC APPROACH BETWEEN BANK ACCOUNT MANAGERS AND SMES -

« Service encounters are first and foremost social encounters » McCallum & Harison, 1985 The combined pressures of desintermediation, deregulation, and industrial restructuring have helped to redefine the nature and importance of bank-client relationships [START_REF] Schell | Corporate Banking, in Relationship Marketing, Theory and Practice[END_REF].

Directors or treasurers of companies often recognize that their relationship is with the bank account manager, rather than with the bank [START_REF] Wood | Bank Relationship Survey 1995[END_REF]. This is the reason why the role played by the service provider as the individual who manages the relationship between the firm and the buyer is of special importance [START_REF] Czepiel | Service Encounter and Service Relationships: Implication for Research[END_REF].

The essentially social nature of service encounters, a short-term phenomenon, provides the occasions in which buyer and seller negotiate the terms of their exchange relationship, a longterm phenomenon. Defined as the mutual recognition of special status between exchange partners, exchange relationships ensure efficiency for the buyer, as they mitigate market volatility for the seller. Understanding how economic exchange is played out against a background of social exchange can yield important insights, which can then be implemented by undertaking specific actions. One implication is that research must include both customer and provider perceptions and perspectives as the focal unit [START_REF] Czepiel | Service Encounter and Service Relationships: Implication for Research[END_REF]. Moreover, each purchase decision takes into account not only the immediate cost/benefit analysis but also the relationship past history and the possible future as well [START_REF] Dwyer | Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships[END_REF][START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract: An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF].

This paper aims, through exploratory research, (conducted on 13 dyads, 13 SMEs and their account managers) to analyze long-term relationships through a new framework to get a better understanding of how customers evaluate service quality, service encounters, and on how they decide whether or not to repatronize. It also aims to extend and develop the understanding of service quality perceptions and development. More specifically, this exploratory research has focused on four different objectives:

• the author wanted to get a better in-depth knowledge of the banks' SME market;

• there was a need to identify the main components of the creation and development of the relationship between a bank and its clients; • there was a need to confirm the reality of the relational norms as defined by Macneil;

• finally, the author needed to get some verbatim for an upcoming questionnaire as well as identifying some potential difficulties for future research implementation.

After a brief review of the theoretical background, this article presents the methodology used for this study. Then, there will be a presentation of the results of the two content analyses we have conducted. Finally the conclusion will present the limits of this work and research avenues will be drawn.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Prices and products are widely recognized as the milestone of the consumer's choice and satisfaction [START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesorce Perception[END_REF]. Competitors, depending on their aggressiveness and on their commercial policies also play a major role [START_REF] Miller | Innovation in Conservative and Entrepreneurial Firms: Two Models of Strategic Momentum[END_REF].

However, because of the intangibility, inseparability and heterogeneity of services, the service encounter is critical to customer satisfaction and evaluation. Service encounters or experiences can be considered as moments of « truth » [START_REF] Evrard | Market, Eléments et Recherches en Marketing[END_REF]. The underlying assumption is that customers' perceptions of service encounters are important elements of customers' satisfaction, perception of service quality, and long-term loyalty.

According to marketing literature, the service encounter is a complex phenomenon (a « black box ») which we are willing to explore in greater detail.

More precisely, we have been through different literature streams. Each of them gives an interesting point of view about the interaction phenomenon.

1.

The economic literature [START_REF] Williamson | Markets and Hierarchies[END_REF] explains the development and continuance of relationships in terms of the costs and benefits of creating or of staying in the relationship versus leaving it. This type of literature therefore emphasizes switching costs, dependence on the relationship partner, and the attractiveness of alternative partners. Scholars studying longterm relationships, such as Anderson & Narus (1990), also develop this idea of constraintbased relationship maintenance.

2.

Long-term relationships have also been well documented by psychologists. They focus more on the affective responses to a relationship (e.g., [START_REF] Karney | The Longitudinal Course of Marital Quality and Stability: A Review of Theory, Method and Research[END_REF]. These authors suggest that emotional responses such as satisfaction, identification with a partner, or commitment, influence relationship partners in their decision to create, to stay or to leave the relationship. The documents refer to different theories such as the social exchange theory, the behavioral theory or the crisis theory.

3.

Marketing literature has developed its own consideration of service quality and long-term relationships. Service quality has often been analyzed through the Servqual or Servqual-P1 grids, which decomposes service quality in either 5 dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles) or 4 dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, personalization and tangibles).

In order to analyze long-term relationships, marketing publications suggest that environmental variables, partner variables, customer variables and interaction variables are the most important drivers of customers' receptivity to relationship maintenance [START_REF] Bendapudi | Customers 'Motivation for Maintaining Relationships with Service Providers[END_REF].

The degree of dependence, the communication level (broadly defined as the formal as well as the informal sharing of meaningful and timely information between firms [START_REF] Anderson | A Model of the Distributor's Perspective of Distributor-Manufacturer Working Relationships[END_REF]), and the level of trust (« The firm's belief that another company will perform actions that will result in positive outcomes for the firm, as well as not take unexpected actions that would result in negative outcomes for the firm » [Anderson & Narus, 1986, p.326]) are among the most important interaction variables.

In terms of retaining customers, research shows that service quality [START_REF] Bitner | Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and Employee Responses[END_REF][START_REF] Boulding | A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality; From Expectations to Behavioral Intentions[END_REF], relationship quality [START_REF] Crosby | Relationship Quality in Services Selling: An Interpersonal Influence Perspective[END_REF][START_REF] Crosby | Effects of Relationship Marketing on Satisfaction, Retention, and Prices in the Life Insurance Industry[END_REF], and overall service satisfaction [START_REF] Cronin | Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension[END_REF] can improve customers' intentions to stay with a firm [START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF].

A discipline within marketing that also particularly recognizes the importance of relationships is 'service marketing'. The purchase of a service, because of its intangible nature, is thought to be a process that depends in part upon the interpersonal interaction between the service provider and its customer [START_REF] Iacobucci | Commercial and Interpersonal relationships; using the Structure of Interpersonal Relationships to Understand Individual-to-Individual, Individual-to-Firm, and Firm-to-Firm Relationships in Commerce[END_REF].

4.

With regards to these interaction variables, a lawyer, Ian Macneil, has done very interesting research. He decomposes the contracts2 in 9 common norms (Cf. Appendix 1). These norms are more or less critical depending on the nature of the relationship (transactional or relational). What is very interesting in his research is that it formalizes a framework to describe the encounter (or interaction) between the seller and the buyer. This framework encompasses all the variables that one can find in the marketing, psychological, and economic literature and provide their structure.

Relational-exchange theory uses a broad set of contracting norms to categorize customer/supplier relationships, and focuses directly on the interdependence of exchange partners. The contractual norms that embody the interdependent relationship also set expectations as to the appropriate behavior during conflict situations [START_REF] Kaufman | Relational Exchange, Contracting Norms, and Conflict in Industrial Exchange[END_REF]. Without this interdependence, exit or switching behaviors would be costless and conflict would not occur (Hirschman, 1970).

These norms allow the classification of the different variables one can identify in the literature regarding service encounters. We distinguish relational norms from transactional norms as shown in the following Table . Relational elements are essential to maintaining long-term relationships, whereas transactional elements are necessary for creating a contract, but are less crucial in the overall structure [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract: An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF]. planning and consent they provide for the implementation of planning by binding themselves to some particular action flexibility they provide for flexibility harmonization of conflict both parties resolve disputes and misunderstandings solidarity they have some expectations that the contract will not be broken, especially in the case of customer's economic constraint.

creation and limitation of power they recognize the legitimacy and limits of power created by their consent linking norms in case of problems, the party involved in the occurrence of the problem has to repair his/her fault.

Adapted from Macneil (1978[START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract: An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF]Macneil ( , 1981Macneil ( , and 1983) ) and [START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF].

These norms have been used in a few studies (e.g., [START_REF] Kaufman | Relational Exchange Norms, Perception of Unfairness, and Retained Hostility in Commercial Litigation[END_REF][START_REF] Heide | Do Norms Matter in Marketing Relationships?[END_REF][START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF]. The last study, conducted by [START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF], is the only one known by the author that has been conducted on the bank service industry. All this research has adapted Macneil's norms to specific contexts. Nevertheless, a consensus emerges on the importance of three relational norms: 1. flexibility; 2. information exchange; 3. and, solidarity. [START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF] add a fourth relational norm: role integrity.

These norms are not exactly the norms originally proposed by [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract: An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF] -cf. Appendix 1-, but they are more adapted to the economic contexts studied by marketers.

As we had only one study in the context of the banking industry, conducted in Latin and North America, we wanted to use this exploratory study to confirm the relevance of these norms in the context of the French banking industry.

METHODOLOGY

In order to get a better understanding on how customers evaluate service quality, and on how they decide whether or not to repatronize, a focus group with 5 account managers was organized, and 26 personal interviews (combining in-depth interviews and the critical incident techniques -CIT-) were recorded (13 with 13 SMEs and 13 with 3 account managers). The interviews were quite unstructured, with open-ended questions [START_REF] Churchill | Marketing Research, Methodological Foundations[END_REF] and the respondents were simply told that we were conducting a study in order to better understand the relationship between a bank and its SME customers.

Two content analyses were made [START_REF] Miles | Qualitative Data Analysis[END_REF][START_REF] Evrard | Market, Eléments et Recherches en Marketing[END_REF]: the first one focused on the SMEs representative interviews, the second one was a comparison of the SMEs representatives and the account managers speeches (we were studying, here, the differences of perception between the two parties as recommended by [START_REF] Dwyer | Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships[END_REF] or [START_REF] Czepiel | Service Encounter and Service Relationships: Implication for Research[END_REF]). The interviews of the account managers were not analyzed in detail, they were only used for comparative purposes.

According to [START_REF] Chandon | Service Encounter dimensions -A dyadic Perspective: Measuring the Dimensions of Service Encounters as Perceived by Customers and Personnel[END_REF], the dyadic approach appears to be useful in assessing the quality of service encounters. Their experience shows that the one-to-one correspondence between questions addressed to the client and those addressed to the agent allows a complex but more complete analysis of the encounter. They also demonstrate that the two experiences are not redundant and cannot be combined without a significant loss of information.

According to them, « the dyadic perspective is not only a method of questioning but also fits the nature of the encounter » (Chandon et al., 1996, p. 80). [START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF] shares the same point of view.

The questionnaire was developed in order to analyze service quality issues, and to respect certain rules (in order to get valid and reliable qualitative results). For instance, it is important to ask questions only from those likely to be able to answer them accurately; to ask about past events only if people can remember them accurately, and to ask their personal opinions only when possible, without embarrassing them, etc. (Moser & Kalton, 1979).

There were two phases for the interviews (the questions were the same for the SMEs representatives and their bank account managers):

• the first one referred to the Critical Incident Technique [START_REF] Flanagan | The Critical Incident Technique[END_REF]. The CIT is considered as an appropriate methodology for exploring the nature of the service encounter [START_REF] Bitner | The Critical Incident as a Technique for Analyzing the Service Encounter, in Services Marketing in a Changing Environment[END_REF][START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF]). An advantage of this method is that it does not require direct observation but the results are similar [START_REF] Bitner | The Critical Incident as a Technique for Analyzing the Service Encounter, in Services Marketing in a Changing Environment[END_REF]. Respondentsbank account managers and SMEs-were not asked to identify the main relationship components themselves, but rather to report one or several incidents, positive or negative that had occurred in the relationship. This method did not give the results we had hoped for. In contrast with retail customers and existing studies (e.g., [START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF][START_REF] Bitner | The Critical Incident as a Technique for Analyzing the Service Encounter, in Services Marketing in a Changing Environment[END_REF], SME representatives (as well as their account managers) did not have much to say when they were asked to describe an anecdote. In a few cases they found some incidents to tell, but we only got a few spontaneous stories. We had difficulties getting the stories in detail and the content analysis remained quite poor, compared to what was expected. Nevertheless, some information was collected through this stage of the interviews;

• the second phase referred to the relational norms. Broad, open ended questions were asked to the respondents in order to make them speak about their relationship and about how they define service quality and service encounter quality.

Some other questions were asked, such as the reasons why they had chosen a certain bank, the most important components of a relationship with a bank and its account manager. They were also asked to describe their 'ideal' bank account manager. Finally, a few questions regarding their age, educational background, the company turnover, etc. were asked at the end of the interviews.

Since the study was conducted during the summer time, the response rate remained quite low (around 20%), even though the account managers had made a first selection according to their clients' availability. In order to get enough variance and to have a good idea of the different situations a bank can find in its client portfolio, we interviewed some very small and some bigger SMEs, and we tried to get different cases on a continuum going from poor quality relationships to very good quality relationships. The bank wished to keep all the SMEs we interviewed (we did not considered cases where the bank wished to get rid of a client).

The author went to the respondents' working place, except in one case, when the interview was recorded by phone.

RESULTS

In-depth interviews allow a freedom to the interviewer in conducting them which reveals the major advantages and disadvantages of the method. By not constraining the respondent to a fixed set of responses, the interviewer can get a more accurate picture of the respondent's attitude. « This is particularly true with respect to sensitive issues in which there is social pressure to conform and to offer a 'socially acceptable' response » (Churchill, 1995, p. 353). But conversely, the depth interview also causes problems in analysis. « The subjectivity raises questions about both the reliability and validity of the results. It also causes difficulty in determining what the correct interpretation is and presents problems when tabulating the replies » (Churchill, 1995, p. 354).

A list of codes was generated before the content analysis (« closed procedures3 », [START_REF] Ghiglione | Les enquêtes sociologiques, Chapitre 6: L'analyse de contenu[END_REF] in order to have homogeneous codes for the analysis. These codes were given by previous theoretical and empirical research. But, when needed, a new code was generated and added to the list. Two searchers did the coding, separately on 5 of the 26 interviews. After a comparison and a discussion on a few sentences, the searchers reached an extremely high degree of agreement.

Content analysis one:

This study shows that, as said by [START_REF] Chandon | Service Encounter dimensions -A dyadic Perspective: Measuring the Dimensions of Service Encounters as Perceived by Customers and Personnel[END_REF], service quality is paramount and any level of satisfaction with the encounter can compensate a poor service output. Most of the SMEs we interviewed said that price and product portfolio are of tremendous importance.

« What I expect from a bank? To be as inexpensive as possible! » 4

« Banks must adapt their product portfolios to our specific needs » But the interviews show that a good interpersonal relationship can mediate the impact of economic factors on the service and service encounter quality evaluation.

« Sometimes we can forget economic factors to keep good [interpersonal] relationships...When both economic and interpersonal factors become of poor quality, there is nothing to do but to terminate the relationship. »

Crucial elements in the development and the maintenance of a relationship have been identified. They were coded through Macneil's relational norm grid. In addition to the economic factors, mentioned above, four other categories of antecedents emerged from the interviews. All are relational dimensions, linked to the service encounter: role integrity, solidarity, communication and flexibility. SMEs insist on the fact that the relationship between them and their bank...

« ... is a matter of interpersonal contacts. »

The role integrity includes elements such as the account managers' competencies, his/her knowledge of his/her clients as an individual as well as a company. It also refers to a good empathy and a certain continuity in the relationship (i.e., the turnover among the account manager is not too important).

. but when it changes too often it becomes impossible to set up a real trusting relationship »

The second important dimension is 'solidarity' characterized by a good level of trust between the parties involved in the relationship, and a good support from the bank to the economic development of the SMEs.

« We once closed an account in a bank, because our company was quickly growing and the account manager got frightened by this development »

or « We started as a very small company, we now make around $ 200,000,000, the bankers who accepted to help us in our development made a good choice »

The communication side of the relationship is very important for different reasons: the SMEs expect two-way communication. They also like to have clear explanations of bank decisions, mainly when there is a refusal. Several of them said that they can accept that the bank says 'no' to something, if the account manager is able to explain why and to convince them that the decision was made in their best interest .

Last, but not least, SMEs expect to be regularly informed on new products and new opportunities, but this communication has to be filtered to give only the most relevant information.

The flexibility has often been mentioned. SMEs expect their account managers to be available and to react very quickly to their requests. « Reactivity » is often a key word in the SMEs representative interviews.

« When I need something urgently, I want to be able to meet my account manager in less than half a day »

We can see in the previous paragraph the crucial role played by the account manager. The service quality is evaluated in regards to his/her performance.

The Critical Incident Technique (CIT) has almost given the same results. Positive stories were related to flexibility, role integrity and solidarity. The only important difference with what has been written above is on the solidarity norm. In this context, SMEs representatives referred to the solidarity in times of crisis and not to the solidarity in terms of the development of the company. The communication norm did not appear in this part of the interviews.

Negative stories were richer in term of information provided. First, we received more negative stories than positive ones, and secondly, these stories were longer and provided more details. Almost all the norms were included in these interviews. We had stories on solidarity, integrity, flexibility, power, and mutuality. One of the stories found its source in a problem of geographic distance between the company and its bank. Because the bank was too far away, and even though the client found the service quality and the service encounter very good, the relationship could not be developed.

Regarding the solidarity norms, several stories were related to a lack of confidence from the account manager to his/her client. This lack of confidence resulted in formalism. Two other stories were related to a lack of support to allow the development of the company.

The role integrity was considered as poor when the account manager was not respectful or was not showing enough interest to his/her clients.

« [The account manager] was treating us like children »

Poor performance linked to flexibility issues seemed to be the most important concern of the SMEs representatives. This first content analysis has also given other very interesting results: the evaluation of the relationship can be analyzed through the norms presented above. Moreover, these norms have been validated through this exploratory research in the French banking context5 .

«
Among the most important results, three cases were identified:

• there is no major problem on any of the 9 norms and the customer is satisfied. He considers that the banker provides good service quality; • there are problems only on transactional norms: the customer makes a global evaluation of these five norms and decides whether or not he should take an additional bank;

• there are one or several problems on relational norms: the customer switches from its bank to another one.

These results also confirm that there are two kinds of variables [START_REF] Llosa | Contribution à l'étude de la satisfaction dans les services[END_REF], based on Herztberg's theory):

• the « principal » variables (such as price, products or the competitive environment of the bank), which do not compensate each other and which can lead to exit in the case of a poor evaluation;

• the « secondary » variables (linked to transactional norms) that the customer aggregates to get a global evaluation. A poor evaluation on these variables may lead to increasing the number of banks the SMEs deal with.

Content analysis two:

Some bank customers do not understand the bank's credit standards, nor do they easily accept the logic of the bank's portfolio approach to risk management when it affects their particular case [START_REF] Schell | Corporate Banking, in Relationship Marketing, Theory and Practice[END_REF]. This is the reason for some differences of perceptions between the account managers and the SMEs.

As a whole, the account managers had a good perception of the relationship and of what their clients thought.

The most important difference we found comparing the SME representative interviews with those of their account managers concerns the staff turnover. Each time the account manager changes, the SME representative has the feeling of breach, while bank employees think the relationship is in its continuity. Each time the SME representative changes, the account manager has the feeling of breach, while the SME representative thinks the relationship is in its continuity. A consequence of this is that one party thinks it has to rebuild the relationship, while the other one is willing to continue the former relationship. Consequently, expectations differ. The interviews have also shown, that each time one of the interlocutor changes, the relationship maintenance may be in question (in the customer's mind).

« [ I have too many bank accounts and I want to close one of them]... I hesitate between two banks. The account manager of one of these banks will change soon, I will close my account at that time ».

In short, there are three other points the account managers do not anticipate very well. The first one is the frequency of contacts. Very often the account manager has difficulties in estimating how often the SME representative would like to meet with him.

The second point is the loyalty reward. The SME representative expects to get something in reward for the time spent with the bank: price decreases, more solidarity, and development of informal relationships. The account managers link the development of informal relationships to loyalty, but they link the two other responses only to the wealth of the company.

The third point, power, is quite interesting. Account managers believe the SMEs have a certain power of negotiation while most of the companies believe they don't. For this reason, negotiations are often unbalanced. Globally, differences of perception are more important on transactional norms than on relational norms. The explanation that can be given is that account managers are probably aware that relational norms are more important for the customer and therefore they are more careful to these elements of the relationship. Nevertheless, differences of perception are also more important when the relationship quality is poor. This may be explained by the importance of the communication norm. This is an interesting finding as it may be explained as follows: a poor perception of the relationship by the account manager may come from problems of communication (among others) and deteriorate the relationship.

Differences of perception are more important on relational norms when the relationship quality is poor. When the relationship quality is good enough, the only differences of perception one can identify are based on transactional norms.

DISCUSSION AND AVENUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The content analysis as well as the consideration of the literature has allowed us to build a general framework for the long-term relationship. In this framework, the service encounter is, for the first time, presented as a mediator. The service encounter mediates the relationship between price, products, and competitors, and the evaluation of the relationship (which in turn determines whether or not the customer remains in the relationship6 ), as shown in Appendix 2.

One of the principal limits of this empirical study is the number of interviews (only 13 dyads). Nevertheless, the last two interviews did not give much new information compared to the 11 previous ones. Moreover, this exploratory study is only the first stage of a larger research program. It also would have been better to have two searchers analyzing all the interviews.

One of the strengths of this study is the dyadic approach. This type of approach remains rare in academic work, probably because it is difficult to implement. This method should be developed as it is more and more proven to be a very rich and interesting approach.

The first content analysis showed the relevance of Macneil's framework in analyzing the service encounter quality. Relational norms are the milestones of the SMEs representative interviews.

In addition, regarding the first content analysis, further analysis should have been done, but we have not collected the necessary data. First, it would have been interesting to know whether the SMEs representatives were relational oriented or not [START_REF] Bendapudi | Customers 'Motivation for Maintaining Relationships with Service Providers[END_REF]. Indeed, it would be highly interesting to test if there are two types of behaviors: one for the relational oriented customers and another for the non-relational oriented customers. It can be assumed that relational norms may be more important to relational-oriented customers than transactional norms, and that transactional norms may be more important to non relationaloriented customers than relational norms.

Further quantitative work has to be done now to be able to evaluate the level of contribution of the different norms in the service encounter evaluation. Indeed, it may also be hypothesized that some norms will be important in all the relationships, while others will be important only in certain types of relationships. Similarly, some norms may always be important (either they are positively or negatively evaluated), while others will be important only when evaluated positively (or negatively) [START_REF] Llosa | Contribution à l'étude de la satisfaction dans les services[END_REF]

Table 1 -

 1 Relational and transactional norms

		Relational Norms		Transactional Norms
	Norms	Definition	Norms	Definition
	role integrity	the parties maintain consistent	mutuality	both parties gain some benefits from
		patterns of behavior (competency,		the exchange
		turnover, etc.)
	communication the parties develop two-way
		communication (reciprocal)

Servqual-P is based on the Servqual model, originally developed byParasuraman, Zeithalm and Berry (1994). It introduced a new dimension: the personalization of services.

« By contract I mean no more and no less than the relations among parties to the process of projecting exchange into the future »(Macneil, 1980, p.4).

'procédures closes' in French.

All the quotations are translated from French.

Most of the previous research using Macneil's relational norms were North American studies. None of them had been done in France.

Depending on the degree of constraint (i.e., the costs to exit the relationship). When the customer's level of constriant is too high, the customer may decide to deal with a new and additional bank, instead of closing his account in the bank he is not satisfied with.

reviewing the article.

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1

Contractual and relational norms as defined by [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract: An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF]


Isabelle Prim
email: isabelle.prim@dauphine.fr

Bernard Pras

LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP TERMINATION MODEL: A STUDY OF THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE SERVICE ENCOUNTER EVALUATION AND OF THE MAINTENANCE/TERMINATION DECISION Under the supervision of Professors

This paper describes the objectives, the marketing issues, the methodology and the anticipated contribution of our doctoral research. The main focus is on identifying and understanding the antecedents of long term relationship dissolution.

LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP TERMINATION MODEL: A STUDY OF THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE SERVICE ENCOUNTER EVALUATION AND OF THE MAINTENANCE/TERMINATION DECISION

The essentially social nature of service encounters, a short-term phenomenon, provides occasions in which the buyer and the seller negotiate the terms of their exchange relationship, a long-term phenomenon. Defined as the mutual recognition of special status between exchange partners, exchange relationships insure efficacy for the buyer, as they mitigate market volatility for the seller. Understanding how economic exchange is played out against a background of social exchange can yield interesting insights [START_REF] Czepiel | Service Encounter and Service Relationships: Implication for Research[END_REF]. Each purchase decision takes into account not only the immediate cost/benefit analysis but also the history of the relationship and the possible future as well (Dwyer & al. 1987;[START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract, An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF]. For this reason, rather than treating each sale as a discrete transaction, companies now focus on building long-term relationships with their customers. As a result, relationship marketing is becoming increasingly important in today's competitive environment.

Despite anecdotes of costly litigation and lingering feelings of betrayal and resentment, relatively little is known about the mechanisms and processes of the dissolution of established relationships [START_REF] Dwyer | A Preliminary Model of Relationship Termination in Marketing Channels[END_REF].

We aim, through this research, to extend the understanding of the dissolution phase [START_REF] Dwyer | Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships[END_REF] of long-term buyer-seller relationships. As Dwyer & al. (1987) state, there is a theoretical gap as « there has been no systematic study of the uncoupling of parties from highly evolved relationships » (Dwyer, Schurr & Oh, 1987, p. 23). A great number of relationships between organizations reach the advanced stage of interdependence. Thus, the forces that fracture this interdependence are our principal focus in this study.

From a managerial perspective, it has been proven to be less expensive to develop an existing relationship than to create a new one [START_REF] Reichheld | Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services[END_REF]. For this reason, many firms are trying to develop new retention strategies. A better understanding of the antecedents of the dissolution process will help them to develop such strategies.

As more research has been done on consumer behavior, especially by practitioners, we have decided to implement our research into a business context. Until recently, we have been working with a bank -bank X-, which is an important bank in France even though it is not one of the 'big three'. All of the exploratory phase has been conducted with this bank. We are now negotiating with another bank -bank Y-, a smaller one on the French market. This bank is interesting for our study as it has the same profile as the first one on the SME market. As for bank X, we are only interested in its SMEs customers1 .

Literature review

Prices [START_REF] Voss | The Roles of Price, Performance, and Expectations in Determining Satisfaction in Service Exchanges[END_REF] and products are widely recognized as the milestone of the consumer's choice and satisfaction [START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesorce Perception[END_REF]. Competitors2 , depending on their aggressiveness and on their commercial policies, also play a major role [START_REF] Miller | Innovation in Conservative and Entrepreneurial Firms: Two Models of Strategic Momentum[END_REF].

However, because of the intangibility, inseparability and heterogeneity of services, the service encounter is critical to customer satisfaction and evaluation. Service encounters can be considered as moments of « truth » [START_REF] Fisk | Tracking the Evolution of the Services Marketing Literature[END_REF]. The underlying assumption is that customers' perceptions of service encounters are important elements of customer satisfaction, perception of service quality, and long-term loyalty.

According to marketing literature, the service encounter is a complex phenomenon (a « black box ») which we are trying to analyze in greater detail. Specifically, we have been through different types of literature. Each of them furnishes an interesting point of view about the interaction phenomenon.

1 -The economic literature3 [START_REF] Williamson | Markets and Hierarchies[END_REF] explains the continuity of relationships in terms of the costs and benefits of staying in the relationship versus leaving it. This type of literature therefore emphasizes switching costs, dependence on the relationship partner, and the attractiveness of alternative partners. Scholars studying long-term relationships, such as [START_REF] Anderson | A Model Distributor Firm and Manufacturer Firm Working Partnership[END_REF], use this idea of constraint-based relationship maintenance.

2 -Long-term relationships have also been well documented by psychologists 4 . They focus more on the affective responses to a relationship (e.g., [START_REF] Karney | The Longitudinal Course of Marital Quality and Stability: A Review of Theory, Method and Research[END_REF]. These authors suggest that affective responses such as satisfaction, identification with a partner, or commitment, influence relationship partners in their decision to stay or leave the relationship.

3 -Marketing literature has developed its own consideration of long-term relationships. It suggests that environmental variables, partner variables, customer variables and interaction variables are the most important factors of customers' receptiveness to relationship maintenance [START_REF] Bendapudi | Customers'Motivation for Maintaining Relationships with Service Providers[END_REF]. It also focuses on the fact that some customers have a high relational orientation while others do not. Depending on this personality dimension, customers may have two broad types of reactions to their seller's actions.

The degree of dependence, the communication level (broadly defined as the formal as well as the informal sharing of meaningful and timely information between firms [START_REF] Anderson | A Model of the Distributor's Perspective of Distributor-Manufacturer Working Relationships[END_REF]), and the level of trust (« The firm's belief that another company will perform actions that will result in positive outcomes for the firm, as well as not take unexpected actions that would result in negative outcomes for the firm » [Anderson & Narus, 1986, p.326]) are among the most important interaction variables.

In terms of retaining customers, research shows that service quality [START_REF] Bitner | Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and Employee Responses[END_REF][START_REF] Boulding | A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality; From Expectations to Behavioral Intentions[END_REF], relationship quality [START_REF] Crosby | Relationship Quality in Services Selling: An Interpersonal Influence Perspective[END_REF][START_REF] Crosby | Effects of Relationship Marketing on Satisfaction, Retention, and Prices in the Life Insurance Industry[END_REF], and overall service satisfaction [START_REF] Cronin | Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension[END_REF] can improve customers' intentions to stay with a firm [START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF].

Another discipline within marketing that also particularly recognizes the importance of relationships is 'service marketing'. The purchase of a service, because of its intangible nature, is perceived to be a process that depends in part upon the interpersonal interaction between the service provider and its customer [START_REF] Iacobucci | Commercial and Interpersonal relationships; using the Structure of Interpersonal Relationships to Understand Individual-to-Individual, Individual-to-Firm, and Firm-to-Firm Relationships in Commerce[END_REF]. e.g., [START_REF] Heide | Explaining « Closeness » in Industrial Purchasing Relationships: tThe Effects of dependence Symmetry on Inter-Organizational[END_REF][START_REF] Hart | Incomplete Contracts and Renegociation[END_REF][START_REF] Anderson | A Model Distributor Firm and Manufacturer Firm Working Partnership[END_REF] Environmental uncertainty e.g., [START_REF] Pfeffer | The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Approach[END_REF][START_REF] Donada | L'Avantage Partenarial des Entreprises Fournisseurs: Une Etude Empirique des Relations Clients-Fournisseurs dans l'Industrie Automobile[END_REF][START_REF] Gomez | Mémoire d'Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches en Sciences de Gestion[END_REF] Information asymmetry, opportunism and trust

Cf. [START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesorce Perception[END_REF][START_REF]Les facteurs explicatifs et normatifs d'une approche relationnelle: le cas du secteur bancaire commercial[END_REF][START_REF] Miller | Innovation in Conservative and Entrepreneurial Firms: Two Models of Strategic Momentum[END_REF] Bank characteristics: [START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesorce Perception[END_REF][START_REF] Llosa | Contributions à l'étude de la satisfaction dans les services[END_REF][START_REF] Gensch | Targeting the Switchable Industrial Customer[END_REF] Customer characteristics:

• Policy • Price • Products
• Relational orientation • Level of constraint [START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesorce Perception[END_REF][START_REF] Bendapudi | Customers'Motivation for Maintaining Relationships with Service Providers[END_REF][START_REF] Ping | Voice in Business-to Business Relationships: Cost-of-Exit and Demographic Antecedents[END_REF] Interaction (service encounter) [START_REF] Anderson | A Model Distributor Firm and Manufacturer Firm Working Partnership[END_REF][START_REF] Mohr | Communication Strategies in Marketing Channels: A Theoritical Perspective[END_REF][START_REF] Morgan | The Commitment-Trsut Theory of Relationship Marketing[END_REF][START_REF] Weitz | Effectiveness in Sales Interactions: A Contingency Framework[END_REF][START_REF] Crosby | Relationship Quality in Services Selling: An Interpersonal Influence Perspective[END_REF][START_REF] Marion | Une approche conventionnaliste du marketing[END_REF][START_REF] Gronroos | Service Management and Marketing: Managing the Moments of Thruth in Service Competition[END_REF][START_REF] Ping | Voice in Business-to Business Relationships: Cost-of-Exit and Demographic Antecedents[END_REF][START_REF] Weitz | Determinants of Continuity in Conventional Industrial Channel Dyads[END_REF] A few research projects are directly concerned with relationship termination. Among the first ones are two studies by [START_REF] Perrien | Divorce in a Relationship: The Case of Commercial Banking[END_REF][START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesorce Perception[END_REF], which identify three broad categories of relationship termination antecedents:

• Communication • Trust • Commitment • Hierarchical level of contact • Relationship length Account manager… • Adaptability • Similarity • Competency • Complaints handling e.g.,
• Bank characteristics such as the account manager, price, products, degree of centralization, etc.;

• Customers' characteristics such as excessive financial needs, owner departure, etc.;

• Bank competitive environment such as prices, special offers, marketing strategy, etc.

These projects used the Nominal Group Technique and were quite exploratory. [START_REF] Hocutt | Relationship Dissolution Model: Antecedents of Relationship Commitment and the Likelihood of Dissolving a Relationship[END_REF], in a conceptual paper, determines the commitment level as the most important variable in the relationship termination decision. According to her, commitment antecedents are: trust, relative dependence, quality of alternatives, social bonds, closeness, duration, investment in the relationship, and satisfaction with the service provider.

4 -With regards to these interaction variables, a lawyer, Ian Macneil, has done very interesting work. He decomposes contracts6 into 9 common norms. These norms are more or less critical depending on the nature of the relationship (transactional or relational). What is very interesting in his research is that it formalizes a framework to describe the encounter (or interaction) between the seller and the buyer. Such a framework encompasses all the variables that one can find in the marketing, psychological, and economic literature, and provides a clear and precise structure. It permits the study of relationship termination through the breakdown of norms.

Relational-exchange theory uses a broad set of contracting norms to categorize customer/supplier relationships, and focuses directly on the interdependence of exchange partners. The contractual norms that embody the interdependent relationship also set expectations as to the appropriate behavior during conflict situations [START_REF] Kaufman | Relational Exchange, Contracting Norms, and Conflict in Industrial Exchange[END_REF]. Without this interdependence, exit or switching behaviors would be costless and conflict would not occur [START_REF] Hirschman | Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Orga nizations and States[END_REF].

We distinguish relational norms from transactional norms as shown in the following Table (Table 2). Relational elements are essential to maintaining long-term relationships, whereas transactional elements are necessary for creating a contract, but are less crucial to the overall structure [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract, An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF]. in case of problems, the party involved in the occurrence of the problem has to repair his/her fault. Adapted from [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract, An Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations[END_REF] and [START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF].

These norms have been used in a few marketing studies (e.g., [START_REF] Kaufman | Relational Exchange Norms, Perception of Unfairness and Retained Hostility in Commercial Litigation[END_REF][START_REF] John | Do Norms matter in Marketing Relationships?[END_REF][START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF]. The last study, conducted by [START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF], is the only one known by the author that has been conducted on the bank service industry. All this research has adapted Macneil's norms to specific contexts. Nevertheless, a consensus emerges on the importance of three relational norms:

1. flexibility 2. information exchange 3. solidarity [START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF] add a fourth relational norm: role integrity. This last norm has probably not been examined in other studies, mentioned above, since it requires very personal information. It is easier to ask people to discuss about their job, their company, or a business relationship than to talk about themselves. Moreover, because service encounters are true interpersonal encounters, the role integrity norm takes an especially important role in our research. This research is the foundation of many other studies in marketing. Authors have investigated the asymmetric and nonlinear nature of the relationship between attribute-level performance and satisfaction [START_REF] Llosa | Contributions à l'étude de la satisfaction dans les services[END_REF]Mittal & al., 1998).

-

According to Mittal & al. (1998), "consumers are more likely to render their postpurchase experiences of satisfaction at an attribute level rather than at the product level […].

[Moreover,] an attribute-based approach enables the researcher to conceptualize commonly observed phenomena, such as consumers experiencing mixed feelings toward a product or service (p. 33)". Mittal's & al. (1998) observations take into account that a consumer can be both satisfied and dissatisfied with different aspects of the same product (or of the same service encounter). An attribute-level approach also provides a higher level of specificity and diagnostic usefulness compared to an overall approach (La [START_REF] Tour | Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Consumer Satisfaction Research[END_REF]. For example, SERVQUAL, developed to measure service quality [START_REF] Parasuraman | SERVQUAL"A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality[END_REF]) is a tool which uses several attributes, despite the fact that such an approach remains a linear one. [START_REF] Llosa | Contributions à l'étude de la satisfaction dans les services[END_REF] develops a non-linear approach. She shows that there are four broad categories of attributes depending on their contribution to the satisfaction evaluation. These four categories are defined by two dimensions: (1) the attribute contribution to satisfaction may vary according to the performance on this attribute; (2) the attribute contribution to satisfaction may remain stable independently of the performance of this attribute. Her theory can be summarized as follows (Table 3): These approaches are interesting since they allow a better analysis of the satisfaction evaluation process. However, they may not be sufficient. Indeed, they consider that all the customers have the same evaluation process. At the very least, it would be interesting to investigate the differences between transactional and relational customers.

Understanding long-term relationship termination

From the literature review we are able to construct a theoretical model (it must be specified that the model has been modified after the exploratory study). The following model shows that there are three major antecedents to relationship maintenance or termination decision (environment, prices, and products). These « key » variables [START_REF] Llosa | Contributions à l'étude de la satisfaction dans les services[END_REF] have a direct impact on the decision of relationship maintenance or termination. There can be another possibility which is increasing the number of suppliers (especially when the customer is in a constraint-based relationship).

The service encounter is decomposed, following Macneil's framework into two subcategories:

the relational characteristics and the transactional ones. The impact of the evaluation of these dimensions of the service encounter is moderated by the relational orientation of the SME representative.

The impact of the « key » variables can be moderated (or mediated) by the service encounter evaluation. Depending on his/her level of relational orientation, the customer will base his/her evaluation on the transactional or on the relational characteristics (as defined by Macneil's work) of the service encounter.

Hypothesis Table 4 -Hypotheses

P1 KEY VARIABLES H1a

The bank competitive environment is a "key" variable (i.e., it is always a determining factor) in the customer evaluation of its relationship with the bank H1b The level of prices is a "key" variable (i.e., it is always a determining factor) in the customer evaluation of its relationship with the bank H1c

The product portfolio is a "key" variable (i.e., it is always a determining factor) in the customer evaluation of its relationship with the bank P2 RELATIONAL FACTORS H2a

The relational factors global evaluation has a moderating effect on the relationship global evaluation H2b The greater the relational orientation, the more the moderating effect of the relational factors global evaluation (compared to the transactional factors moderating effect) H2c

For high relational oriented customers, relational factors are "plus" factors P3 TRANSACTIONAL FACTORS H3a

The transactional factors global evaluation has a moderating effect on the relationship global evaluation H3b The lesser the relational orientation, the more the moderating effect of the transactional factors global evaluation (compared to the relational factors moderating effect) H3c

For low-level relational oriented customers, transactional factors are "basic" factors P4 RESPONSE MODE H4a

The relationship global evaluation has an impact on the response mode used by customers H4b The response mode (termination or opening accounts at other banks), when the relationship global evaluation is negative, depends on the customer constraint degree H4c

The response mode (termination or opening accounts at other banks), when the relationship global evaluation is negative, depends on the age of the relationship H4d The response mode (termination or opening accounts at other banks), when the relationship global evaluation is negative, depends on the relationship history

Methodology

All the variables we will need to measure are shown in the appendix as well as samples of items that will be used for the measurement. We will also mention a few references that have been useful in developing our questionnaire.

Exploratory research

A qualitative phase has been conducted. Twenty-six in-depth interviews were recorded and analyzed (13 SMEs and their bank account managers). The results were very interesting since they provided evidence for the conceptual framework and helped to improve it. These results helped to develop research hypotheses. They also provided good support for the use of Macneil's norms as a framework in analyzing the service encounter. Last, but not least, this dyadic study allowed some propositions on the bank account managers' perceptions of the relationship and the identification of systematic biases in these perceptions. This part of the exploratory research will not be used in the main field experimentation but it will be useful in the recommendations, which will be given to the bank, and in the analysis of the final results.

Main field experimentation

Firstly, we wanted to experiment a triadic methodology, interviewing 20 SMEs managers who would have closed their bank account, 20 others (chosen by pair with the first category) who would have remained patronizing the bank, and the bank account managers of these SMEs.

This would have allowed us to discriminate between the two categories of firms and to better analyze systematic biases of perception of the bank accounts managers. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to find a partner for this type of work. Therefore, we will implement only the second phase of our primary methodology.

The second phase of the following description. We would like to administrate in a face-to face interview a questionnaire to about 600 SMEs. Among these 600 SMEs, one half will be newcomers (i.e., they will have opened their account less than 18 months ago) in the bank Y.

They will be questioned on a former bank (either one they have left or one which made them open an additional bank account in bank Y). Following [START_REF] Morgan | The Commitment-Trsut Theory of Relationship Marketing[END_REF] who say that "just as healthy and sick individuals must be studied to understand a pathology," we will study different kinds of customers: loyal or non loyal and non relational and non constrained7 , relational and constrained, relational and non constrained, non relational and constrained (even though we will focus our attention on relational customers). The other half will be constituted by SMEs which are considered as loyal customers by bank Y (i.e., they will be client of the bank for more than two years and they will give a significant part of their activity to our bank. This phase should allow us to reach more general results on the impact of the different antecedents on the decision to repatronize.

The face-to-face interviews should be a better solution than mailing since the questionnaire might be too long. At present, it consists of about ten pages. One problem we have to solve is the pretest of the questionnaire. The access to the research field is tremendously difficult. We have used experts' reviews of the questionnaire. A person in charge of marketing issues in bank X has reviewed the questionnaire. A focus group has been helded with two former SME account managers and with two former SME representatives. Two additional individual interviews were conducted with a SME representative and an academic expert. We have also asked to three other persons to fill out the questionnaire. The questionnaire should be administered in June.

Our methodology, however, has an certain limits. In order to get a significant sample of terminated relationships, we have to question bank Y's new customers about a former relationship. This means that we will have some heterogeneity in the banks the customers will talk about. We lose however a control mean with this sample. Up until now, it has not been possible to find a better solution. (All suggestions are welcome!)

The issue of statistical analysis has not been definitely set up. In a first time, a factor analysis would be useful in order to check the actual number of service encounter dimensions. The number may be reduced through the use of this technique. None of the articles (using Macneil's norms) known by the author reports this kind of statistical analysis. But a problem we may have is that the variables used to define the service encounter will not be independent from each other. We will also check how many dimensions the relational orientation has, and we will select the best items (from 8 or 12 at the origin) in order to get an operational scale.

Then, we will probably use a discriminant analysis.

As noticed by Dwyer & al. (1987), there is a need for a better understanding of the antecedents of long term relationship termination. In our research, we propose to study the impact of a moderator, the service encounter, on the evaluation made by the customer and on his/her decision to stay or leave the relationship. We aim to demonstrate that developing a good relationship can increase the exit barriers. Through this research, we will increase knowledge about the understanding of the whole relationship life cycle. We will also contribute to training bank account managers in order to help to better forecast relationship termination and to provide them with tools to consolidate fragile relationships.

Do not agree Agree Do not know or not concerned.

Not important Iimportant

Do not know or not concerned.

1.

Two questionnaires will be developed: one for bank Y newcomers (they will talk about a former bank -we have to find a way to develop a questionnaire that can fit two

  Different logics of the contribution of the service encounter dimensions to the global evaluation of the relationship:[START_REF] Herzberg | Work and the Nature of the Man[END_REF] showed that the factors of workers' satisfaction (motivating factors) may differ from those of dissatisfaction (health factors). Motivating factors are related to what the worker is doing, while health factors are directly related to his working environment.

Figure

  Figure 1 -Relationship termination model

Table 1 -Synthesis of the relationship termination antecedents identified by previous research.

 1

	Literature	Variables	Authors or theories
	Economy	Level of constraint (power, asset specificity
		and other exit costs)

Table 2 -Relational and transactional norms

 2

		Relational Norms		Transactional Norms
	Norms	Definition	Norms	Definition
	role integrity	the parties maintain consistent	mutuality	both parties gain some benefits from
		patterns of behavior (competency,		the exchange
		turnover, etc.)
	communication the parties develop two-way	planning and	they provide for the implementation
		communication (reciprocal)	consent	of planning by binding themselves
				to some particular action
	flexibility	they provide for flexibility	harmonization of	both parties resolve disputes and
			conflict	misunderstandings
	solidarity	they have some expectations that the	creation and	they recognize the legitimacy and
		contract will not be broken,	limitation of	limits of power created by their
		especially in the case of customer's	power	consent
		economic constraint.
			complaint
			handling (linking
			norms)

Table 3 -Attribute contribution to satisfaction (Llosa, 1996)

 3

	Attribute contribution to satisfaction in a	High	"plus"	"key
	positive performance case
		Low	"secondary"	"basic"
			L	High
			Low
			Attribute contribution to satisfaction in a negative
			performance case

We will often speak of "customers". When doing so, we will actually refer to SME representatives.

We refer here to the bank's competitive environment and not the SME's competitive environment.

We refer here to four different and complemetary theoretical fields : resource-based theory, transaction cost theory, incomplete contracts theory and convention theory

Cf. The social exchange theory, the behavioral theory, or the crisis theory.

Which means that the link between satisfaction and loyalty or between dissatisfaction and relationship termination is not linear.

« By contract I mean no more and no less than the relations among parties to the process of projecting exchange into the future »(Macneil, 1980, p.4).

"Constrained" means that exit costs (economic or psychological costs) are high.

support and Joya Stella for her help in reviewing the article.

Appendix

Variables will be measured on a 4-point Likert scale. For most of the questions, the customer will have to evaluate the performance of the bank on its attributes or his degree of agreement and the importance he gives to the attribute.

When we did not find scales in the literature we developed new items, generated from the exploratory phase. Translation of North American scales into French ones was problematic. Cultural differences made it impossible to use several questions. The items related to trust were a good example of this problem.

For example: different situations: relationship termination or additional bank account opening, otherwise we will need three questionnaires); and one for loyal customers. Both questionnaires will be identical with regards to the variables measured and the formulation of question. Additionally, for the newcomers, we will study the reasons for the choice of bank Y. 8 Only two of their four dimensions are retained here. The formalism dimension will be included in the flexibility norm, and the "non coercive influence attempts" dimension has not succeeded during the pretest phase. 9 We only keep two dimensions: (1) the recognition that different sales approaches are needed for different customers; (2) the collection of information to facilitate adaptation.

Degree of constraint

• lack of alternatives

Relationship quality

Mode of response * (x) y means that there was originally x items in the scale and that we have kept only y of them. 10 We also measure, as bank characteristics, the reputation of the bank, the customer's perception of its policy, its proximity and the convenience of its office opening hours .


Isabelle Prim-Allaz

Jean Perrien

THE RELEVANCE OF MACNEIL'S RELATIONAL NORMS TO UNDERSTAND THE EXIT OF A INTERORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIP

. According to Macneil, there exists a set of transactional as well as relational norms to understand an economic exchange between two partners. The former include nine contractual norms, the latter encompasses four relational norms, namely role integrity, solidarity, flexibility and supra contractual norms. This set of

relational norms has been successfully used to explain the effectiveness of marketing relationships (e.g., [START_REF] Paulin | Relational Contract Norms and the Effectiveness of Commercial Banking Relationships[END_REF].

In this research we intended to test if these relational norms can be applied to explain a dissolution process. Thirteen dyads of account managers and managers of businesses in the midmarket were interviewed. These interviews showed the contingency of Macneil's norms. They also demonstrated the major role played by relational norms both in developing and maintaining and in deteriorating and ending a relationship.

Based on this qualitative phase, a questionnaire was developed. Doing so, we empirically test the relevance of relational norms in explaining relationship termination on a sample of 98 small businesses.

Literature Review

The term of customer exit refers to the economic phenomenon of customer ceasing patronage of a particular supplier [START_REF] Stewart | The Customer Exit Process -A Review and Research Agenda[END_REF]. In many business or service industries (for instance, commercial banking), exit can not be sudden. For this reason, the definition of customer exit can be extended to a customer who has already decided to cease patronage, but who has not yet ceased it because of exchange inertia.

A few authors have worked on determining relationship termination factors (e.g., [START_REF] Perrien | Divorce in a Relationship: The Case of Commercial Banking[END_REF][START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesforce Perception[END_REF][START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF][START_REF] Hocutt | Relationship Dissolution Model: Antecedents of Relationship Commitment and the Likelihood of Dissolving a Relationship[END_REF]. They have identified four types of exit factors: (1) buyer factors, (2) supplier factors, (3) competitor and environmental factors and (4) interaction factors.

Supplier factors include organizational issues such as internal proceedings [START_REF] Perrien | Divorce in a Relationship: The Case of Commercial Banking[END_REF][START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesforce Perception[END_REF], lack of product quality [START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF]. Buyer factors bring together factors such as excessive needs [START_REF] Perrien | Divorce in a Relationship: The Case of Commercial Banking[END_REF][START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesforce Perception[END_REF], shifts in products or services needed [START_REF] Pressey | Determining the Causes of Dissolution in Long-Term Inter-Organizational Relationships[END_REF], etc. Competitor and environmental factors can be summarized as prices and product portfolios offered by competitors (e.g., [START_REF] Perrien | Divorce in a Relationship: The Case of Commercial Banking[END_REF][START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesforce Perception[END_REF][START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF], and geographic distance [START_REF] Pressey | Determining the Causes of Dissolution in Long-Term Inter-Organizational Relationships[END_REF], etc. Finally, interaction factors include, for instance, front line employees characteristics, employees turnover [START_REF] Perrien | Divorce in a Relationship: The Case of Commercial Banking[END_REF][START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesforce Perception[END_REF], problems in service delivery [START_REF] Keaveney | Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study[END_REF], trust and social relationships [START_REF] Hocutt | Relationship Dissolution Model: Antecedents of Relationship Commitment and the Likelihood of Dissolving a Relationship[END_REF].

In a relational context, interaction factors appears to be essential [START_REF] Perrien | Divorce in a Relationship: The Case of Commercial Banking[END_REF][START_REF] Perrien | Dissolution of a Relationship, The Salesforce Perception[END_REF][START_REF] Hocutt | Relationship Dissolution Model: Antecedents of Relationship Commitment and the Likelihood of Dissolving a Relationship[END_REF]. Conversely, in a transactional context, interaction factors have almost no influence [START_REF] Roos | Customer Switching Behaviour in Retailing[END_REF] 1 .

Authors in social exchange theory and in relational contracting theory have concentrated on defining interaction phenomena [START_REF] Macaulay | Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study[END_REF][START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF]). Macneil's relational contracting norms [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF] have been recognized as an important conceptual foundation for relationship marketing [START_REF] Dwyer | Developing Buyer-Seller Relations[END_REF] and to explain relationship termination [START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF]). Macneil's framework (1980) is based on the assumption that economic actors are both selfsacrificing and social creatures as well as selfish and opportunistic. As a consequence of this inherent irrationality, it is not possible to understand exchange behavior relying solely on the concept of utility maximization [START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF]. [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF] defines exchanges between firms as a continuum going from transactional exchanges to relational exchanges. Commercial banking relationships can be located toward the relational end of this continuum and social interactions are very important in this context.

According to Macneil, all contracts (transactional or relational) are governed by norms. Norms are defined as patterns of accepted and expected behaviors shared by members of a social system [START_REF] Axelrod | An Evolutionary Approach to Norms[END_REF]. These norms represent social and organizational ways of controlling the interorganizational exchange [START_REF] Gundlach | Governance in Exchange: Contract Law and its Alternatives[END_REF], but they may differ greatly in their content from one setting to another [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF][START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF].

To shortly introduce relational norms, we can say that there are actually nine contractual norms among which four are particularly important in relational contexts. These four latter norms are called by [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF] "relational norms". We will call the five other contractual norms "transactional norms", considering that they are more important in transactional exchanges. The following table presents the list of norms as introduced by Macneil (1980) -cf. To better specify each relational norm, we can say that role integrity describes complex, longterm behaviors involving diverse obligations and more personal relations. Contractual solidarity is the norm of holding exchange together. Without this norm no exchange is possible. Flexibility means that either any given contract has a capacity for change or that it breaks apart under the pressure of change. Supra contractual norms reflect the influence on the exchange of broader social principles such as justice, liberty and equality [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF][START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF].

To better specify each transactional norm, we can say that the implementation of planning norm translates the fact that the very existence of specialization of labor constitutes a form of planning intimately intertwined with the exchanges necessary to make the specialization pay off. Planning how to do things and how to structure operating relations has come to dominate a great deal of modern contracts. The effectuation of consent means that like the exercise of any other choice, the exercise of choice in contracts also is the sacrifice of other opportunities. The linking norm relates to the other norms: the restitution interest in contracts is viewed in terms of the problems created when someone is enriched by making promises and then breaking them; the reliance interest is considered in terms of reasonable reliance on promises; the expectation interest is equated with what has been promised. The creation and restraint of power norm is related to the idea that not only are many kinds of power present in contracts, but it is created in many ways other than promise and that contracts also inevitably are governed by some restriction of power. Mutuality comes from the fact that the realization of the exchange reveals a division of the exchange surplus from which each party gains. It does not reveal how even the division is. This norm calls not for equality, but for some kind of evenness [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF].

Several studies employ Macneil's norms. They all concentrate on relational norms as being the most important norms in governing long-term relationships (e.g., Kaufman & Stern, 1988;[START_REF] Heide | Do Norms Matter in Marketing Relationships?[END_REF][START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF]. These authors show the contingency of relational norms and the need to adapt Macneil's framework. Most of them operationalize four relational norms: solidarity, role integrity, flexibility and communication. Some authors (Kaufman & Stern, 1988) also emphasize the importance of the norm of mutuality 2 .

Following previous research, especially the work done by Paulin (1998 3 ) and our exploratory phase, we adapt Macneil's framework in the following manner (cf. The information exchange (or communication) norm has been used as a relational norm in several studies (e.g., [START_REF] Heide | Do Norms Matter in Marketing Relationships?[END_REF], Noordevier & al., 1990[START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF]. Indeed, these authors 2 Our exploratory phase also confirm the importance of the norm in a relational context. believe that a relationship is not likely to develop unless there is bi-lateral communication [START_REF] Dwyer | Developing Buyer-Seller Relations[END_REF]. Moreover, as noted by [START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF], [START_REF] Macneil | Contracts: Adjustment of Long-Term Economic Relations under Classical, Neoclassical and Relational Contract Law[END_REF] describes communication in relational exchange as being important, extensive, both formal and informal.

We suggest that relational norms are essential determinants of long-term interorganizational relationship termination.

An exploratory phase

We have conducted an exploratory phase in order to validate our conceptual framework in the French commercial banking industry and to better define the relational norms. To achieve these objectives we conducted a qualitative dyadic investigation in commercial banking. The number of interviews to be conducted was determined by the rule of theoretical saturation: dyadic investigations were conducted up to the moment where two interviews conducted in a row did not bring any new information. Selection of businesses was conducted with the help of a French bank. Thirteen dyads of account managers and managers of businesses in the mid-market were interviewed. The critical incident technique was used as well as the semi-directive interview method. The dyadic approach has been implemented in order to identify gaps between the perception of the relationship of the account managers and the perception of the SME representatives. No significant gap has been identified. As a consequence the quantitative phase of the research has been conducted only with the SME representatives.

Results of the content analysis show the importance of relational norms in the development and the termination of commercial banking relationships. They also show that the norm of reciprocity is a relationship termination factor. This strengthens the idea of implementing reciprocity as a relational norm instead of implementing at a transactional norm. Surprisingly, the communication norm seems to have no influence.

The results are summarized in Table 3, below.

Definition and operationalization of the constructs

The definition of the constructs comes from the work proposed by [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF]. When the contingency analysis and the exploratory analysis show that it was necessary, the definitions have been modified.

Role integrity is defined and has been operationalized through seven dimensions (18 items).

These dimensions are the following ones: competency of the account manager, perceived closeness with the account manager, account manager stability, degree of knowledge of the client company by the account manager, advice function of the account manager, acknowledgment of the client status, level of contacts in the bank and in the client company. [START_REF] Macneil | Values in Contract: Internal and External[END_REF] defines solidarity as trust when he writes that solidarity is "a belief in being able to depend on another". Solidarity is operationalized through two dimensions and 6 items: the benevolence and the confidence [START_REF] Doney | An Examination of the Nature of Trust in Buyer-Seller Relationships[END_REF].

The norm of reciprocity is not very present in the literature. But the exploratory phase has shown that this norm is interpreted by the client firms has a reward of the loyalty. This reward is threefold: reward in term of price, reward in term of support when the client has some difficulties, and reward in term of a good relationship (4 items).

All long-term relationship must have some flexibility in order to survive. Otherwise, the client company will look for another supplier on the market, and will establish a new contract better adapted to its current needs [START_REF] Macneil | The New Social Contract[END_REF][START_REF] Macneil | Values in Contract: Internal and External[END_REF]. Flexibility is operationalized following four dimensions: non-formalism of the relationship, availability of the account manager, autonomy of the account manager, rapidity of reaction of the account manager (9 items).

Communication is the bi-lateral process of exchanging information [START_REF] Mohr | Collaborative Communication in Interfirm Relationships: Moderating Effects of Integration and Control[END_REF]. It is operationalized following three dimensions: the frequency of communication with the account manager, the frequency of communication with the back office and the bidirectionality of the information exchanged (13 items).

A quantitative survey: presentation and results

We have contacted 965 SME by phone to arrange an appointment. Three hundred and twenty-two face-to-face interviews of SME representatives have been conducted4 in a large French city and its suburb. Three hundred questionnaires were correctly completed. Among these questionnaires, 50 were completed by long-term and lasting clients and 48 by clients who have left their supplier or who have decided to do it shortly.

There were actually 2 questionnaires: one for the companies dealing with the bank X since more than 3 years (we were looking for stable relationships in this group); and one for new customers of the bank X (customers since less than 18 months; we were looking for relationship terminations in this group). The latter questionnaire was the same than the former one except that it was written with the past tense and the respondents were giving answers regarding their former bank.

To be classified as a long-term and stable relationship, a relationship had to be more than 3 years old and the SME representative had to say that his probability to shift to another bank in the short or middle term was of 1 or 2 (on a scale of four 5 ).

To be classified as a terminated relationship, all the bank accounts of a client firm had to be closed and the relationship had to have lasted more than three years. To be classified as a highly threatened relationship, the SME representative had to say that his probability to shift to another bank in the short or middle term was of 4 (on a scale of four) and the relationship had to have lasted more than three years. For the statistical analyses, these two types of relationships (terminated and highly threatened) are brought together in a single group labeled "terminated relationships".

In a first time, five exploratory factor analyses were conducted out of the 300 questionnaires in order to have valid measures for each relational norm. We used exploratory factor analysis instead of confirmatory factor analysis as we had to develop some scales and the scales we took from the literature where largely adapted to the French banking context. We then conducted t tests for comparing means between the two groups (stable versus terminated relationships) in order to see which norms where determining relationship exit.

One of the main limit of this study is that, due to time and financial constraints, it was not possible to have two phases of data collection. This means that the 98 questionnaires used for the mean comparisons are taken out of the 300 used for the factor analysis. It would have been preferable to use two distinct samples.

The norm of role integrity has four dimensions, namely (1) the account manager competency, (2) the levels of contact in the bank, (3) the account manager turnover management, and (4) the levels of contacts in the client firm (cf. Table 4, below). .000

The factor analysis indicates that the norm of solidarity has really two dimensions: (1) the account manager honesty or the confidence in the account manager and (2) his benevolence (cf.

Table 5).

5 "1" means that the SME representative does not want to leave his bank. "4" means that he has a very high probability of leaving his bank. 6 Items are translated from French. .000

The norm of reciprocity was hypothesized as a unidimensional construct. The factor analysis confirm this assumption, even the reward in term of better prices in not included in the measure (cf. Table 6). .000

The norm of flexibility was firstly operationalized with five dimensions. The factor analysis only keeps two of them. The first one is the availability of the account manager and the second one if the non-formalism of the relationship (cf. Table 7, below). .000

The norm of communication was hypothesized to have three dimensions. It has actually three but they are slightly different than these presented earlier. The first dimension represents the communication "by proxy" (mail, phone, etc.). The second one is related the information going up from the client firm to the supplier. Finally, the third dimension is related to the face-to-face communication between the client firm representative and the account manager. We must note that this scale is not totally satisfactory as the two last dimensions are each only measured by a single item (cf. Table 8). .000

As said earlier, norms are operationalized as multidimensional constructs. In order to get a score for each norm we have used a two-steps method: first, we have calculated the factor scores for each dimension; in a second time, we have calculated a mean, weighted by the variance explained by the dimension in the factor analysis, of the different dimensions of a construct.

As expected, the mean is higher on each norm for the group of stable relationships, compared to the group of terminated relationships (cf. Table 9). The tests for equality of means show that there are significant differences between the group of stable relationships and the group of terminated relationship on four of the five relational norms. Namely, role integrity, solidarity, reciprocity and flexibility show significant differences. On the other hand, the norm of communication has not a significant difference between the 2 groups (cf. Table 10, below). As the sample size is too small to operate a logistical regression 7 , we can use a relationship strength index 8 to form the relational norms into a hierarchy (Winer et al., 1991;[START_REF] D'astou | Le projet de recherche en marketing[END_REF]. 7 Because of missing values, the sample size decreases to 23 companies when we include all the relational norms in a logistical regression. This is insufficient to have a significant model. 8 This index indicates if a significant relationship is important or not. Indeed, a significant relationship can be weak or strong. The qualitative interpretation of this index is the following one : The formula is the following one:

2 2 1 2 2 - + + = n n t t η

Discussion and avenues for research

The results presented in the above section indicate that four of the five relational norms, namely role integrity, solidarity, reciprocity and flexibility, have a direct influence on the decision of relationship termination. This means that the lowest the evaluation on one of these norms, the highest the probability of relationship termination.

These results confirm those found by [START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF]. These authors found a positive difference of means, for each relational norm, between the group of client companies not likely to switch banks and those of the group likely to switch banks. These differences are significant for the norms of flexibility and solidarity in Canada and only for the norm of flexibility in Mexico.

Results in France are slightly different as the norms of role integrity and reciprocity also have significant differences. The Table 11, above, indicates that in France the norm of role integrity is the most important one in determining relationship termination.

This study is one of the firsts that test the role of the norm of reciprocity. It shows that this norm deserves to be taken into account while explaining relationship termination.

The norm of communication has no significant influence on relationship termination as in [START_REF] Paulin | Services Management and Relationships in Business-to-Business Exchanges: A Comparison of Commercial Banking in Canada and Mexico[END_REF]. This result is similar to other findings by [START_REF] Weitz | Determinants of Continuity in Conventional Industrial Channel Dyads[END_REF]. These authors find a positive link between the communication and the relationship continuity in conventional industrial channel dyads but this link is not significant. Moreover, these results also confirm what was found in the exploratory phase (cf. Table 3, page 7). Nevertheless, the results on the norm of communication in this study may be impairing by the measurement issues already mentioned.

These results also demonstrate the relevance of Macneil's framework in a new country i.e. in

France.

Further research can be conducted by studying in the same time the impact of transactional and relational norms on the decision of relationship termination. Fellows should also test these norms both in transactional and relational contexts in order to see if there are significant differences between these two types of context. It could also be interesting to test Macneil's framework in the business-to-consumer context. Macneil's norms may also be relevant to better understand individual behaviors.

Finally, another way of research would be to measure the relational propensity 9 of client companies in order to see if this variable has some influence on the relative importance of the different relationship termination factors.

9 Relational propensity can be defined as an attitude based on customer's affective, technical and time orientations as well as on contextual elements [START_REF] Benamour | Orientation relationnelle versus transactionnelle du client : développement d'une échelle dans le secteur bancaire français[END_REF].

Table 1 -

 1 .

Table 1 -Macneil's Contractual Norms (Relational and Transactional)

 1

	Relational norms	Transactional norms
	1. Role integrity	1. Implementation of planning
	2. Contractual solidarity	2. Effectuation of consent
	3. Flexibility	3. restitution, reliance and
	4. Supra contractual norm	expectation interests (linking
		norm)
		4. Creation and restrain of power
		5. Reciprocity (Mutuality)

Table 2 ,

 2 below):

Table 2 -A contingency framework adapted from Macneil's relational norms

 2 Although Macneil does not emphasize the importance of mutuality in relational contracting, he considers that mutuality depends on contractual solidarity. Therefore, in the present study, mutuality is tested as a relational norm.

	Relational norms
	1. Role integrity
	2. Contractual solidarity
	3. Flexibility
	4. Communication
	5. Mutuality

Table 3 -Summary of the exploratory interviews Relational norms

 3

		Flexibility	Account	manager	integrity	Communica-	tion	Solidarity	Reciprocity
	Relationship development
	factors Negative events	a a		a a	a		a a	a
	Relationship deterioration
	and termination factors	a		a			a	a

Table 4 -Factor analysis with Oblimin rotation -ROLE INTEGRITY

 4

	Items	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3	Factor 4
	Our account manager is competent 6	.889
	I feel close to my account manager on the	.839
	professional skills point of view
	I feel close to my account manager on the way of	.825			.146
	working point of view
	Our account manager is able to find the right	.747			-.144
	person when he is not competent on an issue
	Our account manager knows our company very	.712	-.137	.169
	well
	We have several regular interlocutors in the bank		.855
	The only interlocutor we have in the bank is the		.778		-.118
	account manager (reversed)
	When our account manager changes, he			.864
	introduces his successor
	When our account manager changes, we know it	.173		.757
	in advance
	In our company, there is only one person	.155	-.106	-.181	-.881
	regularly in contact with our account manager
	(reversed)
	In our company, there is only one person	-.184	.238	.179	-.763
	regularly in contact with the back office of the
	bank (reversed)
	Eigen value	3.654	1.820	1.206	1.076
	% of explained variance (scale : 70,512%)	33,222	16,546	10,965	9,780
	Factor Cronbach's alpha	0,8711	0,5763	0,6887	0,6547
	KMO		.796
	Bartlett

test of sphericity (signif.)

Table 5 -Factor analysis with Oblimin rotation -SOLIDARITY

 5

	Items	Factor
		1	2
	This bank is interested in the development and the success of our	.945
	company
	This bank sustains our company development	.930
	We appreciate our account manager's frankness		.935
	We are very confident with our account manager		.871
	Eigen value	2,347	1,061
	% of explained variance (scale : 85,198%)	58,680	26,518
	Factor Cronbach's alpha	0,8677	0,7793
	KMO	.603
	Bartlett test of sphericity (signif.)

Table 6 -Factor analysis -RECIPROCITY

 6

	Items	Factor
		1
	Our loyalty is rewarded through some support in difficult times	.918
	Our loyalty is rewarded through a good relationship	.918
	Eigen value	1,686
	% of explained variance (scale : 84,279%)	58,680
	Factor Cronbach's alpha	0,8126
	KMO	.500
	Bartlett

test of sphericity (signif.)

Table 7 -Factor analysis with Oblimin rotation -FLEXIBILITY

 7

	Items	Factor
		1	2
	When necessary, our account manager is able to react very	.934
	quickly
	When necessary, our account manager is at disposal	.931
	This bank is very strict on the daily management of our account		.779
	(reversed)
	This bank is very exacting when we want to open a new		.756
	contract (reversed)
	Our relationship with this bank is very formal (reversed)	.138	.703
	Eigen value	2,009	1,437
	% of explained variance (scale : 68,931%)	40,190	28,741
	Factor Cronbach's alpha	0,8440	0,6053
	KMO	.562
	Bartlett test of sphericity (signif.)

Table 8 -Factor analysis with Oblimin rotation -COMMUNICATION

 8

	Items		Factor
		1	2	3
	We communicate by mail frequently enough with	.775	-.173
	the back office
	We communicate by mail frequently enough with	.756
	the account manager
	We communicate frequently enough with the bank	.716	.131
	through teletransmission
	We give to our account manager our reactions on		.985
	the products, services and fees offered by the bank
	We communicate frequently by face-to-face			.998
	business meetings with our account manager
	Eigen value	1,735	1,019	0,953
	% of explained variance (scale : 62,406%)	34,701	20,370	19,051
	Factor Cronbach's alpha	0,7123	-	-
	KMO		.645
	Bartlett test of sphericity (signif.)

Table 9 -Group statistics

 9

		Relationship	N	Mean	SD	Standard Error
		status				of Mean
	ROLE INTEGRITY	Terminated	19	-.5440	.5626	.1291
		Stable	20	.2068	.3971	8.879E-02
	SOLIDARITY	Terminated	41	-.5270	.8370	.1307
		Stable	37	.3053	.6366	.1047
	RECIPROCITY	Terminated	39	-.6051	1.0017	.1604
		Stable	30	.4443	.6106	.6109
	FLEXIBILITY	Terminated	37	-.4969	.8011	.1317
		Stable	26	.1566	.4482	8.789E-02
	COMMUNICATION	Terminated	48	-.2154	.6209	8.962E-02
		Stable	50	-5.30E-02	.4990	7.057E-02
	Mean differences in absolute values are the most important for the norms of reciprocity and
	solidarity.

Table 10 -Independent samples test on relational norms

 10

			Levene's			t-test for Equality of Means
			Test for
			Equality of
			Variances
			F	Sig.	t	df	Sig.	Mean	SD	95% C.I.
							(bilat.)	diff	diff
										Inf	Sup
	ROLE	Equal	3.236	.080	-4.835	37	.000	-.7508	.1553	-1.065	-.4361
	INTEGRITY	variances
		assumed
		Equal			-4.792	32.231	.000	-.7508	.1567	-1.070	-.4318
		variances
		not assumed
	SOLIDARITY	Equal	2.777	.100	-4.902	76	.000	-.8323	.1698	-1.171	-.4941
		variances
		assumed
		Equal			-4.970	73.951	.000	-.8323	.1675	-1.166	-.4986
		variances
		not assumed
	RECIPROCITY	Equal	6.133	.016	-5.055	67	.000	-1.0494	.2076	-1.464	-.6351
		variances
		assumed
		Equal			-5.371	64.018	.000	-1.0494	.1954	-1.440	-.6591
		variances
		not assumed
	FLEXIBILITY	Equal	9.740	.003	-3.761	61	.000	-.6534	.1738	-1.001	-.3060
		variances
		assumed
		Equal			-4.127	58.5	.000	-.6534	.1583	-.9703	-.3366
		variances
		not assumed
	COMMUNICA-	Equal	1.674	.199	-1.429	96	.156	-.1623	.1136	-.3878	6.309E-
	TION	variances									02
		assumed
		Equal			-1.243	90.122	.158	-.1623	.1141	-.3890	6.248E-
		variances									02
		not assumed

Table 11 -Strength of the relationships between the relational norms and the relationship termination

 11

	Norms	Index	Rank
	Role integrity	0,619	1
	Solidarity	0,495	3
	Reciprocity	0,525	2
	Flexibility	0,434	4
	Communication	Relationship not significant

We can see in Table

11

, above, that the role integrity and reciprocity norms have a strong relationship with relationship termination.

In the case of the study by[START_REF] Roos | Customer Switching Behaviour in Retailing[END_REF], the context is a supermarket.

This work is the only one we know to have been operationalized in a commercial banking context (in Canada and

Mexico). This context is similar to ours, except for the countries where the surveys are done.

This means a response rate of 33.4%.