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Research on how social bonding between boundary spanners influences relationship outcomes in business-to-business (B2B) settings is sparse and controversial. This longitudinal study aims to close this gap and assess the impact of social bonding on the share of wallet and actual cross-buying behaviour.

B2B relationships between a manufacturer of light commercial vehicles and its customers were investigated. A random sample of fleet managers answered two telephone surveys.

Social bonding was found to affect both investigated relationship outcomes, share of wallet and cross-buying, through the generation of trust over and above the customer’s perceptions of value.

Only one product category was investigated in this study, and further research should explore boundary conditions for the relevance of social bonding in B2B.

Social bonding represents one lever (next to value perceptions) for building a competitive advantage in a B2B context. Relationship marketing activities that are intended to strengthen the development of social bonds between customers and account managers should be encouraged.

The authors provide clear evidence regarding the disputed impact of social bonding between boundary spanners on relationship outcomes in B2B relationships by testing its impact on real purchase behaviour and not only purchase intentions, as is the case in most published studies to date.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the role of perceived risk as a moderator of the key relational mediators of satisfaction and trust, and second, to test the influence of perceived product value and social bonding as antecedents of brand satisfaction and brand trust to understand their effectiveness under different risk conditions. Palmatier et al. (2006) call for the study of moderators of relational mediators, such as trust and satisfaction, which may determine the effectiveness of different relationship marketing strategies.

This study investigates business-to-consumer relationships between a car brand and its customers, applying structural equation modeling.

Results show that perceived risk moderates the mediating role of both brand trust and brand satisfaction on relationship outcomes. When perceived risk is low, brand satisfaction alone determines brand loyalty, whereas when perceived risk is high, brand trust exclusively determines brand loyalty. Thus, the effectiveness of social bonding tactics as a prime determinant of trust is contingent on consumers’ risk perceptions.

A limitation of the present research is its focus on one product category. Further investigations should be conducted to expand the findings’ generalizability.

The often-recommended social bonding between boundary spanner and customers is only an effective relationship marketing strategy in situations of high perceived risk.

This study clarifies the role of perceived risk in marketing relationships by testing alternative models.