Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk May, John Stewart (2003) An investigation into marketing relationships in a London Borough. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/6557/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy MX 7311 148 1 An Investigation into Marketing Relationships in a London BoEÓugh JOHN STEWART MA¥%''V" - • *' - ... tt?'r . Thesis submitted in part fulfilmerit (öi; the Degree of : sj;*'/iß Doctor of Philosophy toi Middlesex University Business School laAfüly 2003 • v, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While this thesis is the fulfilment of a long held and very personal dream, it would be wrong to represent it as a solo effort. Thanks are due to the many people who provided académie guidance or personal support and encouragement, and especially to the three people who gave me both in large measure: Professor Karin Newman, Dr. Bal Chansarkar and the late Professor Alan Cowling. Doing a PhD as a part-time mature student is never easy. If I had known at the start what would be involved I might never have undertaken the task. It is thanks to Karin and Alan that I got started, and thanks to Karin and Bal that I continued. Thanks are also due to my wife, Janet, for her tolérance as I disappeared at regular intervais into a strange académie world and for her ability to keep the rest of my life running on track. Thanks also to my friends, especially Rosemary, who listened while I talked endlessly about what I was doing, and how I would never be able to finish it, and showed more faith in me than I did. The London Borough of Barnet supported me financially for part of the course, and provided ail manner of help in kind during the six years. I am deeply grateful for their commitment to the training and development of their staff, and to ail my colleagues at Barnet who have helped in so many ways. ABSTRACT The primary aim of the thesis was to investígate the theoretical implications of extending relationship marketing to a sector where it had not previously been applied, namely local govemment in England. The secondary research aim was to investígate the nature of relationships betweeñ service providers and service users in the context of a London Borough, with a view to making recommendations on appropriate marketing strategies for different local govemment services. The research design was based upon a review of elements of the academic literature on relationships, relationship marketing, and local govemment. The review led to the identification of a new way of describing marketing relationships, namely the 'model' of a relationship. Eight such models were identified in the literature and seven were used in the data collection phase of the study. An embedded case study approach was used to collect and analyse the data, with the London Borough of Barnet acting as the overall case, and three different services provided by the Borough Council serving as the embedded cases. The three services, chosen to reflect the wide range of different activities carried out by a London Borough, were Libraries, Environmental Health and Benefits. Within each of the three embedded cases there were two quantitative, self-completion surveys - one for the service providers and one for the service users. The surveys were used to obtain numerical scores for each of the seven relationship models. The study presents the relationship model scores for the six surveys and shows how they form a picture of the relationships between the providers of a particular service and the users of that service. In particular it is shown that while users do not perceive any relationship between themselves and the service providers, the providers do perceive a relationship - described by either the Taken for Granted relationship model (providers in both the Environmental Health and the Benefits services) or the Weak Ties model (Library service providers). The main finding of the study in respect of the primary research aim is that while there are no theoretical objections to extending relationship marketing into local government, in practice attempts to do so are unlikely to succeed because the service provider/service user relationships involved in the local government contexts examined in this study are typifíed by levéis of interpersonal interaction which are too low to permit the creation and maintenance of viable relationships. The study also notes that the inappropriateness of one form of marketing does not rule out all other forms of marketing in local government, and in particular the concept of marketing Taken for Granted services is discussed in the context of the secondary research aim. One of the characteristics of this type of service is a degree of dissociation in the service user's mind between the service itself and the organisation supplying it. A set of recommended strategies for marketing this kind of service, adapted for local government from the literature of Taken for Granted marketing, is put forward. The marketing implications of the other relationship models are also briefly discussed. The limitations of this thesis are outlined in the conclusión and some avenues for fiiture. research are suggested, including investigation of the possibility that the providers of Taken for Granted services might feel taken for granted, not just by their service users but also by their own employers. CONTENTS Chapter 1 : Introduction to the thesis . ^ 1.1 Objectives of the Study 2 1.2 Principal Contribution 4 1.3 Theoretical Contributions 5 1.4 Methodological Contribution 6 1.5 Marketing Contribution 6 1.6 Thesis Outline 7 1.6.1 Overview ofChapters 7 1.6.1.1 Chapter 2: Services marketing, relationship marketing and local govemment activities 7 1.6.1.2 Chapter 3: Defining Relationship Marketing 8 1.6.1.3 Chapter 4: Relationships in the context of local govemment 9 1.6.1.4 Chapter 5 : Eléments of a relationship 10 1.6.1.5 Chapter 6: Relationship Models 11 1.6.1.6 Chapter 7: Methodology 11 1.6.1.7 Chapter 8: Data Analysis 12 1.6.1.8 Chapter 9: Conclusions 13 Chapter 2: Services marketing, relationship marketing and local govemment activities 2.1 Introduction 15 2.2 Services Marketing 16 2.3 Définition of services 17 2.4 Classifying local govemment activities as producís or services 19 2.5 Services marketing, service quality and relationship marketing 23 2.6 Service encounters 25 2.7 Marketing Taken for Granted Services 29 2.8 Corporate branding 32 2.9 Internai marketing 35 2.10 Conclusions 36 Chapter 3: Defining Relationship Marketing 3.1 Introduction 38 3.2 Selecting a category of relationships to study 38 3.3 Four perspectives on relationship marketing 40 3.3.1 Perspective 1: Locking Customers In 41 3.3.1.1 Perspective 1, sub-perspective 1: "True" loyalty 43 3.3.1.2 Perspective 1, sub-perspective 2: "False" loyalty 44 3.3.2 Perspective 2: Customer Rétention 46 3.3.3 Perspective 3: Datábase Marketing and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) 49 3.3.4 Perspective 4: Building strong, close, positive relationships 51 3.4 An alternative view of the development of relationship marketing 53 3.5 Towards a définition of relationship marketing in the context of local government 54 Chapter 4: Relationships in the context of local government 4.1 Introduction 57 4.2 The évolution of local government . 58 4.2.1 Function versus Structure 58 4.2.2 Partner versus Agent 62 4.2.2.1 Financial accountability 64 4.3 The managerial perspective 66 4.3.1 Management quality 68 4.3.2 Market Discipline 71 4.4 Lack of interest in democracy at the local level 72 4.5 Local governance 74 4.6 London government 78 4.6.1 London government in the 19th Century, pre 1899 78 4.6.2 London government between 1899 and 1986 79 4.6.3 London government between 1986 and 2000 79 4.6.4 London government from 2000 to the présent 80 Chapter 5: Elements of a relationship 5.1 Introduction 83 5.2 Initiating and maintaining relationships 83 5.3 The éléments of a relationship 87 5.4 Trust 88 5.4.1 Definition of trust ^ 89 5.4.2