Affiliate marketing : the interaction among corporate reputation, trust and commitment

Abstract

This study investigates the dynamics of Corporate Reputation, Trust, and Commitment between Merchants and Affiliates, when engaged in online Affiliate relationships. These constructs were previously investigated in various other studies concentrating on a business to-business context, but this is the first time that they are being studied in the context of Affiliate Marketing relationships. The hypotheses were tested through an e-mail survey involving 100 Affiliate websites Affiliates provided data about their relationships with their Merchants. The findings presented here show that the Corporate· Reputation of a merchant is critical for the success of an Affiliate program. Results demonstrate that a Merchant with a positive Corporate Reputation will find it easier to achieve both his Affiliates' Trust, and their Commitment. It was also confirmed that similar to the situation in other business-to-business relationships, in online Affiliate relationships, Trust is an antecedent of Commitment. This study extends the pre-existing theories about Corporate Reputation, Trust and Commitment to online Affiliate relationships, and therefore, it is an important contribution to the lacking knowledge about Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate relationships. A detailed analysis of the results achieved in this study is presented in Chapter 5. The final Chapter presents further discussion about the subject, together with suggestions for future research that can contribute to further strengthen this area of study.