The Impact of Product Innovation on Relationship Quality in Automotive Industry : Strategic Focus on Brand Satisfaction , Brand Trust , and Brand Commitment

This study examines the effect of product innovation on relationship quality in automotive industry. Based on the review of literature, it is evident that there are very limited studies which have come across the effect of product innovation on relationship quality and its dimensions; brand satisfaction, brand trust, and brand commitment. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the literature and body of knowledge on the actual relationship between such variables. The automotive sector in Malaysia was selected to conduct this study whereby the data were collected from passenger car users in Northern region of the country. The data were analyzed using SPSS and structural equation modeling (AMOS). The findings revealed that the research model fits the data significantly and achieved the recommended values for all fit indices. In particular, the findings supported the significant positive effect of brand satisfaction on brand trust. Consequently, brand trust has significant positive effect on brand commitment. Moreover, the findings indicated that product innovation has significant positive effect on relationship quality and its dimensions; brand trust, brand commitment, and brand satisfaction. The findings also demonstrated that the main contribution of this study lies in the examination of product innovation as an antecedent to relationship quality and its dimensions rather than looking on the frequently used antecedents. These results and their implications along with avenues for further research are also elaborated in this study.


Introduction
The concept of relationship quality has been largely attracting several research attentions as an important mechanism which probes to explain the critical features of the relationship between a brand and its potential customers (Qin, Zhao, & Yi, 2009;Walter, Muller, Helfert, & Ritter, 2003).Brand relationship quality was defined by Algesheimer, Dholakia, & Herrmann (2005) as the extent to which customers think of a brand as a satisfactory partner in a long-lasting relationship; it reflects consumer's overall evaluation toward the strength of the relationship established with a brand.Particularly, building quality of relationships with customers provides a strong basis for obtaining competitive advantage and facilitates the process of brand success (Peppers & Rogers 1995).
Previous research on relationship quality shows that global brands are struggling to build strong customer relationships to determine the suitable approaches which would guide them to maintain customers and suppliers and protect them from switching to other competing brands (Auruskeviciene, Salciuviene, & Skudiene, 2010;Ndubisi, 2004).Gummesson (1987) asserted that relationship quality strongly influences the quality perceptions of a product among customers.Moreover, it was evidently demonstrated in past literature that good quality relationships with customers are very important for the improvement of overall organization (Ford & Hakanson, 2006), which could ultimately be considered as the possible means for gaining sustainable competitive advantage and improving future performance (Hunt et al., 2006).
Certain studies demonstrated that product innovation plays an important role in predicting relationship quality (Dimyati, 2011;Ke-yi & Qian, 2010;Nemati, Khan, & Iftikhar, 2010).Particularly, new product development and continuous innovations permit a brand to strengthen its competitive advantage, attract larger number of customers and maintain existing ones, and also improve customer relationships (Kotler & Keller, 2006).
However, despite the importance of product innovation in developing relationship quality, theory-based and empirical research on this link is very limited (Stock, 2011).There are very few empirical studies that contain data about both constructs, and also less focus is given to explain theoretically why and how product innovation can relate to relationship quality and its dimensions (Stock, 2011).Therefore, this research aims to fill up this gap by examining the impact of product innovation on relationship quality, particularly in the Malaysian automotive context.The selection of automotive sector depends on the nature of competitiveness faced by foreign brands.
The article begins with the literature review and hypotheses.Then the method of data collection, analysis, results, and discussion follow.After that, conclusion with the research limitations and suggestions for further research are presented.It is expected that the results of this study would provide a more developed understanding of the role of product innovation in determining relationship quality in manufacturing sectors.

Relationship Quality
Relationship quality has its roots in the theory and literature of relationship marketing.Relationship marketing primarily focuses on establishing, developing, and maintaining profitable relationships with customers on the long-run (Berry, 1995).According to Pi and Huang (2011), relationship marketing refers to the relational process which aims to establish, sustain, and improve the perceived values for both suppliers and their customers.In fact, relationship quality explains customers' overall assessment toward their relationship strength with a brand (Sublaban & Aranha, 2008).Past literature clearly shows that trust, commitment, and satisfaction are the fundamentals and most cited components for measuring relationship quality (Hilman, Ghani, & Hanaysha, 2013;Teleghani, Largani, & Mousavian, 2011;Dorsch, Swanson, & Kelley, 1998).Therefore, this study incorporates these three dimensions as the main components of relationship quality.Brand trust at first was defined as "the confidence that one will find what is desired from another, rather than what is feared" (Deutsch, 1973, p. 149).It emphasizes on the high possibility and expectations in a manner that customers expect a brand to generate favourable outcomes.Moreover, Delgado-Ballester, Munuera-Aleman, and Yague-Guillen (2003) referred brand trust to "the confident expectations of the brand's reliability and intentions".Morgan and Hunt (1996) revealed that the intangible resources such as brand trust and commitment are imitable and cannot be purchased or easily replicated.They further declared that these unique assets can as a result be grouped together to create sustainable competitive advantages.
In relationship marketing, brand commitment is also considered as one of the important elements of long-term relationship and firm's competitiveness (Fournier, 1998;Taleghani et al., 2011;Wang, 2009).Fournier (1998) defined commitment as customers' emotional or psychological attachment to a brand within its product class.Fournier et al. (1998) extended this concept into the world of products and brands; they added that commitment reflects the ability to sustain an enduring and valued relationship with a brand.In theoretical literature, brand commitment has been examined and confirmed as an important indicator of successful relationship marketing.For example, Morgan and Hunt (1994) stated that successful relationship marketing requires both relationship commitment and trust between a brand and its customers, and these elements are essential for relationship development.
In addition to trust and commitment, brand satisfaction has also been considered as an important element of customer relationships (Islam et al., 2011).Anderson et al. (1994) defined brand satisfaction as a total assessment of the brand as a result of overall purchase consumption and experience.In general, brand satisfaction has been conceptualized to reflect the ability of a brand to offer products and services that fulfill the needs and expectations of final customers (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000).Strong brands give high emphasis to improve customer satisfaction to facilitate the process of gaining brand loyalty, improving customers' willingness to pay, and sustaining the lifetime value of the customer for a long period of time (Keller & Lehmann, 2006;Torres & Tribó, 2011).
Past studies examined the inter-relationships between relationship quality dimensions and established an empirical evidence of the strong and positive connection between them.For instance, Rahab and Supadi (2012) found out satisfaction positively affected relationship commitment.This finding was supported by certain scholars (Boonajsevee, 2005;Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002) who declared that higher levels of satisfaction will lead to better relationship commitment.Similarly, Bowden, Dagger, and Elliot (2009); Oktora and Achyar (2014) provided an empirical support for the significant effect of customer satisfaction on brand trust and commitment.Bowden, Dagger, and Elliot (2009) reported that satisfaction is very important for developing strong and long-term customer-brand relationships.For this reason, satisfaction should be considered as a significant antecedent of customer brand-relationship (Hennig-Thurau & Klee, 1997;Lee, Huang, & Hsu, 2007;Luarn & Lin, 2003).
Moreover, certain scholars (Bowden, Dagger, & Elliot, 2009;Oktora & Achyar, 2014;Walter, Mueller, & Helfert, 2000) found out strong support for the positive effect of customer satisfaction on trust.They further asserted that satisfaction is necessary to develop customer-brand relationship.Furthermore, other scholars (Rahab & Supadi, 2012;Suki, 2011;Wong & Sohal, 2002) found out a strong support for the positive influence of trust on commitment.Wang (2009) further demonstrated that trust and commitment usually appear together and are inseparable.He added that if any of these constructs is neglected, then the relationship between both parties might only be for a short period of time.Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are presented: H1: Brand satisfaction has positive effect on brand trust.H2: Brand trust has positive effect on brand commitment.

Product Innovation
Innovation has widely been accepted as a vital strategic factor which enables brands to establish and maintain their competitive advantages (Moon, Miller, & Kim, 2010).Being the first mover while accessing new markets with new and innovative products would provide the brand with better opportunities to build positive customer base, and it also can save it from intense competition (Beverland, Napoli, & Farrelly, 2010).Obviously, a brand which frequently introduces highly innovative products can protect itself from price competition.Additionally, innovative products can largely improve future purchases and enhance brand performance (Rosenbusch, Brinckmann, & Bausch, 2011).In highly competitive environments, it is clearly evident that customers' needs and requirements are continuously changing while thinking to purchase a certain product category; the decisions are established according to their perceptions of product innovations in terms of product design and attributes (Moon et al., 2010).
A product is considered to be innovative when it includes new ingredients (Anselmsson & Johansson, 2009).From the perspective of customers, a product can be viewed as innovative when it provides them with differential values and uniqueness which is hard for competitors to copy or imitate.Thus, a new product can be assessed in terms of uniqueness and inherent features, functionality, and usefulness (Lee & O'Connor, 2003).The added value of product innovation to customers is determined through comparing it with those products that exist in the market regardless of whether they are manufactured by the same producer or another competitor (Anselmsson & Johansson, 2009).
The focus on product innovation and its growth is so prevalent in a number of organizations that their brand images are inherently attached with product innovation offering (Henard & Dacin, 2010).These organizations continuously advertise and largely promote the perception among the audience that they are innovative and frequently introduce creative products to satisfy market needs.For example, the performance of the brand can increase when it initiates a product with innovative feature and make enormous investment in the marketing of that new product (Kaiser, 2011).Particularly, the ability of an organization to innovate is very essential for its continued presence in adapting to rapidly changing environments (Kotler & Keller, 2006).

Influence of Product Innovation on Relationship Quality
Past researches indicated that product innovation had a significant impact on relationship quality (Nemati et al., 2010;Ke-yi & Qian, 2010;Stock, 2011;Hu & Huang, 2011).For example, Dimyati (2011) examined the influence of product innovation on brand trust and found out product innovation had positive and significant effect on brand trust, which ultimately lead to customer loyalty and enhanced commitment.In a similar manner, Nemati et al. (2010) conducted an empirical study to examine the effect of product innovation on brand satisfaction and brand commitment in mobile phone industry of Pakistan.Their results revealed that product innovation had significant positive effect on brand satisfaction and brand commitment, and this provides further support for the importance of product innovation in improving overall relationship quality.
Brands introduce innovative products because they believe that the creation of new and developed products would provide better opportunities for obtaining competitive advantage (Anselmsson & Johansson).The argument was confirmed in the past literature, indicating that product innovation is a possible mean to create competitive advantage, attract new customers and maintain existing ones, and further strengthens its relationship with other vendors (Cooper & Kleinschmidt, 1990;Kotler & Keller, 2006).Brand innovativeness refers to the perceived newness (Daneels & Kleinschmidt, 2001;Lee & O'Connor, 2003), and it has been accepted as an important antecedent of relationship quality (Eisingerich & Rubera, 2010).Gürhan-Canli and Batra (2004) confirmed this view indicating those customers' perception toward the innovation features within company's products influences their attitudes favourably.In particular, when customers passionately select or appreciate new products, usually they will be extremely committed to that brand on the basis of its innovativeness.
Furthermore, past studies reported a significant positive effect of product innovation on brand satisfaction (Hussain, Munir, & Siddiqui, 2012;Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006;Stock, 2011) and behavioural responses of customers (Athanassopoulos, 2001).They declared that product innovation is an important element for the satisfaction of customers, and it is the responsibility of the brand to bring new products with differentiated features to attract and satisfy its customers.The findings are in line with several previous studies which reported a positive effect of product innovation on brand satisfaction (Langerak, Hultink, & Robben, 2004;Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006;Tatikonda & Montoya-Weiss, 2001).Therefore, the following hypotheses are presented: H3: Product innovation has positive effect on brand satisfaction.H4: Product innovation has positive effect on brand trust.H5: Product innovation has positive effect on brand commitment.H6: Product innovation has positive effect on overall relationship quality.

Methodology
This study examines the impact of product innovation on relationship quality in automotive industry.The data were collected using survey questionnaires from passenger car users in Northern Malaysia.This study followed systematic sampling technique whereby every 10th customer who was leaving the shopping mall was approached at the exit gate to answer the survey.According to Tull and Hawkins (1990), shopping mall customers constitute an adequate sampling universe.Based on the information provided by Malaysian automotive association, the total number of passenger cars on road in Northern area of Malaysia as for the year of 2014 exceeded 1 Million.Therefore, following Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table, a sample of 384 is utilized for collecting the data from respondents.
All measures in the questionnaire are adapted from previous research works to fit the context of this study.All constructs were measured using seven-point Likert scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.Particularly, the items for measuring product innovation were adapted from the previous study of Stock (2011).Moreover, relationship quality was measured using three dimensions: brand trust, brand commitment, and brand satisfaction.Brand trust was measured using five items adapted from previous studies (Ok et al., 2011;Chiou & Droge, 2006).Brand commitment was measured using four items adapted from previous studies (Ok, Choi, & Hyun, 2011;Breivik & Thorbjornsen, 2008).Finally, brand satisfaction was measured using five items adapted from Oliver's (1997); Zboja and Voorhees (2006) scales.The items were adapted to fit the current study and to obtain the feedback from respondents on product innovation and relationship quality in the context of automotive industry.

Analysis of Results
As stated earlier, this study targeted the respondents at several shopping malls to collect the data.The results indicated that out of 384 questionnaires administered to passenger car users, only 287 questionnaires were returned back representing 74.7 % response rate.The respondents' profile indicated that 136 participants were male representing 47.4%, whereas female represented 151(52.6%) of total response.The results also indicated that 36 (12.5%) of respondents were 25 years old or less, whereas 140 (48.8%)fall in the age category of 26-35.Those whose age between 36 and 45 recorded a total number of 46 represented with 16%, and for that last age group (46 years and above), the study has 65 respondents represented with 22.6%.Besides, the findings showed that 216 (75.3%) of the respondents were Muslims, 42 (14.6%)were Buddhists, 13 (4.5%)were Christian, 14 (4.9%), were Hindu, while 2 respondents (0.7%) were from other religions.Similarly, the respondents' profile indicated that 124 (43.2%) of respondents had High school certificate/ SPM/ PMR, 62 (21.6%) had diploma, 73 (25.4%) had bachelor degree, 15 (5.2%) had master certificate, 8 (2.8%) had doctoral certificate, whereas 5 respondents represented by 1.7% had other certificates.Furthermore, factor analysis was conducted on the constructs and the results indicated that the value of Kaiser-Meyer-Oken (KMO) is equal to 0.938 which is more than the recommended value of 0.6 as suggested by Pallant (2001).The results of EFA showed that the Bartlett's test of spherecity was significant (P = .000),which supports the initial assumption of existing a correlation between the constructs.The principal component method was used to run these factor analyses, and the result showed four components for the constructs according to the Eigen value.These constructs have captured a total of 78.2% variance in the items.
In order to test the reliability of each construct, Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were calculated.
Reliability is considered acceptable when the Cronbach's alpha exceeds 0.70, and item-to-total correlations are over 0.50 (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2010).The result indicated that all constructs achieved adequate levels of reliability; relationship quality (0.965), product innovation (0.905), brand satisfaction (0.967), brand trust (920), and brand commitment (918).Additionally, composite reliability was calculated and the results revealed that all constructs achieved the minimum value of 0.50, and this indicates that the reliability assumption is achieved.
Similarly, validity is a measure of the accuracy with which the research instruments represents the variable of interest (Campbell & Fiske, 1959).This study examined the discriminant validity for all constructs using average variance extracted (AVE) procedures.As mentioned by Byrne (2010), an AVE value which is equal to 0.50 and above should be considered as an indication of existing discriminant validity as well as high validity of each construct and variables in the model.The findings indicated all constructs have exceeded the recommended value of AVE which indicates the existence of discriminant validity.
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was also conducted on AMOS to confirm the factor loadings for each of the constructs (product innovation, brand trust, brand commitment, and brand satisfaction).The results revealed that the factor loadings for the items of all constructs were satisfactory, ranging from 0.69 to 0.96 (see Appendix A).This means that all constructs satisfy the construct validity.Additionally, the final model comprising all constructs was run to generate the possible results and several criterions were used to determine the goodness of fit of the overall model.As shown in Figure 1, the structural model achieved an expected significant chi-square (169.758,p<0.05) given the appropriate sample size employed in this research.To support the chi-square and ensure the goodness of fit, other fit indices were used such as: (GFI = 0.928, AGFI = 0.899, TLI = 0.984, CFI = 0.987 and RMSEA = 0.047).From these results, it can be concluded that the model achieved a good fit for the data (Hair et al., 2010).

Figure 1. Structural model
To test the hypotheses of this study, standardized regression weight table was generated from the structural model.Overall, the results support all the hypotheses presented.It shows that brand satisfaction has significant positive effect on brand trust (β= 0.728, t-value= 3.796, p= <0.05) and explains 81.5% of its variance, therefore, H1 is supported.Moreover, brand trust has significant positive effect on brand commitment (β= 0.556, t-value= 2.144, p= <0.05) explaining 81.7% of its variance, thus, H2 is supported.Similarly, it shows that product innovation has significant positive effect on brand satisfaction (β= 0.606, t-value= 9.529, p= <0.05) and explains 36.7% of its variance, thus H3 is supported.This study also found that product innovation has significant positive effect on brand trust (β= 0.100, t-value= 1.975, p= <0.05) and explains 82.8% of its total variance, thus H4 is also supported.Similarly, this results revealed that that product innovation has significant positive effect on brand commitment (β= 0.134, t-value= 2.327, p= <0.05) and explains 79.3% of its variance, consequently, H5 is supported.Finally, product innovation has a significant positive effect on overall relationship quality and explains 54.8% of its overall variance.This relationship was examined using the path coefficient (β= 0.740 and t-value= 9.456, p= <0.05), therefore, H6 is also supported.

Discussion
Automotives are increasingly becoming vital components of technology and subject to constant changes through introducing new products or models.In this regard, it has become necessary to focus on maintaining existing customers and build positive relationships with them.In order to develop strong relationships with car users, it is indeed very important to introduce products with innovative features to attract and maintain them.This study aimed to examine the role of product innovation in affecting relationship quality and its dimension.The results indicated that product innovation has significant positive effect on relationship quality and its dimensions; brand trust, brand commitment, and brand satisfaction.This result was supported by several studies (Nemati et al., 2011;Ke-yi & Qian, 2010) which reported that product innovation is an important factor for strengthening relationship quality.According to Athanassopoulos and Stathakopoulos (2007), in highly competitive markets whereby customers are very demanding for product innovations, it is necessary to meet those needs by introducing new products with creative features in order to maintain existing customers and develop enduring relationships with them.Based on this discussion considering the high competition in automotive markets, it is recommended that car manufacturers should focus on introducing innovative products that meet quality standards and improve customer relationships.
Furthermore, the results of this study revealed that relationship quality dimensions are strongly correlated.Specifically, the findings demonstrated that brand satisfaction has significant positive effect on brand trust.This result is in line with several previous studies which reported that brand satisfaction is the main antecedent of brand trust (Bowden et al., 2009;Oktora & Achyar, 2014;Walter et al., 2000).Similarly, the findings indicated that brand trust has significant positive effect on brand commitment.The result was confirmed by several previous studies (Cater, 2007;Moorman et al., 1992;Suki, 2011;Walter et al., 2000;Wang, 2009) which provided an evidence of the positive influence of brand trust on brand commitment.
This study focuses on making a contribution to resource-based view (RBV) by acknowledging the significance of product innovation as a key strategic factor in influencing relationship quality.Tan, Mavondo, and Worthington (2011) indicated that RBV is relevant to associate innovation capability with brand relationship quality.They indicated that a firm's capability to innovate and come up with differentiated and innovative products will determine its ability to gain better customer relationships.Therefore, the contribution of this study would be widened to resource based theory by highlighting the salience of product innovation in strengthening relationship quality.
This study also contributes to the body of knowledge by examining the effect of product innovation on relationship quality dimensions; brand satisfaction, brand trust, and brand commitment.Based on the review of literature, it shows that past research has paid very less attention to test the effect of product innovation on relationship quality.The analysis of results for the proposed variables would enhance the establishment of generalization across the relevant streams of research.Furthermore, the outcomes of this paper seek to empower managers' knowledge by providing insights and suggestions on the effect of product innovation on customers' relationships in the automotive sector.The automotive industry contributes significantly to the economy of Malaysia (Salleh et al., 2012).Therefore, the findings will help automotive manufacturers to learn the important role of product innovation activities in strengthening customer relationships.Such activities would further provide a strong platform for gaining sustainable competitive advantage and enhancing brand success.

Limitations and Future Research Suggestions
Several limitations and future research suggestions pertain to the current study.Firstly, it focuses entirely on a single segment: the automotive sector.Future research may wish to enlarge the subject under study to include other sectors to completely understand the antecedents of relationship quality.Secondly, this study focuses only on Northern Malaysia, therefore, it is suggested that future research could widen the scope and utilize larger sample size to get several responses that would make the studies more reliable and valid.Future research should further provide some important, more generalizable strategic guidelines on how to compete effectively for long-term business success in international markets in the presence of product innovation assets.Finally, this study examined only one antecedent of relationship quality; thus, future research may wish to test other variables such as demographics of respondents and after sale service.Finally, to obtain extra confidence in cause and effect relationships between product innovation and relationship quality, longitudinal data should be considered in future research.

Conclusion
This study aimed to examine the effect of product innovation on relationship quality in context of automotive manufacturing.Overall, the findings confirmed the positive effect of product innovation on developing relationship quality and each of its dimensions, showing that the emphasis on product innovation activities would generate higher levels of relationship quality with customers.This implies that a car brand which is eager to enhance its relationships with prospective customers and maintain them should focus on the efforts to create new products with innovative features.Consequently, the rapid competition in car markets requires firms to keep progressing and updating their products and service from time to time.The findings of this study confirm that relationship quality can be established and well managed if firms successfully ensure innovations on manufactured products.This would in turn create a favourable image in the long run and provide firms with a strong platform for expanding their market shares and thus, enhancing competitive advantage.Additionally, this study provides an evidence of the significant positive effect of brand satisfaction on brand trust and brand commitment.It also confirms that higher levels of brand trust will ultimately lead to brand commitment.Therefore, organization should put high emphasis to customer brand relationships in order to cope with competitive environments and increase the possibilities of global brand success.

Table 2 .
Research findings