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relationship quality on loyalty is not as strong as
that of males.
The stronger relationship between relational
selling behavior and relationship quality for the
female group compared to the male group (H
8
)
alternatively indicates that female customers are
more sensitive than male customers to relational
selling behavior efforts. This difference suggests
that females display more intense interpersonal
relationships, and it is consistent with the argument
that higher levels of computer anxiety and lower
computer aptitude among females (Felter, 1985;
Rosen & Maguire, 1990; Venkatesh & Morris,
2000) may necessitate the increased use of support
services, making the influence of relational sell-
ing behavior on relationship quality more salient
for females. Again, this difference has important
implications for IT service providers, who should
attempt to increase their appeal to females in their
efforts to stimulate relationship quality. Such
results also support the use of marketing tactics
to enhance the perceptions of female customers
regarding their relationships with firms, particu-
larly by personifying the firm through developing
closer customer-agent relationships (Iacobucci &
Ostrom, 1996).
Firms seeking to obtain the true confidence
of female customers may have to place greater
emphasis on interpersonal relationships or find
innovative ways to make individual-to-firm rela-
tionships more closely resemble interpersonal rela-
tionships. Although asking employees to establish
social relationships with customers is a difficult
demand to make from a managerial perspective,
it is relatively easy to achieve in cyberspace via
mass mailings. For example, an ISP can effec-
tively strengthen relationship quality with female
customers by sending Internet greeting cards or
mailing discount coupons more frequently. Of
course, managers seeking to cultivate closer rela-
tionships with female customers should be aware
of some key considerations in order to avoid nega-
tive customer reactions. These principles include
providing emotional support, respectful handling
of customers' private details, and tolerance of other
relationships (Fournier, Dobscha, & Mick, 1998).
The finding of a stronger link between relational
selling behavior and relationship quality for the
female group compared to the male group (H
8
)
brings on another implication. That is, since ISPs
usually run other Internet-related businesses, such
as online movie services, auctions, cosmetics
marketing, and so forth, online advertising of
these businesses to female customers as targets
should be well tailored to demonstrate concern
for the relationship with the targeted customers.
Another additional approach to strengthening
the relational selling behavior with female cus-
tomers could be tried by the creation of further
contact possibilities via virtual communities
(e.g., chat rooms, discussion forums, and expert
forums), in which contexts concerning customers'
needs and more updated service packages of the
ISP can be exchanged.
The test result of a stronger link between per-
ceived network quality and relationship quality
for males than for females (H
9
) is consistent with
the natural male traits of concern with material
advancement; namely, network quality. This find-
ing provides additional support for the statement
of Venkatesh and Morris (2000) that task-oriented
(instrumental) factors are more important for
males than females, given the network being
regarded as an instrumental tool. Thus, surveys
of network quality on males are more important
to ISP providers than those on females; internal
data are inadequate for understanding the views
of male customers in this area. Since males are
more impatient than females and more likely to
resolve a conflict by confrontation, dissatisfac-
tion with network quality would damage more
dramatically the perceived relationship quality
of male customers.
To keep a good network quality, ISPs should
upgrade infrastructure and implement network
management devices in order to maintain smooth
network traffic flow. The main weakness of net-
work management solutions is that they address
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