THE IMPACT OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING AND NEW PRODUCT FEATURES ON CUSTOMER’S PERCEPTIONS AND THE INTENTION OF THEIR ACCEPTANCE IN LIFE AND INVESTMENT INSURANCE

Abstract

In the present market, the impact of relationship management strategies on the acceptance of a new product by customers should not be ignored. In fact, in the context of relationship marketing, firms must make an attempt to establish an appropriate relationship with customers after creating innovation in the form of new product in order to commit them to the purchase and use of new products. Innovations can influence a product, a process, a service or a system. Innovation in services is as much important as innovation in productions and goods. The current study has been conducted to investigate the impact of  relationship marketing and new product features on customer’s perceptions and the intention of their acceptance in life and investment insurance. This study seeks to answer this question: Do relationship marketing and new product features have an impact on customer’s perceptions and the intention of their acceptance in life and investment insurance? Statistical populations of this research are the buyers of life and investment insurance from our insurance company (Mellat Iran) in the North West region and 248 of them were surveyed randomly using Cochran formula. In order to answer the research questions, three main and two secondary hypotheses were defined and by providing a conceptual model the relationships among independent, mediator and dependant variables were tested. In order to examine the hypotheses, the structural equation modeling test was
used with the approach of path analysis. The survey results suggested that among the dimensions of relationship marketing, the dimensions of commitment and trust by influencing the perceived value of customers will also affect the intention of their
acceptance. Also among the dimensions of innovation, the dimension of complexity by influencing the perceived risk of customers affects the intention of their acceptance, after that the relative advantage and compatibility by influencing the perceived value of customers affect the intention of their acceptance. Furthermore, among the dimensions of relationship the dimension of satisfaction and among the dimensions of innovation the dimensions of testability and observability have a direct impact on the intention of life and investment insurance customers’ acceptance. Perceived value and risk also affect the
intention of life and investment insurance customers’ acceptance and the degree of perceived value influence on acceptance intention is higher.