Effects of Ethical Sales Behavior Considered through Transaction Cost Theory: To Whom Is the Customer Loyal?

This paper, based on transaction cost theory and from the customer’s perspective, examines the relationships between a salesperson’s ethical sales behavior, the customer-perceived confidence benefits, and customer satisfaction, thereby considering to which party the customer is loyal. The results show that in consideration of transaction cost, the confidence benefits customer perceived from salesperson’s ethical sales behavior are found a critical factor affecting customer satisfaction/loyalty, and that customer satisfaction has a significantly direct effect on loyalty to the salesperson but has no significantly direct effect on loyalty to the firm, in contrast to the results of previous studies. The finding indicates that the salesperson plays a key role in retaining customer loyalty to the firm