What factors determine use of quality-related marketing research information? An empirical investigation

For effective total quality management (TQM), internal, process-related, as well as external, market-oriented, information is crucial. In particular, external marketing information seems to be very valuable since customers are the ultimate evaluators of the quality of an organization. In this paper, by adopting a services and relationship marketing perspective, we empirically study factors that influence the utilization of quality-related marketing research information by decisionmakers in organizations that strive to monitor and improve their quality levels. Our results show clearly that the use of quality-related information is most strongly influenced by the quality of informational contents. In addition, satisfaction with a specific quality-related research project functions as an important mediator between service quality of the project on the one hand and decision-maker trust in the provider and information use on the other hand. The results can be especially useful to marketing research agencies that strive to improve the quality of the service they deliver to organizations actively involved in the area of TQM.