Customer Perceived Value as a Mediator between Corporate Reputation and Word of Mouth in Business Markets

This paper examines customer perceived value as one of the most important marketing concepts in business markets and its mediating role between corporate reputation and word of mouth. Corporate reputation represents an intangible asset for the company and its positive influence on customer value has been widely researched. Additionally, reputation is usually related with the concept of word of mouth (WOM). WOM is becoming one of the most powerful promotional tools, and this is especially true for business markets as well as for services. Our research is done in the organizational services setting with focus on the relationships of banks with their organizational customers. Data in the study were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling. Results of the study confirm hypothesized model and show that customer perceived value is mediating the relationship between corporate reputation and word of mouth.