Assessing the impact of business-to-business brand reputation on comparative brand preference and buyer’s satisfaction

Business-to-business branding has received increasing attention from researchers in the last few years. Several issues related to industrial branding have been studied (e.g., antecedents and consequences of brand equity or ingredient branding strategies), but many others still need to be investigated. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this strand of inquiry by analyzing the impact of brand reputation on buyers’ comparative brand preference and satisfaction. From a methodological point of view, this paper is the first to study industrial branding through logistic regression. Cross-sectional research was conducted in the accounting and auditing industry. 171 questionnaires were returned and analyzed. The results demonstrate that brand reputation is a direct antecedent of buyers’ comparative brand preference. Moreover, the study identifies a moderating role of the level of knowledge held by the buyer as necessary for the value-generating process.