How does relationship quality sustain the rich world’s poorest businesses?

Abstract A social bank has been argued as a viable solution to empower disadvantaged business customers through a long-term relationship. Despite the importance of business relationship, there is little empirical evidence of how the dynamic bundling of the relationship quality dimensions evolve to make an economic and social impact. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study presents a social banking relationship quality (SBRQ) model for business customers using the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh as a research context. The empirical findings confirm three primary dimensions (i.e., trust, respect and reciprocity) and nine subdimensions of SBRQ and their significant effects on financial self-efficacy and quality of life.