The research aimed to measure the effect of relationship marketing in achieving value for the customer. The research was conducted in a sample of private Iraqi commercial banks in Baghdad, ...which are represented by ten banks listed on the stock market. The real problem that the banks in the research sample suffer from is the severe and continuous acceleration in environmental conditions and customer tastes. And the rapid technological changes, which
International relationships are increasingly critical to business performance. Yet despite a recent surge in international research on relationship marketing (RM), it is unclear whether or how RM ...should be adapted across cultures. The authors adopt Hofstede's dimensions of culture to conduct a comprehensive, multivariate, metaregression analysis of 47,864 relationships across 170 studies, 36 countries, and six continents. To guide theory, they propose four tenets that parsimoniously capture the essence of culture's effects on RM. Study 1 affirms these tenets and emphasizes the importance of taking a fine-grained perspective to understand the role of culture in RM because of the high degree of heterogeneity across different cultural dimensions and RM linkages. For example, the magnitude of individualism's effect is 71% greater on RM than other cultural dimensions, whereas masculinity has almost no effect; however, accounting only for individualism ignores significant moderating effects of power distance and uncertainty avoidance dimensions. To guide managers, Study 2 adopts a country-level approach and reveals that RM is much more effective outside the United States such that relationships are 55% more effective, on average, for increasing business performance in Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
Customer engagement (CE) is a marketing concept of great importance and the rise of social media has further amplified the importance of this concept. Yet, our understanding of the progress of CE ...research remains limited due to the absence of a one-stop state-of-the-art overview of the concept that considers its manifestation on social media. To address this gap, we review CE research on social media since the beginning of the present millennium using the PRISMA protocol for systematic reviews. The outcome of our review reveals the antecedents, decisions, and outcomes; the theories, contexts, and methods; and the ways forward for advancing knowledge, improving representation, and enhancing rigor with respect to future research on CE and social media.
Studies on social media use and effectiveness in large firms abound in the literature. However, social media usage for relationship marketing in small and medium enterprises is under-researched. This ...research examined how social media affordances influence SMEs' relationships with their customers. The Technology Affordance theory was utilized as the theoretical framework. Furthermore, a case study was used as the research design. The study's participants were SME owners/managers operating in Ghana. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyze data. The study identified three affordances of social media in the context of relationship marketing in SMEs: brand visibility, sharing, and relationship. These social media affordances result in customer acquisition. The findings and their implications have been discussed in the paper.
Relationship marketing is a central and important tenet in marketing thought, and considerable research effort in the discipline has been devoted to examining various facets of relationship ...marketing, resulting in a large body of knowledge. In this study, the authors specifically focus on the international dimension of the relationship marketing literature and use citation and cocitation data to identify and unfold its intellectual foundations. The goal is to provide new and meaningful avenues for further research using the knowledge structure on which international relationship marketing stands. The examination of the literature spans more than 40 years, divided into three time periods that permit detection of longitudinal trends as well as meaningful visual representations of the cocitation data. Overall, the authors survey 29 key publications and identify 3,509 articles that include 230,684 citations, examining the data for 1972-1993, 1994-2003, and 2004-2013 to unfold research possibilities. Drawing on the analysis of emergent multidimensional scaling results, the authors discuss potential international relationship marketing research incorporating social relations and networking, new ventures, internationalization, trust and commitment, tacit knowledge, and cultural values.
Incentivized customer referral programs (e.g., “Refer a friend, reward yourself!”) are prevalent, yet they usually have low referring rates. One reason, the authors suggest, is that existing ...customers (referrers) view incentivized referring as an exchange activity that feels incompatible with their communal relationship with friends (referees), resulting in a psychological barrier (i.e., negative feelings such as discomfort, conflict, guilt, etc.). In seven studies (five preregistered, two in the field; N = 2,060) and one preregistered supplemental study (N = 176), the authors propose and find that disclosing the referrer reward in the invitation message—a not yet widely adopted method—can promote referring by making the referring action seem more compatible with communal norms and reducing the experienced psychological barrier. They also document the potential of disclosing the referrer reward on increasing acceptance, conversion, and sales. The authors further identify three theoretically and practically relevant boundary conditions: (1) the relative reward amount (whether the referrer reward is greater than, equal to, or less than the referee reward), (2) the stated source of the referrer reward (the company or the referee's spending), and (3) the framing of the referral opportunity (whether it is already framed as a communal activity). The authors conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications.
Relational selling is at a crossroads: Some trends undermine salespeople's ability to build strong relationships (e-commerce, buying norms), but others emphasize the importance of such links ...(services, solutions). To anticipate the future of relational selling, this comprehensive review of research and practice seeks to clarify the impact of the changing conditions. Specifically, this study assesses relational selling from three perspectives. Perspective 1 is a temporal lens that reflects the evolution of relational selling, to delineate how it has changed over time. Perspective 2, a theoretical lens, then encompasses the key theories that provide a theoretical underpinning of relational selling and that can be refocused on emerging conditions to understand its future effectiveness. Finally, with an empirical lens in Perspective 3, this study identifies which relationship strategies are most effective and in what conditions. By combining these perspectives, this article derives six key tenets to guide managerial practice and research in relational selling.
•Increase the strategic role of inside sales organizations•Gain customer insights in the new e-commerce, privacy, and legal environment•Integrate relationship building across omnichannel interfaces•Use big data insights for more effective relational selling•Leverage artificial intelligence for relational selling
Trust and commitment are central to the relational mediators model of relationship marketing. Extant research suggests that trust enhances commitment, as a trusted partner is so highly valued that a ...channel member will invest in the relationship and put forth efforts to maintain that relationship. This study re-examines the causality between trust and commitment by comparing alternative models across three datasets (including the seminal Morgan and Hunt 1994 data). The results indicate that while trust enhances commitment, commitment can also erode trust. Several viable, theoretically-driven explanations for this negative effect are discussed, and propositions are developed for future research.
•This study re-examines the causality between trust and commitment by comparing alternative models across three datasets.•Three alternative models were compared including a a non-recursive model where trust and commitment have reciprocal relationships.•Based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) values and chi-square difference tests, the non-recursive model fits the data the best.•Surprisingly, the results indicate that while trust enhances commitment, commitment erodes trust.•Several viable, theoretically-driven explanations for this negative effect of commitment on trust are discussed.
Over the last decade or so, the term ‘dark-side’ in referring to business relationships has been increasingly used in academic discourse. Despite such a growth in the number of studies, relatively ...little critique has been offered among scholars. The fact that effectively managing the dark side of business relationships has potentially greater influence of contributing to inter-organizational success beyond more focus on the positive side necessitates an urgent critique surrounding ‘what is dark about the dark side of business relationships?’ Thus, we aim to provide an overview relating to the ‘dark side’ of business relationships in a quest to generate greater debate on the subject.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a force to "pull" customers to the organizational mission and values, and influence them to contribute to the organization. The primary purpose of the ...research is to assess how CSR contributes to customer value co-creation. The research also seeks evidence on the moderation mechanisms of servant leadership and relationship marketing orientation for the effect of CSR on customer value cocreation behavior. The data were collected from 873 employees and 873 customers in software industry in Vietnam context. The data analysis supported the positive effect of CSR on customer value co-creation behavior. Servant leadership and relationship marketing orientation were also found to play moderating roles for the CSR-customer value co-creation linkage.
PDF
