The Marketing Book 5th Edition

feedback the marketer is active,

plans the offers and

communications on the basis of

customer status (profile) and

feedback. Relatively weak

dependency between buyer and

seller, as the goods exchanged

are relatively substitutable and

many buyers and sellers exist.

generally the active party.

Interdependence between the seller

and the customer varies from weak

to relatively strong. The basic

service is often relatively

substitutable, but the service

relationship can be differentiated and

individualized

relationship is unique, its

substitutability depends on the

availability of alternative buyers and

sellers and the amount of switching

costs related to relationship-specific

investments.

seen as subjects. There is often

relatively strong interdependency

between actors, caused by

heterogeneity of resources which

makes substitution difficult.

Topics/concepts

important for

RM

Customer retention, share of

customer, database as a device

for managing direct

communications, integrated use

of channels.

Service encounters, experience &

expectations, service & relationship

quality, life-time value of the

customer, internal marketing,

empowerment of personnel.

Bases of power, uses of power and

conflict behaviour, interdependence,

goal congruity, decision domains,

environmental influence on dyadic

behaviour, transaction-specific

investments, switching costs, dyadic

governance, dyad outcomes:

efficiency, satisfaction, relational

norms.

Interaction processes, adaptation and

investments into relationships, phases

of relationships, actor bonds, resource

ties, activity chains and relationship

outcomes; nets and networks of

relationships; network dynamics and

embeddedness.

Level/unfit of

analysis and

contextuality

Individual consumer, a group of

consumers (segment); in

applications customers are

practically always aggregated

into groups (segments). No

conscious assumptions about

the contextuality of the

customer relationships; the

competitive situation is the

general contextuality

perspective.

Individual customer, group or

segment, service provider–client

relationship. Little emphasis on

contextuality, sometimes the history

of a relationship is emphasized –

generally handled through

‘experience’; generally implicit

assumption about the market as the

dominant environmental form.

Firm, dyadic relationship in the

channel context. Contingency

perspective: dyadic behaviour and

efficient forms of governance are

dependent on the channel context.

Well developed ‘environment’

theory.

Actor (organization, person), dyadic

relationship, net of relationships.

Transactions are episodes in the long-

term relationship. The emphasis is on

the embeddedness of relationships in

nets and networks, and their history –

no understanding of the present

situation without history.

Time

orientation,

focus on

structure vs.

process

Rhetoric emphasizes the long-

term view, no published tools

for handling long-term issues of

relationships. The focus is on

the content of a customer

profile, little emphasis/

conceptual effort on tackling

the dynamism of customer

development.

Earlier emphasis on short-term

encounters, now shifting to a more

enduring relational perspective. The

process aspect is evident, but

empirical research is primarily on

the content of relationship

characteristics.

Emphasis on efficient forms of

channel relationships ranging from

market-like transactions to long-

term reciprocal relationships.

Theoretically dynamic, but the

majority of empirical research is

static; the focus is on structure not

process.

Time is an essential phenomenon.

Dynamic perspective, focus on both

structure (content) and processes

(how dyads, nets, and networks

evolve).

Methodological

orientation

No conscious methodology,

primarily cross-sectional

analysis of survey data and

customer databases.

Divided methodology; North

American emphasis on explanation

through hypothesis testing by

multivariate analysis; Nordic

emphasis on understanding through

qualitative research.

Hypothetical – deductive reasoning,

explanation through hypothesis

testing by multivariate analysis.

Divided methodology, European

emphasis (IMP Group) on

understanding through historical case

analysis; North American emphasis on

explanation through hypothesis testing

by multivariate analysis (this is

primarily limited to dyads).

Source: M ̈oller and Halinen-Kaila (1997, p. 10).