Relationship marketing 45
relationship marketing? This question has
already been addressed in this chapter. It has
been suggested that there are fundamental
differences between both approaches (Gr ̈on-
roos, 1991; Johanson and Mattsson, 1994), and
yet there is still a lack of consensus within the
literature as to whether the paradigms are
competing or complementary. This question
needs to be addressed because it has important
implications for developing a framework for
implementing the new paradigm. Is it accept-
able for relational and transactional approaches
to marketing to coexist, and in some cases to be
merged?
Training for relationship marketing
managers
What management training is required to facili-
tate the implementation of relationship market-
ing? Wilson (1995) suggests that relationships
are now more difficult to develop and manage
given that the race for relationship partners has
accelerated. In consumer markets there is often
the simplistic assumption that all that is required
is a database and direct communications. How-
ever, it is likely that more attention needs to be
paid to developing relational skills in customer-
facing staff. Services marketers may be more
advanced than others in terms of managing
interaction (SERVQUAL; the gap model; critical
incident technique), and as a result may provide
some useful guidelines. In any case, it is unlikely
that a relationship strategy can be simply tagged
on to the prevailing mix management strategy.
As such, practising marketers need to embrace
‘the full extent of the paradigm shift implicit in
Relationship Marketing’ (O’Malleyet al., 1997,
p. 554), and they clearly require appropriate
guidelines. Thus, research investigating the
training needs of practising marketers would be
particularly useful.
Relationship policy
How should organizations devise relationship
policies? Relationship policy refers to the
management of a portfolio of relationships. As
such, it is concerned with both handling and
limitation problems (Håkansson, 1982), and
with positioning strategies within the network
(Andersson and S ̈oderlund, 1988). Research is
required to address issues such as relationship
investments and adaptation, how individual
relationships should be managed, and how
the integral elements of relationships can be
fostered with exchange partners (O’Malleyet
al., 1997).Relationship dissolution
How do organizations dissolve relationships?
Relationship dissolution has not received a
great deal of attention within the literature (cf.
Dwyeret al., 1987; Stewart, 1998). It is clearly an
important part of relationship policy, and
should be incorporated within training issues.
Dissolution is particularly important given the
emphasis on deepening trust and commitment
within commercial relationships. Despite this,
there are likely to be situations when firms wish
to dissolve relationships, especially given the
dynamic and competitive nature of today’s
global marketplace. Thus, research addressing
how and why relationships can be dissolved
would be particularly beneficial.Relationship seeking
In what circumstances, or situations, do cus-
tomers want relationships? There is currently a
tendency to assume that relationships are seen
as desirable, and are sought by customers
(Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995). Christy et al.
(1996) deal with this issue to some extent in
consumer markets. Other literature in con-
sumer markets implicitly questions this
assumption (Barnes, 1995; Fournier et al., 1998;
Tynan, 1997; O’Malley and Tynan, 1999, 2000).
It may well be the case that relationships are
desirable, but research that supports this is
clearly needed. In particular, it should identify