In proposing the Commitment-Trust theory of relationship marketing, Morgan and Hunt (1994) developed a framework that described how relational characteristics between partners lead to trust and commitment, and how these key relational mediators impact dyadic outcomes. This approach focused less on specific relational strategies and more on the overall dynamics that define the marketing relationship. More recently, relationship marketing researchers have approached this process as a strategy enacted by relational partners to build and strengthen long term business relationships (for a summary see Palmatier, Dant, Grewal, and Evans 2006). These researchers categorize investments in relationship marketing and attempt to quantify differential impacts of those investments on firm or dyadic outcomes. While both perspectives increase our understanding of the returns to relationship investments, they fail to capture the process through which investments are transformed into financial outcomes. Even if trust and commitment are directly impacted by relationship marketing investments, what process extracts financial returns from trust and commitment?
展开▼
