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The objective in investor relationships is to create common long‐term interaction between the companies and their direct and indirect partner groups in the investor community. Information provided for the investors is a key instrument in investor relationship marketing. The short‐term investor episodes initially form the basis of long‐term investor relations. Various relational bonds of attraction, trust and commitment may evolve in the investor community. Attraction is mainly a future‐oriented bond. It incorporates the expectations of each party concerning the potential rewards of the exchange relationship over time. Trust has its roots clearly in the common history of the relationship, but is essentially also coloured by current expectations about the future. Commitment is the most advanced bond and takes the most time to develop. It primarily reflects the prior history of the relationship. Empirical evidence from the Finnish stock market suggests that success in investor relations requires the companies to extend the scope of investor relations from a mere publication of obligatory annual and interim reports to more frequent, extensive, proactive and diversified two‐way interaction and communication.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the quality of a professional surgical service process, and to reveal the main elements that constitute excellence in the experience of the surgical service of a private hospital. First, a theoretical framework for the surgical service process is created. Second, empirical research is conducted through a mail survey of surgical patients in a private hospital. A total of 240 questionnaires were delivered and the response rate was 83 per cent. Third, the underlying quality dimensions in the surgical service process are constructed using factor analysis. Finally, the main elements of excellence in a surgical service experience are revealed by utilising discriminant analysis. Empirical results indicate that, in private surgical services, the surgical procedure itself is the single most important element, but that it must be supplemented by quality dimensions in both output and process throughout the whole surgical service process.

The purpose of this study is to describe, analyze, and understand the fading configurations in inter‐organizational relationships in the context of cultural sponsorship.

A dyadic case study investigates a long‐term cultural‐sponsorship relationship between a business sponsor and a sponsored museum.

The triggers of relationship fading are broadly elaborated into structural and situational triggers. These triggers are further categorized into negative and positive structural triggers and into negative and positive situational triggers. Negative triggers accelerate the fading of cultural‐sponsorship relationships, whereas positive triggers hinder such fading.

The perceptions of the business sponsor and the sponsored museum are combined into a configuration matrix of relationship fading in cultural‐sponsorships relationships. The configuration matrix can be used to analyze the composition and the dynamics of perceptions during relationship fading. The configuration matrix offers a powerful and flexible tool that allows conflicting views in the cultural‐sponsorship relationship to be revealed and described.

The analytical framework facilitates managerial identification of potential structural and situational triggers of fading in cultural‐sponsorship relationships. To manage such relationships effectively, the interacting actors have to take into account the probable fading of cultural‐sponsorships relationships, and the reasons for this.

The triggers of relationship fading can emanate from both the structural context in which this time‐bound cultural‐sponsorship relationship is embedded and the situational process itself. Consequently, the triggers of fading can be both structural with relatively high permanence and situational with single critical events and incidents occurring in the relationship.

The purpose of this study is to describe, analyse, and understand the emerging metaphors in brand management in the context of service brands.

This article takes the form of a conceptual study.

The silence metaphor illustrates the product paradigm and the monologue metaphor describes the projective paradigm. The listening metaphor demonstrates the adaptive paradigm and finally, the dialogue metaphor depicts the relational paradigm.

The traditional understanding of service branding neglects a key characteristic of services – the fact that services are processes – and this neglect causes the crucial role of dialogue with the customer in service delivery to be relatively overlooked. There is an emerging need to move towards a relational approach in brand management.

Service brands continuously develop as the customer relates to the flow of communication in the form of diverse brand messages. These brand messages come from contact personnel, from physical product elements in the service process, and from various planned and unplanned communication messages.

The importance of creating brands in service offerings has become apparent, and communication issues in branding have become extremely vital for service firms. By creating dialogue in brand relationships, the customer is given an active role in service branding.

To describe, analyse, and understand relationship fading between a business sponsor and a sponsored museum in the context of cultural sponsorships.

The empirical study uses a longitudinal and a dyadic approach to analyse the temporal development of a three‐year cultural‐sponsorship relationship.

This study tackles the phenomenon of relationship fading in cultural sponsorships. The triggers of relationship fading are first elaborated into structural and situational triggers. These triggers are further categorised into structural predisposing triggers, situational precipitating triggers, situational attenuating, and structural attenuating triggers.

Most of the triggers of relationship fading are passive and indirect. Consequently, the triggers of fading affect the development of the relationship by gradually reducing the sponsor's motivations to invest and develop the cultural‐sponsorship relationship.

Successful management of cultural sponsorship requires the interacting actors to be aware of the structural and situational triggers of fading that can lead to the fading and potential ultimate ending of such a relationship. Using culture‐oriented marketing professionals with good communication skills between the business and the arts community is vital in managing cultural sponsorships and in avoiding fading in cultural‐sponsorship relationships.

A central feature of the fresh theoretical framework on relationship fading is the link between relatively permanent structures and the situational processes. A dyadic and longitudinal approach is adopted to reveal the past, present, and future dynamics of fading in the cultural‐sponsorship relationship.

In the past few years fashion blogs have become a popular form of user‐generated content, and consequently, the fashion industry has shown great interest in fashion blog marketing. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C) electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) in fashion blogs, and especially to compare naturally‐occurring, i.e. organic eWOM with marketer‐influenced, i.e. amplified eWOM.

The study takes a netnographic approach to the phenomenon of fashion blogs. The empirical material consists of observational data including blog texts and audience comments of six popular fashion blogs in Finland.

Findings indicate that although not as varied as organic, amplified eWOM content in consumer fashion blogs resembles organic content. The main topics discussed in organic eWOM include personal style, brands, designers and retailers, tips and advice as well as purchases. Amplified topics concerned products received by the blogger, brands, designers and retailers, tips given to the audience, and competitions.

The findings indicate that for blog marketing to be effective and credible, the marketed fashion items, designers, or retailers need to fit the blogger's personal style.

Social media, especially blogs, play an important role in contemporary fashion marketing. This study addresses the emerging, yet scarce area of research into how marketer influence on fashion bloggers can be seen in user‐generated content.

In the services literature, there is a significant lack of studies that focus on the phase preceding the ending of a relationship – that is, the phase during which there is a weakening of a customer relationship. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the fading process of customer relationships in the service industry. First, it aims to discover empirical triggers for the fading of customer relationships. Second, it aims to identify dimensions of fading in customer relationships and to reveal underlying elements in these dimensions. Third, it aims to disclose the main critical risk elements of fading in customer relationships in specific fading groups. A mail survey is conducted in one case company in the service industry. The data are reduced by means of factor, discriminant, and classification analysis. Dimensions of fading in customer relationships include alliance partners, personal telephone services, technical support services, and award points.