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To measure marketing performance in a holistic sense.

To augment the prevailing customer relationship marketing paradigm, a holistic stakeholder relationship marketing paradigm is proposed in which holistic marketing performance is reflected in the delivery of long‐term economic, social, and environmental value to customer, employee, supplier, community, and shareholder stakeholders of a business in order to enhance sustainable financial performance. Present stakeholder attitudes are measured in a stakeholder performance appraisal within a stakeholder relationship marketing model, as timely, early warning signals of future stakeholder behaviour and concomitant future business performance.

Stakeholder performance appraisal results to date indicate that a holistic stakeholder relationship marketing orientation that incorporates triple bottom line philosophy significantly enhances business financial performance beyond that achieved by a customer relationship marketing orientation.

The stakeholder performance appraisal has been applied to only 33 businesses to date providing scope for wider application of this measurement system to demonstrate its practical usefulness in measuring holistic marketing performance and future financial performance.

The stakeholder performance appraisal provides a perceptual overview of holistic marketing performance and concomitant business financial performance from stakeholders in terms of quantitative ratings of economic, social and environmental performance, and qualitative strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These data enable a business to plan stakeholder relationship marketing strategies to enhance performance and to predict future financial performance.

The stakeholder relationship marketing model and the stakeholder performance appraisal are new, unique, managerially useful additions to existing stakeholder models and metrics.

This paper aims to review the growth and development of the field of relationship marketing and, through a consideration of this body of work, identifies key research priorities for the future of relationship marketing. The paper also delineates the frequently confused associated concepts of customer relationship management and customer management and considers how they fit within the broader concept of relationship marketing.

This paper undertakes a review of the relationship marketing literature, supplemented by the authors’ on-going interactive research with managers.

The paper reviews alternative approaches to relationship marketing, reflects on the development of the field of relationship marketing and identifies three critical priorities for future research in relationship marketing.

The research priorities that are identified in this paper represent important priorities for scholars, managers, regulators and policy makers.

Although there is now a substantial body of research on relationship, marketing, much of this work focuses on the customer-firm dyad, with a smaller body of work focusing on a broader range of stakeholders. This paper argues for the broadening of the role of relationship marketing to consider ecosystems; the need for firms to shift from a value-in-exchange to a value-in-use perspective when addressing customer relationships; and the critical need to address “dark side” behaviour and dysfunctional processes in relationship marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the complementary effect of relationship marketing and direct marketing and outline the foundations of direct marketing that can be enhanced by relationship marketing principles.

This is a personal viewpoint based on many years of working in, teaching and research of direct and relationship marketing.

The paper finds that both disciplines of direct marketing and relationship marketing have something of value to the other. The combination of the two strategies can only be of value and benefit to both customers and organisations.

The value of this paper is that it outlines the symbiotic strength of direct marketing and relationship marketing that allows contemporary marketers to utilise the best of both disciplines to establish and maintain strong relationships with their customers

To enable research to be conducted into the validity of the relationship marketing paradigm, a model has been developed which allows researchers to test the characteristics of the relationship at any point in time. This model is rooted in the biological sciences and is based around the concept of symbiosis. It has been adapted to offer a five part classification of relationships and used during an on‐going research programme into affinity credit card relationships. The results of the research indicate that the majority of the “relationship managers” employed by a sample of charities with affinity credit cards, perceive their relationship with their credit card issuer to be of equal benefit to both organisations, and thus fit the classification of the model. From the comments of the relationship managers in the research interviews there is, however, also evidence of some degrees of some of the other classifications in the proposed model of relationships.

In the past few decades, relationship management (RM) theory and RM strategies in business-to-business (B2B) contexts have evolved tremendously, driven by constant innovation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand the trends and evolution of RM and relationship quality (RQ) in B2B contexts and empirical insights on RM and RQ in B2B, which in turn would provide insights into trends and future research directions.

Grounded on the industrial marketing and purchasing group, this study adopts a critical systematic literature review to provide a comprehensive analysis of the past, current and future trends in empirical research insights of RM and RQ in B2B markets.

This study provides some novel insights into RM in B2B context by using a multidimensional approach to RM and RQ and analyzing prior marketing research from three perspectives: the evolution of RM and RQ in B2B context; prior empirical research; and practical business insights. Overall, these perspectives inform the development of an evolving side of RQ in B2B contexts, leading to some predictions regarding the future of RM in B2B markets.

The exploratory results of this study shed light on the key factors that drive RQ and the importance of RM in B2B markets in the digital age where customers still long for human interaction regardless of the prevalence of advanced technology.

In the wake of advanced technologies and particularly, B2B companies had to turn to virtual platforms and embrace digital transformation to establish and manage their customer relationships. Yet, managing relationships via digital channels has its own challenges for both B2B practitioners and scholars. This indicates that there is still a huge need for attuned RM strategies that align with the changing environments – mainly driven by technological advancement – in B2B markets.

This study aims to differentiate two types of relationship exploration – substitute relationship exploration (SRE) and complementary relationship exploration (CRE) – and examine their effects on a distributor’s detection capability in relationship governance with upstream suppliers and innovation capability in services to downstream customers.

The authors obtained 176 responses from distributors in the semiconductor industry in China. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical moderated regressions are used to test the hypotheses.

CRE increases both detection and innovation capability, whereas SRE reduces detection capability and increases innovation capability. Market uncertainty weakens the effect of detection capability but strengthens that of innovation capability on distributor performance.

First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to differentiate SRE and CRE, thus enriching the relationship marketing literature. Second, drawing on information economics, the authors uncovered the differential effects of SRE and CRE on detection and innovation capabilities. Third, market uncertainty moderates the effects of the two capabilities on distributor performance.

Distributors should be aware that there are different types of relationship exploration and, for that reason, should explore potential suppliers based on their business needs and firm conditions. The results of this study show that both SRE and CRE are beneficial for distributors’ innovation capability, but SRE reduces their detection capability. Practically, firms need to be aware of the trade-offs associated with different types of relationship exploration. Moreover, when market uncertainty is high, distributors should pay more attention to innovation than to detection capability building.

This study conceptualizes and differentiates between two forms of relationship exploration. By linking them with distributors’ capability building and performance, the authors provide theoretical and practical implications.

This study aims to examine the impact of customer brand value dimensions on relationship marketing dimensions through consumer hope in the context of digital payment applications (apps) services. The study considers the role of consumer engagement using a moderated mediation, and applies customer perceived value, affect theory of social exchange and relationship marketing theories.

The study is based on data collected from 301 digital payment app users. Structural equation modeling results were analyzed using Smart PLS. The authors performed moderated mediation, with different levels of customer engagement as a moderating variable, using Model 8 of PROCESS. The authors considered customer perceived value dimensions, digital quality value, perceived value, hedonic value and social value as antecedents to consumer hope and explored the role of trust, commitment and continued usage as a consequence of consumer hope.

Three levels of perceived consumer value, digital quality, price value and social value, positively influenced consumer hope, which has positively influenced trust, commitment and continuance usage. Using moderated mediation analysis, consumer hope influenced continuance usage through trust at different levels of engagement, but consumer hope did not influence continuance usage through commitment at different levels of engagement.

The study highlights the role of consumer hope in linking customer value dimensions with relationship marketing dimensions. The study can guide managers to ensure continued usage of digital payment apps, which is a strategic objective. The results are relevant for the digital setting.

The purpose is to present the results of exploratory research which analysed firm‐employee relationship strength from the employee perspective. Three main research questions were explored: What indicators should be used to measure strong firm‐employee relationships? How important do employees see relationships to be in the work environment? and how do employees define relationship strength?

Qualitative research in the form of focus groups was utilised. Four focus groups of employees from medium to large regional and national Australian companies were held in a large Australian regional city.

Employees view relationships as being very important in the work environment. The findings revealed a greater degree of consistency between employees' viewpoints about important relationship elements and non‐marketing literature. Important elements found were cooperation, empowerment, communication, attachment, shared goals and values, trust and respect. The emphasis on commitment as a key relationship indicator was not supported by the findings. The findings are summarised in a proposed model of relationship strength, positing commitment as a relationship strength outcome. Employees defined relationship strength in terms of the identified elements.

This research enables commencement of examination of the value of internal relationships through empirical examination of the proposed model.

Management is informed as to what makes the best work environment from the perspective of employees.

This paper fulfills an identified gap in the literature in relation to the ability to measure internal firm relationships. It also clarifies the confusing literature on relationship elements, and it posits a model for the empirical assessment of firm‐employee relationship strength.

The purpose of this study is to bring theories of branding and relationship marketing together under the lens of the brand manager and reseller relationship for integrating into a single paradigm. The conceptualization bridges a gap in theory and practice by explaining how a brand can be managed by brand managers building empathetic relationships with resellers and understanding their requirements.

It draws upon qualitative methodology and data collected from 12 business-to-business resellers for brands and 8 brand managers working for international brands in India.

Brand personified and represented in research questions investigated showed the enablement aspects of brand representatives in competitive reseller networks.

The findings of this study will be very useful for brand managers aiming to penetrate markets through individuals who could represent their brands to resellers.

This study will help brand managers to create a stronger brand-reseller relationship marketing strategy by incorporating the emotional aspect of personification to benefit a socially driven relationship.

This study offers new insights into the temporal aspects of branding for business-to-business markets.

The development of collaborative network structures is an increasingly significant issue in the services industry. These interorganizational relationships are formed to gain flexibility, obtain needed skills and resources, and achieve operating efficiencies. Evaluates processes of network formation and compares them with the emerging relationship marketing paradigm, in the search for greater insight into an important but little understood phenomenon. Proposes a novel network classification scheme that identifies hollow, flexible, value‐added and virtual networks, leading to discussion of the need to extend the knowledge base concerning networks and the significance of the relationship marketing model to achieving research and managerial goals in this area.