Search results

This paper aims to take stock of research done in the domain of relationship marketing (RM). Additionally, this article aims to identify the potential areas of future research.

The authors have used machine learning-based structural topic modelling using R-software to analyse the dataset of 1,905 RM articles published between 1978 and 2020.

Structural topic modeling (STM) analysis led to identifying 14 topics, out of which 7 (viz. customer loyalty, customer relationship management systems, interfirm and network relationships, relationship selling, services and relationship management, consumer brand relationships and relationship marketing research) have shown a rising trend. The study also proposes a taxonomical framework to summarize RM research.

This is the first comprehensive review of RM research spanning over more than four decades. The study’s insights would benefit future scholars of this field to plan/execute their research for greater publication success. Additionally, managers could use the practical implications for achieving better RM outcomes.

A successful relationship between manufacturer and supplier is vital for the pursuit of mutual benefits, which can be affected by one of the partners’ opportunistic behavior, causing disequilibrium in the existing relationship. The extant research has mainly focused on opportunism as a single phenomenon rather than the detectable strong form and unnoticeable weak form of opportunistic behavior in an exchange relationship that affects the relational outcomes in various ways. This study aims to contribute toward explaining the effect of economic and social forces on a strong and a weak form of opportunism and, in turn, its impact on relational outcomes in manufacturer-supplier relationships.

A sample of 361 manufacturers was drawn randomly using a sampling frame from the western part of India. The authors used covariance-based structural equation modeling to support the proposed model empirically. The authors examined the effect of social capital and transaction cost dimensions on different forms of a supplier’s opportunism.

All three dimensions of social capital have a different impact on both the forms of a supplier’s opportunism in the relationship. The authors found that social capital moderates the relationship between transaction-specific investments on a weak form of opportunism, while social capital is more valuable in curbing opportunism due to the effect of environmental uncertainty and behavioral uncertainty. The authors found that the supplier’s weak form of opportunism than the strong form has a more amplifying effect on governance costs.

This research contributes in three different ways. First, it inquires about the direct effect of transaction cost dimensions and social capital dimensions on a supplier’s multifaceted opportunism (strong form and weak form) in the manufacturer-supplier relationship. Second, it investigates the moderating effect of social capital on the relationship between transaction cost dimensions and forms of supplier opportunism. Third, the weak form of a supplier’s opportunism affects more significantly than the strong form of opportunism on governance costs.

This study aims to investigate the effect of commitment and trust on satisfaction and sequential effect of satisfaction on relational outcomes (i.e. performance and governance cost) in a manufacturer–supplier relationship. Authors of this paper explore the relationship quality parameters such as trust, commitment and satisfaction and its effect on improving the performance and reducing the governance cost between the partners, as well as the effect of relationship duration on the antecedents and relational outcomes.

Based on the conceptual framework developed by authors, hypotheses were formulated, to test the effect of trust and commitment to performance and governance cost through the mediating effect of satisfaction in the manufacturer–supplier relationship. Data were collected from 196 manufacturers from the western part of India, through a structured questionnaire, and collected quantitative data were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

The analysis of the sample of 196 manufacturers suggests a positive relationship between satisfaction and commitment and between satisfaction and trust. The study suggests that increased satisfaction lowers governance cost as well as suggests a positive relationship between satisfaction and performance in a manufacturer–supplier relationship. As a relationship grows in an early stage, relationship performance improves, and as the relationship matures, the relationship performance diminishes.

Findings suggest that managers in business and industrial markets shall focus on commitment in the relationship rather than just trust that leads to satisfaction. It also suggests that a higher level of satisfaction enhances the performance and reduces the governance cost in a manufacturer–supplier relationship.

This research makes four contributions: first, it enquires the direct impact of trust and commitment to a manufacturer’s satisfaction; second, it investigates the indirect impact of trust on a manufacturer’s satisfaction through commitment in the relationship; third, it investigates the mediating satisfaction between trust-commitment and relationship outcomes (relationship performance and governance cost); fourth, the research shows the impact of relationship duration regarding the relational outcomes and the dimensions of relationship quality into a short-term and long-term relationship. It also uniquely suggests that the presence of commitment has a catalytic effect on satisfaction. Research offers managerial implication to increase the performance and to reduce the governance cost in the relationship.

This study aims to map the conceptual structure and evolution of the recent scientific literature published in marketing journals to identify the areas of interest and potential future research directions.

The 100 most influential marketing academic papers published between 2018 and 2022 were identified and scrutinized through a bibliometric analysis.

The findings further upheld the critical role of emerging technologies such as Blockchain in marketing and identified artificial intelligence and live streaming as emerging trends, reinforcing the importance of data-driven marketing in the discipline.

The data collection included only the 100 most cited documents between 2018 and 2022, and data were limited only to Scopus database and restrained to the Scopus-indexed marketing journals. Moreover, documents were selected based on the number of citations. Nevertheless, the data set may still provide significant insight into the marketing field.

Influential authors, papers and journals identified in this study will facilitate future literature searches and scientific dissemination in the field. This study makes an essential contribution to the marketing literature by identifying hot topics and suggesting future research themes. Also, the important role of emerging technologies and the shift of marketing toward a more data-driven approach will have significant practical implications for marketers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study offering a general overview of the leading trends and researchers in marketing state-of-the-art research.