دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی پیشرفت نظریه بازاریابی رابطه ای: بررسی روابط مشتری از طریق یک چارچوب فرایند محور - اشپرینگر 2018

Abstract

Relationship marketing is commonly defined as a process. Its essential process dimension, however, remains surprisingly under-theorized. In this conceptual paper, we address this theoretical void and begin to develop a processcentric framework to explore company-customer relationships. This framework distinguishes four ideal-typical models of the relationship marketing process: (1) life-cycle, (2) evolutionary, (3) teleological and (4) dialectical process models. Our review of the relationship marketing literature reveals the prevalence of life-cycle conceptions of the relationship marketing process, followed by teleological and evolutionary conceptions. It is against this backdrop that we illustrate the value of dialectical process models as a first promising opportunity to advance relationship marketing theory. The second opportunity we showcase consists in combining two (or more) of these process models. We end with guidelines on how to identify suitable combinations of commensurable process models to systematize the multifaceted opportunities for advancing theory in relationship marketing and beyond.

Conclusions

Relationship marketing is commonly defined as a process. Its essential process dimension, however, remains surprisingly under-theorized. In this conceptual paper, we started to address this theoretical void and developed a process-centric framework to explore company-customer relationships. This framework distinguishes four ideal-typical models of the relationship marketing process: (1) life-cycle, (2) evolutionary, (3) teleological and (4) dialectical process models. Our review of the relationship marketing literature revealed the prevalence of life-cycle conceptions of the relationship marketing process, followed by teleological and evolutionary conceptions. It is against this backdrop that we illustrated the value of dialectical process models as a first promising opportunity to advance relationship marketing theory. In particular, we found a dialectical lens to have the potential to redirect scholarly and managerial attention in an effort to paint an even more realistic picture of the relationship marketing process and its social complexities. We developed five tensions in our paper, including the ones between idealization and realization and between novelty and predictability, which jointly shape relationship marketing processes. They vary across the relationship lifecycle, are unlikely to evolve in any prescribed order, and can be reconciled imperfectly at best. The second opportunity for advancing theory we showcased consisted in combining two (or more) process archetypes to do better justice to the multifaceted nature of the relationship marketing process. We hope that these insights and our process-centric framework for exploring company-customer relationships will inspire future research and help to systematize the manifold opportunities for advancing theory in relationship marketing and beyond