Ideal Relationship Marketing: When Do Relationship Marketing Investments Help? When Do They Hurt?

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Lena Steinhoff
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: Funded in 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 280648618

Relationship marketing is a dominant concept in marketing research and practice, as such efforts are believed to build stronger customer relationships and generate superior company performance. While marketing research mainly focuses on investigating the intended positive effects of relationship marketing investments, marketing practice complains about the ineffectiveness of many relationship marketing efforts. Also, recent research provides initial evidence for unintended negative effects of relationship marketing investments on customer relationships. It is suggested that the effectiveness of relationship marketing investments is contingent on the interplay of various characteristics of relationship marketing investments and the customer relationship. On the one hand, relationship marketing investments can be classified according to their value and their intimacy. Value represents the financial advantage a customer receives by the relationship marketing investment. Intimacy describes the degree to which an investment intrudes into the privacy of a customer. On the other hand, a customer-company relationship represents a dynamic phenomenon, with developing and altering relational norms. Relational norms capture the shared expectations of both the customer and the company about which reciprocal behaviors are appropriate in the relationship and thus indicate the strength of a relationship. Depending on how valuable or intimate a relationship marketing investment is and how strong relational norms are, relationship marketing investments can have positive or negative effects on the customer relationship. A comprehensive conceptual model of the intended and unintended effects of relationship marketing investments is empirically tested using mixed methodologies (two laboratory experiments, field study in collaboration with a company). The research project aims at contributing relevant insights for marketing research in that it amplifies extant relationship marketing models, specifically by including under-researched negative effects. Marketing practice is provided with practical guidelines for effectively managing customer relationships.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Robert W. Palmatier, Ph.D.