One peculiarity of relationship marketing is that the pioneers drew to some extent on theory; the motivation behind relationship marketing being rooted in empirical observations and managerial problems, which highlighted the value added of relationship-based managing. The perception of these issues led the pioneers to challenge established, mostly transaction based theories on the market and marketing. Early contributors, such as Arndt, perceived relationships as attempts to domesticate the market. Currently research is moving its focus to the economic value of relationship based managing. A major objective of this e-book is to provide a forum for the discussion and further development of relationship theory.
Purpose - Economic theories applied to the study of buyer-seller relationships draw to a large extent on the problems caused by specific investments. This contribution aims to develop a new perspective on specific investments that accounts for their value-adding character and also to present a transaction-centred definition of customer relationships.
Design/methodology/approach - The contribution draws on a comparative review on literature on business networks and economic theories focused on industrial buying behaviour.
Findings - Provides a transaction-related definition of customer relationships in order to distinguish between different kinds of relationships and provides a framework to how relationship management is able to enhance marketing activities.
Practical implications - Specific investments are a powerful tool for differentiating the market offerings of a company. One central implication is for managers to realise on which stage of the market arena such differentiation is likely to be successful: transaction, relationship, segment or value network. This is the starting-point for investing in a relationship portfolio conducive for the value generation of the company.
Originality/value - The paper shows that the value potential generated by specific investments is not fulfilled in the realms of present marketing literature. Also it is the first contribution to present a framework capable of treating phenomena of customer relationship management, relationship marketing and network marketing on the same footing, while still respecting the original motivations of those approaches.
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