Relationship Benefits

Abstract

Abstract The importance of relationship marketing in an increasingly competitive environment is relatively unquestioned. The motivation for maintaining a relationship, however, depends on benefits gained by relationship partners. To date, our knowledge with respect to relationship benefits is very much limited to the independent exchange partner level. Given that a key prerequisite of successful relationships is ‘mutual gain’ (Grönroos, 1990), it seems not only logical but also necessary, to address questions pertaining to benefits from the perspective of both parties. To our knowledge, no study has empirically examined the benefits inherent and gained by each party in the exchange. This study represents an attempt to address this apparent gap in knowledge. Results of a small-scale study across 20 buyer-supplier pairs identified seven benefit categories: symbiotic, psychological, operational, social, economic, strategic and customization. Significant differences across benefit cate.it was clear that the two parties in the dyad benefited in different ways. A discussion of these and other findings together with implications is given.