Social Exchange Theory and Research on Business-to-Business Relational Exchange

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social exchange theory (SET) has been used extensively by marketing scholars to explain business-to-business relational exchange. Despite its popularity as a theoretical explanatory mechanism, there is no recent literature review that delineates SET's foundational premises, how it has been used in the marketing literature, and its theoretical limitations. This article provides such a review and is intended to assist researchers who wish to use SET to examine business-to-business relational exchange. KEYWORDS: Social exchange theorybusiness-to-business marketingrelational exchangeexchangerelationship marketing