Managing Market Relationships: Methodological and Empirical Insights

Citation

Sigala, M. (2010), "Managing Market Relationships: Methodological and Empirical Insights", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 396-397. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761011052459

Due to the fierce global competition and the increasing sophistication of customers, developing and maintaining market relationships with customers and other stakeholders is considered a necessity for business survival. However, despite the high adoption of customer relationship marketing, both practical evidence and academic research have failed to provide consistent and reliable results regarding the impact of the former on business performance. Arguments and analyses show that the effect of market relationships on business performance depends not only the how market relationships are being developed and maintained but also on whether they are appropriate given the business environment. In this vein, the aim of this book is to provide guidance based on solid theoretical background and industry evidence on how to develop, maintain, and evaluate relationship marketing activities. To address previous gaps in the literature, this book avoids the one‐size‐fits‐all approaches to developing market relationship strategies, and it introduces a buyer‐seller market exchange model that recognises the importance of relationship marketing, identifying the appropriateness of its development and/or its co‐existence with traditional marketing.

The book is written by Adam Lindgreen, but it is based on research that he has also conducted with other international researchers in several companies coming from both the manufacturing and services sectors, e.g. wine producers in New Zealand and the UK's TESCO super market chain. The book is structured into seven chapters providing both industry evidence and a theoretical underpinning for developing market relationships. All chapters provide a rich critical review of the related literature as well as a solid summary of the major research findings and their practical implications. The book is reader‐friendly (demonstrated in its writing style and language), and chapters are sequenced in a logical order based on the progression required for developing, evaluating, and improving the implementation of relationship marketing strategies.

The book starts with an introductory chapter setting the aims and developing the research questions of the studies reported and analysed in the book. The areas of these research questions refer to the following topics, which also consist of the areas and focus of analyses of each subsequent chapter: what value is and how it can be created and delivered in market relationship activities; what the role of interactions, networks, supply chains and leadership are in implementing buyer‐seller relationships; how market relationships evolve given the market dynamism and conditions and how managers can manage this evolution; How managers can control and assess the implementation of market relationships; and how they can identify and learn from best practices in relationship marketing (including analysing, formulating, implementing and controlling relationships).

The second chapter, “Research approach,” is dedicated to the presentation of the research methodology and approach used for conducting the different studies for answering the abovementioned research aims. The chapter analyses in detail the research ontology, epistemonology and methodology developed and implemented for collecting the required primary data. This chapter is useful not only for understanding the context and the quality of the book's research findings, but it is also very useful for any researcher conducting primary research so that he/she better understands how to develop and implement a robust research methodology, including issues of selecting a research paradigm, a research sample, measuring data reliability and validity, etc.

The third chapter, “Understanding relationship marketing”, provides the theoretical background of the importance of building a relationship‐ and not a transaction‐ only relationship orientation. The concept and delivery ways for creating customer value are analysed, while the presentation of the related primary data conclude to the following three levels for creating value that reflect a hierarchy of value creation:

1. 1.

   at the corporate level where the market capitalisation value of the firm is determined;

2. 2.

   at the business‐unit level whereby product or service value is created and delivered to customers through a shop, chain, or network; and

3. 3.

   at the customer‐implementation level where the long term relationship with the customer is developed.

The fourth chapter, “Implementation of relationship marketing”, uses the findings from three case studies (the TESCO meat supply chain, the UK fresh produce industry, and the Danish pork meat industry), for examining and analysing the ways for implementing relationship marketing. The case studies provide useful insights into the impact and the management of supply chains, networks, and buyer‐seller interactions for developing a market relationship orientation. In addition, the case studies provide evidence of the critical role of leadership styles on the building and maintenance of market relationships and based on the findings of these case studies a matrix is developed which helps managers to match marketing activities with appropriate leadership styles.

Chapter 5, “Evolution of relationship marketing”, discusses and argues the evolution of relationship marketing based on the environmental and contextual dimensions within which it is developed. This rationale is in accordance with current research examining the environmental appropriateness of relationship marketing activities by drawing on contingency theories. In this vein, this chapter adopts an open systems theory and uses data gathered from the wine industry in New Zealand in order to show how wine producers need to develop and fit their relationship marketing activities with their environmental and strategic context.

Chapter 6, “Control of relationship marketing”, uses findings from several case studies for developing and proposing a relationship marketing assessment tool which helps companies to question, identify, and prioritize the following critical aspects of relationship marketing: customer strategy, culture, people, organisation, information technology, relationship management processes, knowledge management, and learning. The content and dimensions of each aspect is analysed into a detailed list of items to inspect and manage.

The book concludes with a final chapter “Conclusions”, which identifies and summarises in a concise and useful way the major findings as well as both the theoretical and the practical implications of the studies analysed within all the book chapters.

Overall, this is an easy‐to‐read book that provides a rich set of both theoretical background and industry evidence of the ways to develop, maintain, and measure‐improve relationship marketing activities that are deemed appropriate and that fit with the firm's environment and context. The book nicely integrates theoretical concepts with practical evidence gathered by using a robust methodology from a wide and international spectrum of firms. Overall, the book provides a nice rethinking of when, why, and how to apply relationship marketing. The book constitutes a useful reading for researchers‐academics, high level students, and practitioners involved and dedicated in continuous professional training and development activities.