engleski

Market exchange relationships in the descriptive CRM model as a base of general marketing theory

Purpose: From the early days of development of marketing paradigm, the marketing research is engaged in formulating a unified general marketing theory and in finding a consensus on what the central unit of analysis in marketing is. Especially in the last decades, there has been a general debate about the role of exchange and relationships in marketing and about the concept of relationship marketing as a paradigm shift. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new understanding of exchange relationships, to define a central unit of analysis in marketing and by doing so to propose the base for the unified general marketing theory. // Method: The work is based on literature review from marketing, relationship marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) (including Bartels, Kotler, Morgan & Hunt, Gummesson, Håkansson, Grönroos, Sheth & Parvatiyar, Vargo & Lusch, Payne, O’Malley, Tadajewski and many others). Based on the social exchange theory (Cook 1987) and the developed organizational theory (Lipovec 1987) the findings are used to explain exchange relationships in markets and to define the concepts of exchange relationship, relationship management and CRM. The conceptual descriptive CRM model is developed and placed into the centre of the marketing theory. Finally, theoretical implications of the model on the general marketing theory are applied. // Findings: By explaining the relationship with the developed organizational theory, it is shown that relationship and exchange are both essential parts of an exchange relationship. In fact, a relationship is a parallel process to an exchange. Marketing exchange and organizational relationship are merged into a higher theoretical construct, into the market exchange relationship. Parallel to a marketing mix, an organizational mix (duty, responsibility, authority and communication) is proposed. Marketing mix addresses what a company should do to stimulate the exchange, while organizational mix explains how to develop the relationships to achieve the marketing goals efficiently. // Research Limitations: Although the descriptive CRM model with its core determinants (relationship, customer, management) is developed and its broader determinants (trust, commitment, satisfaction, loyalty, power and norms) find place in the model, these broader determinants are only conceptually addressed. In addition, a key dimension of the descriptive CRM model, the psychological mix (composed of trust, commitment, satisfaction and loyalty) is only shortly addressed and not yet integrated in the CRM model. // Main contribution: The model shows how personal needs are fulfilled through exchange relationships in markets. The conceptual descriptive CRM model leads to a common understanding of marketing – it merges the concepts of exchange, relationship and network. By integrating organizational theory into the conceptual CRM model, marketing is placed at the core of marketing paradigm and the base of general marketing theory is proposed.

exchange; relationship; network; exchange relationship; CRM model; general marketing theory

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