Reflections on relationship marketing in consumer markets

ConclusionThe article by S&P is a landmark in the evolution of relationship marketing concepts. Much of what has been done in the past has addressed narrow aspects of relationship marketing or else has taken for granted the meaning of marketing relationships. S&P set the agenda for future work and give us many provocative ideas for pursuing relationship marketing topics. Their synthesis and integration of ideas from disparate literatures and their proposal for the underlying motivation for entering marketing relationships do much to delineate the direction researchers should take in the future. Before we go too far down any one path, however, we should redouble our efforts to specify exactly what is a marketing relationship. Then we would have the foundation to follow the path so eloquently forged by Jagdish Sheth and Atul Parvatiyar.