Theoretical and Methodological Foundations for Personality Research in the Context of Business-to-Business Relationships: the Case of Financial Services

The current study defines the platform for approaching the subject of marketing financial services to businesses. The relationship between a financial institution and its business customer has been analyzed in the framework of relationship marketing. The author proposes that there are multiple models within the satisfaction process, which are moderated by product, person and situational factors. While reviewing the history and current trends of marketing financial services to businesses, the author claims that it would be most useful to be aware of metatheoretical positions and cross-examine the already existent data in order to develop the concepts instead of coming up with new approaches. Theories of personality research have been gone through to study the foundations of the self, role and identity, whereby the author comes to the conclusion that the theories lead us to a set of broad dimensions that characterize individual differences and that can be measured in a reliable way, but the Ñwhyí of personality is something else. After conducting an interviews-based research, there would be good grounds for further discussion of the subject.