Relationship marketing makes an implicit assumption : customers are committed. This commitment is based on the existing trust between the customer and the service provider. However, customers may reject commitment, because of psychological reactance, without any loss of trust. This article...

Relationship marketing is based on the assumption of the customers’ commitment. This commitment may be multidimensional, with an affective dimension and a calculative one. Commitment is shown to be linked to trust. Relationship marketing has not paid a lot of attention to psychological...

Effects of loyalty programs and their perceived benefits for consumers have been the object of a growing interest in the area of marketing. However, existing literature do not really mention that some consumers could show reactance against loyalty programs. Thanks to a qualitative study, this...

This article demonstrates that socially anxious consumers avoid close relationships with merchants. An experimental approach (n=102) shows that socially anxious consumers prefer small talk with merchants rather than intimate conversations, whereas non-socially anxious consumers prefer intimate...

Bulletin board methodology emerged at the end of the 1990s and is becoming the most frequently used qualitative study technique. This interactive approach groups a community of participants in a private or public online forum for a duration that varies from several days to several months....

This conceptual article presents the current criticisms to relationship marketing and important concepts developed in marketing and psychology to understand consumer reactance toward services packaged as formal contracts. A first part presents the numerous questions that researches are raising...

The authors conduct an exploratory study in order to develop a measurement scale of customers transactional/relational orientation. The study is implemented in the context of French banking industry in both B.-to-C. and B.-to-B. environments. The results show that a different scale is needed for...

Based on 102 online surveys accounting for more than 3 million interviews, we show that websites are powerful purchase intent and brand builders and represent a strong opportunity to enhance customer relationships through “conversation” with the brand's best customers.