Purpose – Drawing on resource‐advantage theory and a diverse literature base, this article seeks to further the development of the explanatory foundations of relationship marketing theory by proposing, and then providing, tentative answers to three “why?” questions in relationship...

Purpose – The authors propose to reply to the comment by Mario Rese on the article “The explanatory foundations of relationship marketing theory.” Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a critical analysis. Findings – The comment of Rese has misspecified the major problems...

Determining the strategic thrust of the firm, it may be argued, is the principal task of top management. This task is aided by recent theories of business and marketing strategy, including the normative imperatives based on industry factors, resource factors, competences, market orientation, and...