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The maturity of relationship management and firm performance – A step toward relationship management middle-range theory

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  • Deszczyński, Bartosz
  • Beręsewicz, Maciej

Abstract

A relationship approach to business is well recognized by both academia and business practitioners. Though a superficial understanding of this concept makes it hard to separate firms which are truly relationship-oriented from those, which only declare relationships as their priority, while being prevailingly transaction-oriented. Consequently, the correlation between the relationship approach and firm performance is studied in the absence of a relationship management maturity definition of what undermines the plausibility of this concept. This paper seeks to close this gap. A multistep statistical analysis, including association rules and frequent itemsets mining, was applied to effectively analyze the 608-strong sample of Polish companies. As a result, the paper develops a workable definition of corporate relationship management maturity, based on the evidence of top performing companies and it quotes the key business practices, which indicate a truly relationship-oriented company. Thus this paper contributes to the development of relationship management middle-range theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Deszczyński, Bartosz & Beręsewicz, Maciej, 2021. "The maturity of relationship management and firm performance – A step toward relationship management middle-range theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 358-372.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:135:y:2021:i:c:p:358-372
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.06.026
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