Beyond Relationship Quality: Examining Relationship Management Effectiveness

Abstract

Researchers have identified various factors that facilitate strong relationships, but approaches used to assess relationship quality do not do justice to the vast literature on relationship marketing. The lack of a comprehensive approach to assess the quality of relationships drives us to propose a "relationship assessment approach." This approach can (1) diagnose how well an organization is doing in managing its relationships in situations where an entity is managing a large number of relationships and (2) identify where corrective actions could be taken to strengthen the relationship. A structural equation-based model is tested using survey data from the Korean fast-food industry. Results suggest that the approach allows one to assess the competence of an entity in maintaining relationships with partner firms and identifies areas where the party could take corrective action to improve relationship quality.