Understanding the Role of Gratitude in Building Quality Relationships

ABSTRACT

Developing and maintaining high-quality relationships with customers is an essential part of the marketing function for many luxury restaurants. Accordingly, researchers have identified a number of drivers of relationship quality in the domain of restaurant patronage. However, while there has been much research concerning the antecedents of relationship quality, a central question remains: What is it about relationship marketing that leads to better quality relationships? The purpose of this research is to answer this question by investigating the role of gratitude in the development of high-quality relationships in the luxury restaurant marketplace. To these ends, a conceptual framework of these relationships is proposed and empirically tested using a sample of restaurant consumers in the USA. The results indicate that gratitude plays an important role in relationship marketing in the luxury restaurant industry.

开发和维护与顾客的优质关系是许多豪华饭店营销功能的重要组成部分。因此，研究人员已经在餐馆赞助领域确定了一些关系品质的驱动因素。然而，虽然已有很多关于关系质量前因的研究，但一个中心问题仍然存在：关系营销如何导致更高质量的关系？本研究的目的是透过调查「感恩」在奢华餐厅市场发展高品质关系中的作用来回答这个问题。为此目的，提出了这些关系的概念框架，并用美利坚合众国餐馆消费者的样本进行了实证检验。研究结果表明，感恩在奢侈品餐饮业的关系营销中起着重要作用。

KEYWORDS:

• Gratitude
• relationship quality
• relationship marketing
• luxury restaurants
• consumer behavior