Relationalism as a Marketing Strategy: An Empirical Study Among Finnish Business-to-Business Marketing Firms

ABSTRACT

A host of business and industrial marketing literature has put long-term oriented, cooperative and bonded business relationships into research focus. Empirical field research–mainly in-depth case studies–has identified them as the dominating governance mode in most industrial business settings. In this study, the following research questions are set: (1) From theoretical point of view, how can relationalism as a marketing strategy be conceptualized? (2) In a population of business-to-business marketing firms, what is the extent of firms that apply relationalism as a primary marketing strategy? (3) Are there any differences between various kinds of business-to-business firms regarding relationalism manifested in the marketing strategy? Relationalism of a marketing strategy is defined in terms of the cooperativeness of marketing practices and the level of accrued relationship assets within key business relationships in a specific business-to-business marketing context. The sample consisted of 211 Finnish business-to-business marketing firms in the metal and electrotechnical industry. MANOVA and ANOVA procedures were utililized in the study. The study revealed that the respondent companies are on the average rather relational in their marketing strategies. No strong and clear differences were found in marketing practices and relationship assets between the groups of the employed independent variables. Although relationality of the marketing strategy (in terms of marketing practices and relationship assets) and firm profitability seem to have a weak connection, our study cannot confirm the common belief that companies should strive towards the creation of close and bonded relationships with their key customers in order to be more profitable than their competitors. Rather, it seems to be so that in the business-to-business context where the markets are network-like, close relationships to key customers can be regarded more as a necessary condition to survive than a sufficient condition to succeed.

KEYWORDS:

• Relationalism
• marketing strategy
• business-to-business markets