The theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of relationship marketing: Environmental factors behind the changing marketing paradigm

Discusses the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of relationship marketing (RM) to show that RM is but one, albeit perhaps a major, manifestation of the ongoing paradigm shift in business and marketing. The rapid revolutionary changes in the economic and technological environment of business (such as the information revolution) made simultaneously both possible and necessary the changes that can be summarized as a fundamental paradigm shift. Further, it can be argued that this paradigm shift itself is a logical end result of two phenomena: the perennial quest to get closer to the customer and the ever widening scope of business and marketing towards a holistic view of the processes. The external and internal forces that led to the paradigm shift in business and marketing were manifested early in service marketing for natural reasons. Thus it is understandable that the concept of RM was first conceived of in service marketing but it is by no means limited to it. The parallel development in business is often labelled partnering (strategic alliances and partnerships).