An empirical study of the negative forces of Relationship marketing in wholesale and retail business

Rational for the study

The plethora of the studies revealed that the researchers investigating the effects of relationship marketing have focused almost exclusively on the relationship benefits and positive effects of relationship marketing. The idea that closely bind Wholesale [business to business (B2B)] or Retail [business to customer (B2C)] relationship may actually have negative effects seems to have received very little consideration and even very less investigated or tested. Relationship marketing supports the global notion such as shared values trust, commitment and satisfaction, can have direct impact on the onset of negative side symptoms as relational myopia, complacency, vulnerability and suspicion as well as how the negative factors subsequently influences relationship strength and performance. The important factor is time period, the role of time is introduced as this variable is believe to be crucial in any investigation involving the negative side of Wholesale/ Retail relationship in to a dysfunctional one. There have been numerous journals, articles, special journal issues as well as marketing conferences dedicated to RM Topics and research. Whether the RM represents and actual paradigm shift in marketing thought or is merely marketing strategy is still a matter of some debate. The vast amount of attention RM has received should come as no surprise considering that the benefits of adopting a relational as opposed to a discrete approach towards marketing are very well documented. Greater relationship satisfaction and anticipation of future prospects from customer have also been linked to and RM or relation exchange mindset. Also RM approaches have been found to positively influence performance variables likes profitability, sales or other financial metrics such as return on investments. However in spite of the rather sizeable amount of literature extolling the virtues of RM, some executives have been disappointed in the result of their RM efforts while other researchers suggest that there may be a negative forces to implementing RM strategies. Trust and perceived quality of interaction contributes most significantly to research utilization, with the trust having indirect effect through others relationship processes the effect of involvement and commitment do also influence the behavior of the customer but and it is observed that the numbers of the long term relationship may lose their ability to be objective, which detracts from their effectiveness also, the relationship may become stale or the members of the relationship may become too much like each other which may breed boredom and subsequently inhabit new ideas. The higher expectations between the members of the relationship as the relationship wears on. Opportunities for opportunistic behavior arise as the result of increased commitment and involvement. Lot of evidences found in the literature and practical experience of customers though not empirically tested that firms lose the ability to remain objective when evaluating exchange partners, increase opportunism in long terms relationship, and increase expectation between exchanges partners are the manifestation of the negative forces. In this study, investigation will be done in the relationship between relational constructs of trust, commitment, communication, shared values and mutual dependence and their influence over time.

Research Objective
In this study, the various aspects of the human behavior which have developed negative effects on long terms associations between the customers and organizations will be examined in the light of following factors viz a viz . Shared values, relational myopia, commitment, complacency, vulnerability, suspicion, trust and satisfaction. These factors can be examined by developing the following hypothesis as. H1: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between shared values and relational myopia H2: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between commitment and relational myopia. H3: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between commitment and suspicion H4: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between trust and relational myopia. H5: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between Trust and suspicion H6: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between satisfaction and relational myopia. H7: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between satisfaction and suspicion H8: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between commitment and complacency H9: To study whether there will be a positive relationship between commitment and vulnerability H10: To study whether a Buyer exchange inefficiency negatively affects seller performance outcomes H11: To study whether Buyer exchange inefficiency negatively affects buyer trust in the salesperson

Research Methodology
Sample Size and Description of Sample A descriptive studies will be done by collecting the data from the diverse set of wholesalers and Retailers relationship. Total no. of responses will be 300 gathered to test the hypothesis. The data will be collected from the questionnaires and door to door survey. The break up of the 300 responses are 100 from Wholesalers and 200 from Retailers . The Retailers are based on services ( 100 responses) and products ( 100 responses). Nature of Data: Primary Data from the respondents Data sources: customers experience and Retailers responses Collection Method: Moreover, selection of respondents has been restricted to DELHI state and NCR region only. In the present study, non-probabilistic (convenient sampling cum judgment sampling) method will be used for sampling. A well-structured questionnaire has been constructed and administered to get the required information from the respondents. The respondents will be encouraged to participate and research objectives will be explained before filling in the questionnaires. Tools and Techniques for Analysis A pilot survey will be conducted comprising of 75 respondents (25 from each category) from Delhi and NCR before conducting a depth survey. If needed certain alterations/modifications will be made in the questionnaire on the basis of responses got from the customers. All the statements for measuring service quality have been carefully generated and positively worded on a five point Likert Scale (1-->5). The respondents were asked to express their level of agreement/disagreement on the seven point Likert Scale ranging from `strongly disagree' (1) to `strongly agree' (5) with respect to various statements included in the questionnaire. However, before applying factor analysis, item and reliability analysis will be performed to retain and delete scaleitems for the purpose of developing a reliable scale. Various tests such as Chi-Square Test and Cronbach's alpha , will apply so as to check the sampling adequacy and reliability of the data. In the present study, various statistical and mathematical tools such as percentage analysis and weighted average score will be employed for measuring customer responses. The statistical package, SPSS, will be used for analysis of the data. The statistical technique, factor analysis, which is a multivariate technique, will be applied for the purpose of analysis and reliability of the data.

Literature Review
Relationship Marketing The interest of marketing is extended to relationship marketing because firm is more interested to build relationship with customers to achieve long term profit. According to Buttle (1996), marketing is no longer only about developing, selling and delivering product. It is more concerned on development and maintenance of mutually satisfying long-tern relationship with customer. Core concept of Relationship Marketing According to Gummerson (2002), relationship marketing is a marketing based on interaction with networks of relationship. Relationship marketing is defined by Gronroos (1994) as the process related to establishing, maintaining, and enhancing relationship with customers and other partners in order to improve customer base and profitability. The core concept of relationship marketing is to establish relationships with consumers. Each customer is viewed as an individual and great emphasis is placed upon the life time value that they provide (Blythe, 2005). Companies move from focusing on fixed transaction to build long term relationship with customers for long term benefits in between (Berry, 1983). The Need for Relationship Marketing Little and Marandi (2003) claim that relationship marketing is the best way to add value in order to retain customers in the long run, and that results in gaining competitive advantages. As competition within the market place has highly intensified, competitive advantage is sought after. It is believed that strengthening relationships with existing customers enables this as it further instigates customer retention (Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995 and Gronroos, 1994a). Involvement of this stature results in close interactive relationships with suppliers, customers and other value chain partners of the firm (Parvatiyar, Sheth and Whittington, 1992). Bejou et al (1998) relationship marketing is to develop and maintain long term customers' satisfaction which can results in customer loyalty. Similarly to Jones and Farquhar (2003), sustainable competitive advantage can be derived from forming strong relationships with consumers. The results of strong bonds are therefore likely to increase customer retention. Trust According to Little and Marandi (2003), trust is considered as an important requirement in building successful relationship. Trust definition was explained by Moorman, Deshpande, and Zaltman (1993) cited by Little and Marandi (2003)--- book as a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence. A betray of customers' trust can result in customers' dissatisfaction and defection. The belief that a party's word or promise is reliable and the party will fulfill its obligations in an exchange relationship (Schurr and Ozane, 1985). A party's expectations that another party desires coordination, will fulfill obligations, and will pull its weight in a relationship (Dwyer, Schurr and Oh, 1987). The belief by one party that its needs will be fulfilled in the future by actions taken

by the other party (Anderson and Weitz, 1989). Crosby, Evans and Cowles (1990), state that trust is a key element of relationship marketing which has the ability to create customer loyalty. Relevant to Morgan and Hunt (1994), relationship marketing is about healthy relationship characterized by trust and that trust is an important criterion for enhancing loyalty. Commitment Commitment similar to trust, it is one of the most important variables in understanding and measuring the strength of marketing relationships. It is a useful construct for measuring the likelihood of customer loyalty and predicting future purhasing frequency (Ndubsisi, 2004; Gundlach, Achrol and Mentzer, 1995; Morgan and Hunt, 1994 and Dwyer et al., 1987). Commitment is a relationship that both parties will be loyal, reliable and show stability in the relationship with each other (Storbacka K., Strandvik T., and Groonroos C., 1994) cited by Egan, 2001)---book. Commitment is also considered the most common dependent variable in buyer seller relationships and can be used to analyse both individual and organizational behavior (Wilson, 1995 and Becker, 1960). Commitment is an essential to complete a successful long-term relationship. This implies that a higher level of obligation or commitment is required in order to make a relationship success and to make it mutually satisfying and beneficial (Gundlach et al., 1995 and Morgan and Hunt, 1994). If commitment is higher among individuals within a relationship with a supplier, they will be willing to reciprocate the efforts on behalf of a firm such as through word of mouth advertising and referrals (Mowday, Steers and Porter, 1979). Value The perceived value that a consumer gains from a provider is considered to be an important factor in relationship marketing and thus enhances or reduces customer loyalty. The ability for the company to provide superior value to its customer has been regarded as one of the most successful competitive strategies in marketing. Value is defined as the tradeoff between the benefits gained and the sacrifices made in a market exchange. This is compared to the costs associated with achieving the benefit (Bagdonien and Jaktait, 2007; Zeithaml, Bi tner and Gremler, 2006; Ulaga and Eggert, 2005 and Grnroos, 2004). This proposition has become a considerable means of creating competitive advantage and the ability to sustain it is key (Grnroos, 1994a; Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser, and Schlesinger, 1994; Treacy and Wiersema, 1993; Nilson, 1992; Christopher et al., 1991; McKenna, 1991 and Quinn, Doorely and Paquette, 1990). By adding more value to the core product such as improvements to product quality or other additional supporting services, companies are able to enhance customer satisfaction. This results in strengthening of bonds among consumers and the service provider and thus customer loyalty is thereby achieved. Increasing the benefits for the customer means adding something to the core product that the customer perceives important, beneficial and of unique value. A good core product or service combined with additional services increases the benefits of the consumer which in turn has a positive effect on customer - perceived quality. Implementing a scheme that ensures this will make certain that the relationship between the consumer and the provider is enhanced over the long run and thus facilitating loyalty to the brand (Ravald and Gronroos, 1996). Heskett et al., (1994) also concluded that increased customer satisfaction enhances customer loyalty. However, the extent to which a customer feels that the service provided is of value' is a subjective concept. This is because value will represent different things to different people and therefore will be vary in changing circumstances (O'Malley, 1998). Dwyer Schurr and Oh (1987) has study the wholesaler (business to business) on dependence, uncertainty exchange efficiency and social satisfaction and find that customer utilize relational governance to manage many different exchange problems but the governance benefits must outweigh the governance costs.

Relationship Marketing is concerned with creating a series of sequential exchanges that are closer and long term orientated compared to individual discrete exchanges typical of a discrete orientation (Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987; Hultman and Shaw 2003). More succinctly, tying the customer or exchange partner to the firm with a series of transactions following the establishment of the exchange relationship is the goal of RM (Ford 1980; Hultman and Shaw 2003), while discrete transactions or exchanges involve a single, short time exchange with a distinct beginning and end (Gundlach and Murphy 1993). RM and relational exchange has received broad acceptance from marketing academics as well as marketing practitioners (Morgan and Hunt 1994; Palmatier et al. 2006; Rao and Perry 2002).

Anderson and Narus (1991) has study the wholesaler (business to business) on value to customer, industry norms, customers philosophy of doing business and find that all these can make customers more receptive to relationship, building efforts. Customers will remain loyal to a company if they perceive to gain a higher value from the given organisation when compared to its competitors. According to Wansik and Seed (2001), the main criteria for a loyalty program to be successful is the customer's perceived value of the offering. Reicheld (1996) further stresses that value is a key background element for one's loyalty. The perceived value has the ability to stimulate the purchase of goods and services and prevents a consumer from taking alternative deals into consideration (Pura, 2005). The loyalty program must therefore enhance the value proposition of the product or service and this in turn should be reflected in the concept of loyalty scheme success (Arantola, 2002 and Dowling and Uncles, 1997). Desphande (1992) that firms lose the ability to remain objective when evaluating exchange partners, increased opportunism in long term relationships, and increased expectations between exchange partners are the manifestations of the negative forces put to test. Grayson and Ambler (1999) were unable to empirically support the notion that their dark side constructs, such as perceived opportunism, perceived loss of objectivity and rising expectations, mediate the relationships between trust and advertising use. In other words, though they found evidence to suggest that the effects of trust are dampened in long term relationships, they were unable to link this effect to the negative force constructs originally suggested by Moorman, Zaltman, and Desphande (1992). Cannon and Perreault (1999) has study the dependence, complexity of purchase, dependence and identify a continuum of procurement situations that progressively involve more procurement obstacles. Johnson and Sohi ( 1999 & 2001) has study the dependence, age flexibility, continuity expectations, relational proclivity and identify that these relate positively to a firms focus on strategic integration with its suppliers. Noordewier John and Nevin (1990) has study the uncertainty and identified that customers performance is enhanced when they match their relational governance structures to the level of environmental uncertainity. In situations of high environmental uncertainty, customers purchasing performance is enhanced by stronger supplier relationships. De Wulf Dekerken Schroder and Iacobucci (2001) has study the interaction between food and apparel retailers and consumers, product category involvement and relational proneness identify partial support for the premise that perceived relationship investment have a greater impact on relationship quality when customers have higher levels of products category involvement and are more rationally prone.

Contribution: A large number of studies that have been investigated the various aspects of relationship marketing, it is surprisingly that there has not been more work dedicated to the investigating the negative factors which has effects of RM. This negligence has been recognized however. Bal Matier (2008) in his recent monograph dedicated to exposition of the relationship marketings states More efforts is needed to understand, how RM can negatively effects performances through in efficiencies, cognitive rigidity and seller-side relationship effects. In this study the efforts are made to contribute to the largely untouched and unknown areas of relationship marketing. Through this study, I will be able to empirically support more globa l notions that relationship constructs such as shared values, trust, commitment and satisfaction can have direct influence on the onset of such negative symptoms as relational myopia, complacency, vulnerability and suspicion. This study will a step forward in developing a deeper understanding of RM that will not only provide insight into how engaging in wholesale business relationship can benefits the firm but also engaging these relationship can also be harmful. It is a move to shift the focus of RM research away from the benefits of the RM strategy and towards the recognitions negative factors so that causes and effects can be more deeply understood. The theoretical prospective, such as the commitment trust prospective, dependence prospective , transaction cost prospective and relational norms prospective have all been applied within the RM literature as tool that offer theoretical explanation for how and why relational constructs positively influence on customer relationship though these prospective have proven useful when examining the positive benefits and outcomes associated with RM, they have not yet accounted for the eventual manifestation of the negative side. This sunset clause provides s the missing theoretical justification. For the diminished returns and eventual onset of the negative factors associated with continued investment in RM strategy. Limitations Like any other research project, the present study has certain limitations. Firstly, the present research is based on the survey undertaken through a questionnaire. Any study based on survey through a pre-designed questionnaire suffers from the basic limitation of the possibility of differences between what is recorded and what is true because of biased responses or problem of filters in the communication process. Secondly, due to the paucity of resources and time, it has not been possible to explore the possibilities of changes in the opinion of the respondents over time. Thirdly, demographics may influence the service quality perceptions differently for different set of customers and the findings cannot be generalized for the respondents from any other regions or respondents with different profiles. Finally, in factor analysis, the naming of the factors is carried out intuitively and based on the review of literature. Hence, some of the factor names might not be very representative of the dimensions loaded on them.