ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the state of the art, in a way that sheds light on the potential avenues and directions that relationship marketing researchers may pursue to advance the domain and gird it for the opportunities and challenges of the digital age. It seeks to augment understanding of relationship marketing, in accordance with prior theory and established frameworks. The chapter provides ways to apply relationship marketing for superior performance, which demands insights into how to address the dynamics of customer–seller relationships, discusses effective strategies for building and maintaining relations, and identifies appropriate target customers for specific relationship marketing programs. It explores the integrating state-of-the-art insights as a point of departure, revealing the promising directions that relationship marketing researchers should chase to move the domain forward. It argues that understanding and integrating the unique contributions of various theoretical perspectives is indispensable for a holistic relationship marketing theory.
