More is better but in what direction? The effects of relationship marketing investment breadth and depth on customer gratitude

Abstract

Relationship marketing is an important strategy salespeople use to develop and maintain sustainable customer relationships. Accordingly, they invest significantly in relationship marketing activities to prompt positive perceptions from their customers. However, salespeople often face resource limitations, which restrict their ability to effectively invest in relationship marketing activities. Building on this premise, we propose that salespeople may choose two different strategies to capitalize on their investments in relationship marketing: broadly investing in multiple categories without deep commitment or deeply investing in specific categories at the expense of wide coverage. Given their specific focus, we argue that these two strategies influence customer perceptions differently. Furthermore, we suggest that their effectiveness is contingent on customers' orientation in inter-firm interactions. Using data collected from 183 organizational customers, we find robust evidence supporting our hypotheses.