Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

As businesses increasingly stress the importance of cooperation and collaboration with suppliers and customers, relationship marketing is emerging as the "core" of all marketing activity. In recent years, there has been an explosive growth in business and academic interest in relationship marketing, yet no comprehensive book has been available to present key concepts, theories, and applications. The editors have assembled an authoritative and global cast of chapter contributors and crafted a volume that will become the seminal, founding work in this growing field. Their approach is eclectic, including a broad coverage of topics, diverse theoretical and conceptual paradigms, and global viewpoints. The Handbook of Relationship Marketing covers the entire scope of relationship marketing, including: * The domain, evolution, and growth of relationship marketing * The conceptual and theoretical foundations of relationship marketing * Partnership issues that firms must face to enable relationship marketing * New ways of teaching and learning relationship marketing

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part 1 Domain, Evolution and Growth of Relationship Marketing: Alternative Perspectives
• The Domain and Conceptual Foundations of Relationship Marketing
• Relationship Marketing
• The UK Perspective
• The IMP Perspective
• Asset and Liability of Business Relationships
• Relationship Marketing
• The Nordic School Perspective
• The Evolution of Relationship Marketing
• Part 2 Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations of Relationship Marketing
• Relationship Marketing of Services
• Growing Interest, Emerging Perspectives
• Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets
• Antecedents and Consequences
• Relationship Marketing and Distribution Channels
• An Integrated Model of Buyer-Seller Relationships
• Strategic Alliances
• A Synthesis of Conceptual Foundations
• Towards a Theory of Business Alliance Formation
• Part 3 Partnering for Relationship Marketing
• Relationship Marketing in Mass Markets
• Membership Customers and Relationship Marketing
• Affinity Partnering
• Conceptualization and Issues
• Relationship Marketing and Key Account Management
• Horizontal Alliances for Relationship Marketing
• Supplier Partnering
• Part 4 Enablers of Relationship Marketing
• Relationship Marketing and Marketing Strategy
• The Evolution of Relationship Marketing Strategy within the Organization
• Organizing for Relationship Marketing
• Information Technology
• Its Role in Building, Maintaining and Enhancing Relationships
• Customer Profitability
• Analysis and Design Issues
• Part 5 Teaching and Research Implications of Relationship Marketing
• Developing a Curriculum to Enhance Teaching of Relationship Marketing
• Relationship Marketing
• Paradigm Shift or Shaft?

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Increasing attention has focused on relationship marketing over the past several years. Although not without its critics, relationship marketing is viewed by many marketing scholars as a true paradigm shift from a transaction/exchange orientation to a relationship orientation evolving from a rebirth of direct marketing. Sheth and Parvatiyar (both at Emory Univ. and eminently qualified to assemble this anthology) argue that relationship marketing is a permanent trend now being studied by marketing scholars around the globe. Recognizing the lack of a text or comprehensive set of assembled materials about relationship marketing, they set out to create a compilation of original and published works to provide a seminal scholarly publication on the topic. Their work contains 23 chapters divided into five parts. The first part traces the development and evolution of relationship marketing from different perspectives around the world, while the second provides its underlying theory and concepts. Part 3 addresses the partnering process in both consumer and business-to-business markets. Part 4 focuses on organizational issues for engaging in a relationship marketing strategy. The final part explores academic issues of research needs and curricula development. The book has a thorough index, and most chapters have extensive reference lists. Recommended for graduate, research, and professional collections. G. Riecken; East Tennessee State University