Toward an encompassing theory of business marketing relationships (BMRS) and interpersonal commercial relationships (ICRS): An empirical generalization

This paper explores business marketing relationships (BMRs) and interpersonal commercial relationships (ICRs). The literature in these two areas is analyzed to develop an overarching theoretical understanding of how marketing relationships function in the marketplace. The authors create empirical generalizations by analyzing the interrelationships among constructs that researchers have studied in a variety of operationalizations and settings during the past decade. This analysis is used to build a conceptual model for marketing relationships as they are studied in BMRs and ICRs. The authors then compare the models in order to develop a higher-level conceptual understanding of relational phenomena.