The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing

The provided text is an excerpt from a 1994 academic paper by Robert M. Morgan and Shelby D. Hunt titled "The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing," which defines relationship marketing as all efforts aimed at establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges. The authors theorize that relationship commitment and trust are key mediating variables (KMV) essential for successful relationship marketing, contrasting their model against a rival model that does not treat these as mediators. The research tests this KMV model using data collected from automobile tire retailers to demonstrate how commitment and trust encourage cooperative behaviors and other positive outcomes crucial for long-term success. They ultimately conclude that their parsimonious model, which highlights the central role of commitment and trust, offers a superior explanation for achieving relationship marketing success over models that focus only on direct antecedent effects.