AN INVESTIGATION OF RELATIONALISM ACROSS A RANGE OF MARKETING RELATIONSHIPS AND ALLIANCES

The authors describe four important aspects of the ''new'' relational environment: (1) the organizational forms of marketing relationships, (2) the governance mechanisms which exist between exchange partners, ( 3) the perceived effectiveness of the organizational forms, and (4) ex pectations that the exchange relationship will continue in the future. Two contexts, National Association of Purchasing Management members a nd Fortune 500 executives, provide a cross-sectional investigation of vertical and horizontal exchange relationships. The results indicate t hat alliances are more relational than nonalliance exchanges; however, one cannot assume a relational gradation across the organizational fo rms (i.e., traditional supply agreements, just-in-time relationships, vertical supply alliances, and co-marketing alliances). Further, co-ma rketing alliances are reported as the exchange relationship with the h ighest expectation of continuation, but there are no differences in th e perceived effectiveness across organizational forms.