The dark side of long-term relationships in marketing services

In their study of marketing services relationships, Moorman, Zaltman, and D eshpande (1992) are unable to support a hypothesized link between relationa l factors (such as clients' trust in their service providers) and clients' use of marketing services. This finding runs counter to relationship market ing theory. To explain their result, Moorman, Zaltman, and Deshpande (1992) suggest that, as a relationship becomes more longterm, it becomes prone to negative influences that dampen the positive impact of relational factors. This study replicates and extends Moorman, Zaltman, and Deshpande's (1992) work by examining relationships between advertising agencies and their cli ents. The results replicate findings on seven of ten hypotheses proposed in the original article. The authors also extend the original study by suppor ting the general hypothesis that long-term relationships have a negative im pact on service use, which dampens the impact of trust. The results shed li ght on the mediating role that certain "dark side" constructs play in marke ting services relationships.