Exchange relationships in consumer markets?

Abstract

Since the mid-l 960s. the marketing management school has dominated research in marketing. For Them, exchanges are exchange transactions. In the late 70's and early R0's, the IMP group and the Nordic School of Services were the first to challenge this paradigm. A common denominator of these two schools of thought is that they analyzed exchange relationships. They claim that the identified "anomalies" cannot be assimilated into the current marketing paradigm. These authors suggest different solutions: Some, recommend a "paradigmatic shift in marketing", from transaction marketing towards relationship marketing. Others propose building categories in which both types of exchanges co-exist. But where each type of exchange is restricted to a particular product/services category. lo specific types of markets or lo certain characteristics assumed to be intrinsically related to either of them. This paper argues that exchange transactions and exchange relationships remain different types of exchanges based on different exchange paradigms. The paper will first list the interaction and Network approach's assumptions, next it will analyze and reformulate these assumptions and finally suggest that I&NA can he applied to consumer markets. showing that both transactions and relationship exchanges may coexist in all markets regardless of the product-service sold or customer served.