Preliminary communication
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL BONDS FOR COMMUNICATION AND TRUST IN MARKETING RELATIONSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Barbara Čater
orcid.org/0000-0003-0005-7288
; Faculty of Economics Ljubljana
Abstract
This paper examines trust, communication and social bonds in marketing relationships in professional services in a business-to-business market. The context of our empirical research is the marketing research industry in Slovenia. The results show that social bonds in the examined context are present to a low extent. The analysis revealed two groups of companies on the basis of developed social bonds. The first group (‘strictly business’ relationships) consists of 62.7% of companies, which have a lower level of social bonds between individuals than 37.3% of companies that belong to the second group (‘business friends’ relationships). Analysis also revealed that social bonds positively influence openness of communication and trust.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
25499
URI
Publication date:
2.6.2008.
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