Review and Prospect of Relationship Marketing: A Citation Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of relationship marketing (RM) in SSCI. Using citation analysis from the Web of Science, the study shows that 170 articles related to RM were published in the leading peer-review academic journals between 1999 and 2005. Our findings support Grönroos' (1999) view that RM research has a competitive advantage in the new era. Our citation analysis finds evidence that published RM-related papers increased in 2005 as compared to 1999, and most articles were published in influential social science journals, with a higher impact factor. We also provide several implications in the discussion section.