This book aims to fulfil two objectives: to contribute to the state of knowledge in the broad area of relationship marketing and to provide readers with an insight into the antecedents and roots of the current "fashionable" interest in relationship marketing.

The first part of this book presents ideas on our current understanding of networks, relationships, and interaction. The second part contains contributions which will be of interest to all those undertaking research in the area of business-to-business marketing. Part three, containing contributions with a strategic orientation, aims to give readers an indication of how broad the scope of the subject matter really is.

The contributions represent some of the most current and interesting thinking and empirical research in the field, and have been chosen to reflect the way in which the theme of relationship marketing has matured and developed. They cover the three areas of interactions, networks, and relationships, but this book goes further by the way in which these topics are covered. The chapters include theoretical developments in the area, practical case studies, and also new methodologies that can be applied to the study of relationship marketing.