THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL BONDS FOR COMMUNICATION AND TRUST IN MARKETING RELATIONSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

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.

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