The relationship-service-profit chain: Conceptual framework and propositions

Lester Johnson, Melbourne Business School

Abstract

This paper proposes an expanded relationship-service-profit chain as a business success model based on a blending of human resource management and marketing within the relationship marketing framework. The proposed model draws on the original service-profit chain developed in the 90s by academics at Harvard, which is further enhanced through the addition of a relationship marketing orientation and combining internal marketing and human resource management activities to best implement an updated service-profit chain. The enhanced relationship-service-profit chain model is introduced as a plausible explanation for previous problems encountered in the service-profit chain literature and also to provide a point of reference for future research into the association between internal service operations and external operations and sustained superior customer outcomes.