Relational Exchange Norms in Marketing: A Critical Review of Macneil’s Contribution

Different theories make different assumptions about the mechanisms that govern economic transactions and there are several reviews that have summarized existing conceptual and empirical work associated with such frameworks as transaction cost analysis or agency theory. However, Macneil’s Relational Contracting Theory, another major theoretical foundation of current marketing research into business relationships, has not yet received similar attention. This article provides a review of a core concept developed in this stream of literature: the norm concept. It contrasts Macneil’s view of norms with the work developed in the field of marketing. As a result, the authors identify, first, a gap between Macneil’s interpretation of the norm concept and the application made by marketing scholars and second, contradictions in the results obtained from empirical marketing research.