The comparative effects of gratitude and indebtedness in B2B relationships

Reciprocity is inherent to business-to-business (B2B) exchanges and paves the way for salespeople and customers to experience the emotional states of gratitude and indebtedness. Despite advancements in understanding customers' experience of these two emotions and the notion that salespeople, too, are subject to emotional influence, there is limited understanding of salesperson gratitude and indebtedness and the ensuing implications for managers. Using emotion and relationship marketing theory, this study addresses this gap by gathering salesperson data from a large B2B organization to identify relationship characteristics eliciting these emotions in salespeople and the effects on relational outcomes, including relationship quality, relationship satisfaction, and positive word of mouth (WOM). The findings demonstrate differences in the relational characteristics associated with these emotions and the beneficial consequences of gratitude and not indebtedness, thereby presenting theoretical and managerial implications and suggestions for future research.