Affective Relationship Commitment in Industrial Customer-Supplier Relations: A Psychological Contract Approach ABSTRACT Based on social exchange theory, a vast body of research has applied trust-commitment theory to explain marketing relationships and to predict their outcome in industrial contexts. Affective commitment

Based on social exchange theory, a vast body of research has applied trust-commitment theory to explain marketing relationships and to predict their outcome in industrial contexts. Affective commitment in particular has drawn much attention. A review of the literature shows that the research in the field is both scattered and fragmented. Further, the cultural context surrounding the relationship appears to play a more central role than previously assumed. The construct of psychological contract frequently used in organizational research can serve as a framework in understanding affective relationship commitment. Building on the psychological contract, this conceptual paper offers, through a number of relevant hypotheses, a coherent theory of affective relationship commitment in customer-supplier relations, which is apparently also effective in varying cultural contexts.