LAUSR

Purpose: Relationship marketing is about developing, maintaining and sustaining mutually beneficial customer–organisation relationships as measured by economic gains. Yet a purely economic focus does not fully offer a psychological explanation of relationship marketing outcomes. In this regard, we have considered gratitude as a significant component of personal relationships, which offers insights into customer–organisation relationships. Accordingly, this study examines gratitude as a mechanism to predict relationship marketing outcomes, such as overall satisfaction, trust, and commitment. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 1093 young consumers across three university campuses. Findings: Results indicate that gratitude is a mediating mechanism that can explain the relationship between young consumers’ perceptions of relationship marketing investments and overall satisfaction, trust, and commitment. Perceived benevolence strengthens the relationship between perceived relationship marketing investments and customer gratitude. Originality/value: The gratitude model contributes an alternative understanding of how young consumers’ perceptions of an organisation's marketing investments are important in achieving a high degree of relationship marketing outcomes. We further incorporate the moderating roles of customer cynicism and perceptions of benevolence, key individual and relational characteristics, that influence the level of gratitude individuals experience in response to the investments made by organisations.