Affective, Calculative and Normative Commitment: An Assessment of Relationship

Abstract

Commitment is a psychological state regarded in the literature of marketing as a key concept in business relationships (Fullerton, 2005, Morgan & Hunt, 1994). In marketing, literature commitment is often regarded as comprising affective, calculative and normative components. Rylander (1997) Anderson & Weitz (1992) and Martin (2008) suggest mutual interaction between these components, which means that a single actor may have elements of all these components at the time of a single commitment. This perspective on commitment implies that variations of commitment will influence the relationships in question in different ways. Recent research has focused on factors leading to and reinforcing commitment, but knowledge on the relationship between the three components identified is lacking. Further general studies of commitment are required but studies of how the three components also interact in particular, in order to gain an understanding of how commitment works in relationships and networks. This paper aims to develop a model that describes how the three components interact. The model is illustrated by an empirical case concerning two large Swedish companies and their sponsoring relationships with the local ice-hockey club. Data have been gathered through interviews and a survey that has been analysed qualitatively. We found the affective component, when present, to be a significant component in relationship commitment building, almost replacing the calculative and moral ones. The moral and calculative commitment components were. however, significant for initiation of interaction and relationship building between the parties at the start of the relationship.