The effects of relationship governance mechanisms on relationship performance : how do relationship learning processes matter?

Relationship governance improves performance and is considered as the key to the creation of competitive advantage in the twenty-first century. The extant literature examined the direct effect of relationship governance of commitment, consensus, and communication on relationship performance outcomes and hence ignored the intervening processes. The purpose of this study is to provide one of the first empirical tests of the intervening role of relationship learning processes (i.e., joint information sharing, sense-making, and memory-building) in the linkage between relationship governance mechanisms (i.e., commitment, consensus, and communication) and relationship performance (i.e., relational efficiency and relational effectiveness). By empirically exploring the notion of partial mediation of the effects of relationship governance through relationship learning processes, this study has opened up a fruitful avenue for future research on relationship marketing.