Building relationship marketing theory: Shelby Hunt's contributions to our understanding of marketing's exchange relationships.

Over five decades, Shelby D. Hunt emerged again and again to contribute to our understanding of the relationships between parties in marketing's exchange relationships. Hunt employed power dependence theory, commitment-trust theory and perspectives provided by other theories to assist marketers in understanding the complexities of relationships in marketing. Along the way, he helped many of his co-authors develop their own theory-building, research and storytelling skills. This commentary provides a perspective on these contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]