, 1999). There were a few limitations of this study that were identified by the author. The first was that due to the fact that they study was exploratory in nature, cause and effect could not be directly established (Naidu et al., 1999). The researcher used a study method of a cross sectional survey conducted at only one point in time, which limited the ability to establish cause and effect. If an experimental study method was used it would be much easier to try and establish cause and effect in this study.

Another limitation that was identified was that a number of the hospitals used in the study were small in size (Naidu et al., 1999). This lead to many of them returning their surveys indicating that the study questions were not relevant to them. The way to get around this limitation would be to only use hospitals in the study that are medium to large in size. This would help to ensure that phenomenon being studied would be applicable and thus one would get more returns that could be used...

Hospitals, in particular, cannot make money and stay in business if they can't fill their beds. Relationship marketing is a great way for these organizations to capitalize on the resources that they have available. The key to this though is for them to figure out in which direction they should focus their efforts. Should they focus on the relationships that they have with their patients or are those with their suppliers and other providers more important? These are questions that could be answered with further research regarding this topic in which cause and effect relationships are established.