Although conflict is natural in buyer-seller relations, the issue has largely been studied in domestic market settings despite increasing globalization and the surge of cross-border interfirm relationships. This research focuses on two different types of conflict, functional and dysfunctional, and examines how these are linked to coercive and non-coercive power bases and performance outcomes in exporter-importer relationships. Using survey data from 105 pairs of exporters and their foreign distributors, we find that only in the exporter group the use of coercive power by the foreign distributor lowers functional conflict. However, the use of coercive power by the overseas partner increases dysfunctional conflict and the use of noncoercive power reduces such conflict across both exporters and importers, although in the importer group this link is not significant. The results also suggest that functional conflict enhances performance only among importers. The use of problem solving conflict resolution boosts functional conflict's impact on performance among exporters, but adversely affects the performance effect of such conflict in the importer group. Nonetheless, problem solving resolution negatively affects the impact of dysfunctional conflict on performance in both the exporter and importer groups. Moreover, we find that power distance boosts the impact of dysfunctional conflict on performance in the relationship across the groups of exporters and importers. Implications of the findings for international marketing theory and practice are discussed, and limitations of the study considered along with future research directions.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test what kind of value co-creation-related organizational capabilities may be applied in the specific context of the post-communist business-to-customer service industry in Poland and how these capabilities translate into service innovation success.
Design/methodology/approach
The research model with control variables was hypothesized in regard to the customer co-creation and specific institutional setting in post-communist Poland. The model was tested using survey data from Polish companies in the service sector. The variable indicators for customer co-creation capability were developed through a series of in-depth interviews with managers.
Findings
First, a service company’s organizational processes that leverage customer communication and enable this communication to be transformed as input into service innovations are distinct components that build complex customer co-creation dynamic capability. Second, customer co-creation capability by service firms positively and strongly influences firms’ innovation success, whereas this link is stronger in the cases of larger service companies.
Originality/value
This paper introduces the concept of “customer co-creation capability” and evaluates its implications in the specific context of Poland, a Central European market that transformed from a closed communist economy to an open, market-driven economy. A rich but dramatically changing history and culture present a unique opportunity to observe the changes in customer behavior, evaluated from the organizational point of view. For example, it presents how these unique customer features may be used by services companies to leverage their innovations.
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