Dimensions and Antecedents of Relationship Quality in a Business-to-Business Context: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This research seeks to provide insights into seller-perceived relationship quality in the Business-to-Business context. A qualitative study was conducted through interviews with sixteen sellers from multiple sectors to identify dimensions and antecedents of buyer-seller relationships quality.In light of the findings stemming from thematic and lexical analysis, four dimensions of relationship quality have emerged: mutual trust, partners' commitment in the relationship, cooperation and conflict. Also, the research identifies several key success factors in business relationships that are grouped into different categories: factors related to characteristics of the two relationship parties, factors related to relational behaviors and factors related to characteristics of the offer. These results serve as valuable indicators, allowing managers to evaluate, adjust and develop their relationships marketing strategies. They also provide a tool for improving sales force managing. This study provides a significant contribution to the relationship quality literature and it helps to settle controversies on this subject. In addition, directions for further research have been suggested.

News Media Image: A Typology of Audience Perspectives

“…News organizations have great potential to communicate about areas of self-interest, such as sponsorships and political endorsements, and about their news gathering and reporting processes (Meier, 2009, p. 3; Rupar, 2006). Such transparency offers an opportunity to be perceived more favorably and as being reliable, which would in turn promote more successful consumer relationships (Ghzaiel & Akrout, 2012; Kang & Hustvedt, 2014). In sum, the transparency dimension represents how respondents perceive news media’s openness and interactivity regarding their political and financial interests, their sources, their news-making processes as well as honesty about errors and mistakes.…”

The quality of inter-organizational relations and the intention of commercialization of knowledge by academic entrepreneurs – a theoretical approach and outline of research

“…Recent studies also show other variables important for the quality of relationships, i.e. communication understanding and no conflict of interest 18 .…”

Untitled

“…A popular approach among researchers when defining the quality of a relationship, which at the same time provides the basis for creating tools for its measurement (Danik, 2017), is to define it as a metaconstruct consisting of a number of components (Holmlund, 2008); while the sets of the relationship quality components differ depending on the adopted research approach (Barry, Doney, 2011) (Mohr, Sohi, 1995). Conflict (or the lack of it) may be considered a construct of relationship quality by some researchers (Leonidou et al, 2006;Skarmeas, Robson, 2008;Ghzaiel, Akrout, 2012;Heroux, Hammoutene, 2012;Hoopner et al, 2015;Athanasopoulou, 2009;Roberts et al, 2003). Apart from the above-mentioned five, the analyzed constructs are sometimes also cooperation, distance, understanding, dependence, and adaptation (Leonidou et al, 2006), atmosphere (Woo, Enew, 2004) or reputation (Kühne et al, 2013).…”