Forging buyer-seller relationships for total quality management in international business: The case of the European cement industry

Abstract

Most authors agree that commitment is an important building block in long-term business relationships. This study attempts to investigate how commitment develops in long-term business-tobusiness relationships in the context of an international quality network. To accomplish this objective, the relationship marketing perspective and the network perspective are integrated into a conceptual framework, describing how network constructs in¯uence the long-term relationships indirectly through commitment. This framework was tested empirically in the context of the European cement industry with regards to a total quality management network. Our results indicate that, in particular, aþ ective commitment and calculative commitment have a signi® cant positive eþ ect on the parties' willingness to invest in the relationship. The antecedents of commitment, and especially actor bonds, have an indirect in¯uence on the willingness to invest in the relationships.

Antecedents and consequences of commitment in marketing research services: The client's perspective

“…When trust increases, there are fewer reasons to continue the relationship on the basis of calculative commitment (De Ruyter et al, 2001). In this situation they make a direct comparison of the pros and cons of the relationship less frequently, thus a lower level of calculative commitment results (De Ruyter & Semeijn, 2002). De Ruyter and Semeijn (2002) who conceptualized commitment with three components also found a positive effect of trust on normative commitment in the context of international business relationships.…”

“…The aim is to examine commitment not as a global measure but as a multi-attribute measure. Past studies on commitment have primarily focused on affective and calculative commitment and generally not incorporated normative commitment in their analysis (with a few exceptions, e.g., Bansal, Irving, & Taylor, 2004;De Ruyter & Semeijn, 2002;Kumar, Hibbard & Stern, 1994). Even less work has studied all components of commitment in the context of professional business service providers.…”

“I'd like to thank the academy”: An analysis of the awards discourse at the Atlantic Schools of Business Conference

“…For example, firms may choose to share certain resources, or the use of certain resources may be influenced by the other firm, (Ruyter and Semeijn, 2002).…”

“…The value chain provides a broad description of the core activities that take place within organizations. Consequently, activity links may be represented by the degree to which value chain activities in the domestic firm are adapted because of association with a foreign firm, (Ruyter and Semeijn, 2002).…”

“…A three item scale was used to assess resource ties, based upon measures used by (Ruyter and Semeijn, 2002), and (Veludo, Macbeth and Purchase, 2004). Space limitations prohibit the inclusion of scale items.…”