Opportunism and conflict as precursors of non-economic and economic satisfaction outcomes in seller–customer business relationships

Abstract

Purpose:The study explores a seller's perspective of the influence of opportunism and conflict, which are negatively loaded constructs, on non-economic satisfaction as a positively loaded construct. It further established the influence of non-economic satisfaction on economic satisfaction as a positively loaded construct from a sales perspective in a supplier-business relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The study followed a quantitative and exploratory approach. Respondents (sales or marketing managers/directors or key account managers) were asked to identify one main business customer with whom they had interacted in the last year. In addition, respondents were further required to keep the selected customer in mind when answering the questionnaire. Consequently, all 213 but one (one non-response bias) surveys were used in the data analysis. A 5-point Likert-type scale was used to determine the degree to which respondents agreed or disagreed with the items provided in the questionnaire relating to opportunism, conflict, noneconomic satisfaction and economic satisfaction in seller-business relationships. The SPSS/Amos 24.0 software was used to conduct the multivariate analysis in two phases. Phase one comprised a confirmatory factor analysis, while phase 2 comprised structural equation modeling. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the measurement properties of each construct, while structural equation modeling was applied to evaluate the hypothesized relationships in the precursor and outcome research model. Findings: The findings show that in seller-business relationships, sellers are of the opinion that buyer opportunism and the existence of conflict do affect a seller's non-economic satisfaction directly, which in turn affects the economic satisfaction of seller-business relationships. Sellers further indicated a positive seller-business relationship can stimulate a long-term partnership if both opportunism and conflict are negatively related to non-economic satisfaction and noneconomic satisfaction relates positively to economic satisfaction. Research implications:The study makes a practical contribution through an improved understanding of a seller's perspective on how opportunism relates to conflict, how these two precursors influence non-economic satisfaction and how the latter relates to economic satisfaction in a sellerbusiness relationship environment. An improved understanding of a sellers perspective of the variables under study, can potentially stimulate a long-term partnership if both a seller and a buyer are in agreement that opportunism and conflict are negatively related to non-economic satisfaction and non-economic satisfaction relates positively to economic satisfaction.In terms of the theoretical contribution this study explores a seller's perspective in business relationships to validate whether the findings reported in previous studies based on buyer business relationships applies to seller-business relationships. This study therefore contributes to broaden the relevance of...

Exploring opportunism, conflict, noneconomic satisfaction and economic satisfaction in a B2B context – A buyer and seller perspective

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