Paradigms of derived exchange value effects in market network

Customer consumption value ultimately derives from enterprise production the consumption benefits which originating from inter-organizational cooperation as well as the transferred and accumulated exchange value of the enterprise with external organizations. This study plans to clarify the effect of the derived exchange relationship on enterprise exchange value, and also to identify the network models of different derived effect relationships. An analysis of the Taiwanese public health system revealed both positive and negative exchange value effects that impacted relationships among actors in the overall health system. Four generic models were presented by analyzing the qualitative data from phenomenon of different types of inter-organizational exchange behaviors, and other more complex models deduced from four generic models were also proposed.     

Reciprocity as a key stabilizing norm of interpersonal marketing relationships: Scale development and validation

This study outlines the development and validation of a measure of reciprocity. The definition used to develop the measure extends traditional quid pro quo interpretations to include behavior designed to stabilize relationships in times of exchange breakdown. This includes resisting and not returning harm and making reparation for harm done. Reciprocity is positioned as an important interpersonal norm of stable marketing relationships given recent findings that relationships develop most strongly at the individual level. It is suggested that reciprocity leads to personal well-being; thus providing an additional motivation, over and above economic incentives, to develop and maintain relationships. Results of the scale development tests indicated a valid, two dimensional measure which correlated with key relational variables such as trust, commitment, satisfaction, self-esteem and reduced conflict.     

The antecedents and consequences of organizational and personal commitment in business service relationships

This paper explores the potential for business service customers to form separate bonds of commitment with the service firm and the service representative. It examines the role of the individual and identifies six potential antecedents to each type of commitment. It also proposes that both types of commitment will influence the degree of relational exchange between the customer and the service firm. The hypotheses are tested using multiple regression and data from a survey of marketing research managers. The results support the majority of the hypotheses.     

Organizational learning and market orientation: interface and effects on performance

This paper discusses the relationship between market orientation and organizational learning and, in particular, the former's contribution to the generation of double-loop learning. Although prior contributions on this topic have been controversial, the authors, departing from the principles of RBV, consider market orientation a resource capable of generating higher order organizational learning and, in this way, capable of additionally reinforcing firms' sustainable competitive advantage. The empirical study provides evidence on the existing relationship between a firm's learning and market orientation degree and the organization's economic and non-economic results. Findings indicate that learning orientation stimulates the market-oriented behavior and that it also positively affects the establishment of long-term relationships with strategic clients. Contrary to prior research a significant and positive effect on business performance is only contrasted in the case of market orientation.     

Testing the conflict-performance assumption in business-to-business relationships

There is little empirical research published testing the interdependency between conflict in business-to-business relationships and commercial performance. The “conflict-performance assumption”—all other factors being equal, relationships where conflict is low will outperform relationships where conflict levels are higher—remains central in the marketing channels' literature despite insufficient and contradictory empirical evidence. There are several explanations for the lack of a clear relationship between conflict and performance. Rosenbloom [J. Mark. 37 (1973) 26] theorises that the relationship between conflict and channel performance follows an inverted U-shaped curve, where conflict is most productive at moderate levels and least productive at very low or high levels. Others have argued for a simpler, linear relationship between conflict and performance, usually negative in nature. Various theories about the conflict-performance relationship are empirically tested in a large marketing channel, using a number of dyadic and monadic measures of conflict (latent, perceived, and affective) and two objective measures of performance (effectiveness and efficiency). A linear model (performance declining as conflict increases) is adequate to explain the relationship between dyadic measures of both perceived and affective conflict and channel effectiveness. A threshold model is found to be superior to a linear model in explaining the relationship between dyadic measures of perceived and affective conflict and efficiency. Conflict increases slowly as efficiency falls until a threshold is reached when conflict escalates. Practical implications include that companies need to consider whether performance criteria affecting efficiency are as important to their business partners as those affecting effectiveness. If they are not, then business partners should be rewarded for meeting any such criteria that are more important to the one side of a relationship dyad than to the other.     

Adapting within relationships to adapt to market-led change: Does relationship success lead to marketplace inertia?

The use of relationships is a key means of adapting to marketplace needs. Paradoxically deepening relational commitments lead to inertia through the institutionalisation of relationship norms, resulting in less marketplace adaptability over time. This article examines this paradox and identifies how firms manage the dual process of adapting within relationships, and to a changing external environment. Findings are based on 24 case studies of New Zealand wineries, supplemented by 20 network interviews. Relationships were used by the firms to adapt to the marketplace, and firms that formed deeper relationships placed themselves in a better competitive position vis-à-vis those that didn't, if they fit their relationship strategy to the demands of the environment. To avoid inertia firms needed to complement strong relational ties with weak market-based ties to gain insight into emerging trends. This informed decisions regarding further relational commitments, and helped strengthen their position within established networks.     

Relationship quality as a resource to build industrial brand equity when products are uncertain and future-based

This article extends our understanding of industrial branding and the influence of buyer–seller relationships by examining key constructs within an industrial context where products are uncertain and future-based. SEM results elicited from 249 buyer surveys empirically validate satisfaction, trust and commitment as dimensions of relationship quality, and show that buyer–seller relationship quality facilitates direct and indirect seller brand equity accruals. Findings reveal that while focusing on sellers' corporate and product brands is good advice for building buyer–seller relationships, seller resource allocations to these areas should vary depending upon the selected target market segment(s). Findings support that sellers should place more focus on developing quality relationships with buyers than they should in focusing on the non-relational attributes of their corporate brands; however, if sellers choose to bypass building high quality customer relationships, they should instead funnel resources into their product brand offerings. Findings demonstrate that buyers credit their own skills and acumen when evaluating products with which they are confident, and ascribe increased value to the involvement of the seller as their attitude and certainty decrease. These findings provide strategic guidance to the sellers of uncertain and future-based industrial products.     

Exploring interorganizational conflict in complex projects

This article focuses on how the phenomenon of conflict between buyer and seller in complex projects can be approached from a theoretical and a methodological angle. Two paradigms for approaching conflict are discussed: conflict as a problem to be removed and conflict as a resource and tool for improvement. Constructs to be used include conflict events that indicate traces of conflict. It is further argued that the conflict events should be related to formal and informal governance mechanisms in order to understand how conflict can be used to strengthen the business relationship between the parties.     

The determinants of relational governance and performance: How to manage business relationships?

It is the aim of this study to assess the influence of the determinants of the transaction, dyadic, and business environment level on relational governance and ultimately performance. We build an integrated framework for relationship management drawing from literature of transaction cost economics, marketing channels, and business networks. Dutch suppliers of potted plant and flower products (N=174) provided data for the empirical analysis. Our results show that joint planning, one of the constructs of relational governance, is positively influenced by interorganizational trust, information obtained from the network, physical transaction-specific investments (TSIs), and by fixed lines as the exchange mode. Joint problem solving, the other construct of the governance, is solely influenced by the two dimensions of trust. These two constructs of relational governance effect positively our performance measures. Managers should consider carefully each of the determinants of relational governance for the management of a relationship. As shown in our study, the success is dependent on some of the determinants of the three analytical levels of our integrated framework.     

Exporter-importer relationship quality: The inhibiting role of uncertainty, distance, and conflict

The article examines the impact of uncertainty, distance, and conflict on key elements comprising the quality of the relationship between U.S. industrial exporters and their overseas customers. Information received from 151 manufacturers revealed that these three parameters play a significant negative role in building sound relationship quality, in terms of adaptation, commitment, communication, cooperation, satisfaction, trust, and understanding — which, in turn, may inhibit the firm's progression along the internationalization path. Specifically, an inverse association was found between uncertainty, distance, and conflict, on one hand, and commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction, on the other. In addition, in relationships characterized by high uncertainty, adaptation, communication, trust, and understanding were low. In high distance relationships, communication was insufficient, and in high conflict situations, trust and understanding were low. Several managerial implications are extracted from the study, as well as directions for future research.     

Reverse auctions for relationship marketers

Reverse auctions in logistics and procurement have grown dramatically since the advent of widespread Internet usage in the late 1990s. A literature review indicates that scholars and practitioners are reaching a consensus around a trade-off between the value and benefits of gaining lower prices versus losing long-term relationships with suppliers. Yet at the same time, a quiet evolution has come about in the economics and management literature, opening the way for new, more relationship-friendly auction designs. Based on this new work, a series of guidelines and principles are developed which describe how managers may collect the economic pricing advantage of reverse auctions—yet retain the long-term benefits of relationship marketing.     

Refining value-based differentiation in business relationships: A study of the higher order relationship building blocks that influence behavioural intentions

Research on the behavioural intentions (BI) of business-to-business customers has focused on the influence and the interactions among constructs driving BI, giving rise to two perspectives for the structural equation modeling of constructs influencing BI. In the first perspective, BI is impacted directly by relationship quality (RQ) and its antecedents such as relationship benefits (RB) and relationship sacrifices (RS). The second perspective suggests that antecedent dimensions of RB and RS may act indirectly through the construct of relationship value (RV), which drives RQ but also directly influences BI. The current study was undertaken to resolve the differences between these two perspectives. The findings indicate that RQ has a strong direct influence on BI while RV has a weak direct influence but a significant indirect influence on BI through the RQ construct. In addition, the constructs of RB and RS influence RQ directly, as well as through the RV construct.     

Business models: Impact on business markets and opportunities for marketing research

Business models have evolved in the context of new venture creation. By offering an entrepreneurial perspective to established marketing elements such as value propositions, value capturing and value networks, business models provide marketing discipline with both challenges and opportunities to engage with entrepreneurial environments. In particular, business models call for approaches that elucidate value-in-use of marketing offerings, reveal the performance of contracts in orchestrating value networks and identify the performance of network configurations. In this article we present some implications of and opportunities for business models for marketing research.     

Internet integration in business marketing tactics

Companies have got to learn to eat change for breakfast. Tom Peters

…it behooves us to adapt oneself to the times if one wants to enjoy continued good fortune. Niccolo Machiavelli

Business Marketing Management (BMM) over the Internet has been receiving a “lot of ink” in current periodicals and to a lesser degree in academic literature. Practice changes so rapidly that principles emerging from last month's successes may need revision before they are derived and printed. There is yet a general theory of business-to-business Internet integration. Nonetheless, there is a need to build such knowledge on “the fly,” and to attempt to see patterns even if they have a short life span. The present work takes a look at the state of business-to-business Internet marketing practices as the year 2000 came to a close for larger companies. Not surprisingly, and just like the hardware that make Internet distribution density so high, we find that the Internet is having an impact on: market size and structure, business buying and selling behavior, negotiation strategies and associated pricing practices. Moreover, distribution systems are experiencing a major realignment while logistics optimizing is even greater. The Web and e-mail are becoming more fully integrated into the business communication mix. The attempt here is to learn about the most rapidly emerging and changing communication technology of the past 100 years. Business-driven technology now appears to be driving business marketing tactics and results are augmented through multifaceted complex use of the Internet.     

Return on marketing investments in B2B customer relationships: A decision-making and optimization approach

The basic notion of relationship marketing entails that firms should strive for mutually beneficial customer relationships. By combining relationship marketing theory and operations research methods, this paper aims to develop and demonstrate a managerial decision-making model that business market managers can use to optimize and evaluate marketing investments in both a customer-oriented and economically feasible manner. The intended contributions of our work are as follows. First, we add to the return on marketing literature by providing a first decision-making approach that explicitly assesses the optimization of marketing investments in terms of profitability, effort, and resource allocation. Second, we show how the risk of marketing investments can be assessed using sensitivity analysis. By means of an empirical study the versatility of our decision-making approach is demonstrated by assessing various critical decision making issues for business marketing managers in detail.