Corporate brand identity co-creation in business-to-business contexts

Traditionally, corporate brand identity was considered to be directed and controlled by managers. However, more recent research has begun to recognize the limits of this view, which has led to the emergence of a stakeholder-driven, dynamic perspective, in which multiple stakeholders co-create diverse corporate brand meanings. This perspective argues that while managers have influence over the essence of the corporate brand, other stakeholders imprint and share their own interpretations. To better understand the process of corporate brand identity co-creation, we used a case study method with multiple cases, involving five small and medium sized business-to-business (B2B) corporate brands. We specifically chose B2B corporate brands, because they are often built on long-term and close relationships with diverse stakeholders, serving as a solid ground for illustrating the process of co-creation. To obtain the necessary depth of insight, we conducted 37 semi-structured interviews. Our research shows that corporate brand identity co-creation in B2B contexts is an ongoing dynamic process where multiple internal and external stakeholders engage in four different but interrelated performances: communicating; internalizing; contesting; and elucidating.     

Nature and evolution of trust in business-to-business settings: Insights from VC-entrepreneur relationships

While the importance of trust in B2B relationships has been well established, research is yet to investigate its processual nature. This study investigates the VC-Entrepreneur relationship – a special B2B relationship to outline the nature and evolution of trust across a venture's life cycle. Results suggest that early-stage relationships are characterized by asymmetric trust, which declines with time and impacts cooperation between both sides, access to funding and business networks, contract enforcement, feedback, mentorship, and knowledge sharing. Late-stage VC- Entrepreneur relationships suffer from symmetric distrust, which increases with time, resulting in an overt emphasis on contracts, syndicated investments, disagreements during decision making, and pressure to exit. This study extends B2B trust literature by offering a relationship-phase-contingent view of trust across a venture's life cycle, outlining specific contexts that question the reciprocal and symmetric assumption of trust in dyadic relationships. It highlights how the interplay among power, opportunism, and weak institutional environment dictate dyadic trust. And finally, the paper outlines three testable propositions on trust in VC- Entrepreneur relationships that can be extended to other emerging economies.     

The changing importance of affective trust and cognitive trust across the relationship lifecycle: A study of business-to-business relationships

The purpose of this paper is to examine affective trust and cognitive trust and their effects on business relationship outcomes. Within a relationship marketing framework, the influence of affective trust and cognitive trust on the success of business relationships at the early and mature phases of the relationship lifecycle is examined. Both affective and cognitive forms of trust are demonstrated to be multidimensional constructs that indirectly influence relationship performance via the mediating variables commitment and liking.The development and use of five elements of trust to explain relationship performance extends existing understanding of relationship marketing. By combining five elements of trust (three cognitive and two affective) and testing them in two different relationship lifecycle phases, insights are generated into how a relationship can succeed. The model tested in this paper highlights the importance of affective trust in the early phase and cognitive trust in the mature phase of the relationship lifecycle. Further, the mediating roles of commitment and liking between trust and relationship performance are also developed. Hence, the research increases understanding of how relationships evolve, in particular the role of affective trust and cognitive trust in influencing relationship performance.The context of this research is business-to-business relationships in small and medium enterprises. A survey of 458 businesses people is used to evaluate both the early and mature relationship lifecycle phases. The data are analysed with structural equation modelling where the basic structural model testing is extended with multigroup analysis.     

Fundamental transformations of trust and its drivers: A multi-stage approach of business-to-business relationships

This research tests a multistage model of trust in business-to-business (B2B) relationships. The model contains three forms of trust, each with unique drivers and consequences for buyer–supplier relationships. An exploratory qualitative study (N = 38) and four quantitative studies (N_Total = 616) validate the distinct stages (N1 = 140, N2 = 144, N3 = 152) and provide an overall test of the model (N4 = 180), using structural equation modeling techniques. The results support the proposed modeling of the stages and highlight a positive effect of reputation on calculative trust. Conflict resolution, communication, and sympathy positively affect cognitive trust. However, shared values do not significantly drive affective trust. Interdependence also exists among the three trust forms, both directly and indirectly. That is, calculative trust does not affect investments in relationship or confidential communication, but cognitive trust influences these constructs indirectly, through the mediation of affective trust. Affective trust also leads directly to greater investments in relationship and generates additional confidential communication.     

The significance of trust and renqing in the long-term orientation of Chinese business-to-business relationships

While business relationships with China are receiving increased attention in both practitioner and academic discourse, very little empirical work however, has been undertaken to isolate and examine measures that focus on business-to-business relationships, and as such, research in this area is somewhat scant. In an attempt to bridge this gap, and add to the knowledge in this emerging discipline, the research aims to develop a conceptual framework to explore the relationship between trust and the long-term orientation in Chinese business-to-business market relationships. Based on a survey with Hong Kong companies that have a buyer-seller relationship with Chinese companies, the empirical findings indicate the mediating role and significance of ‘renqing’ for enhancing trust and contributing towards the long-term stability in relational exchange. The results highlight several implications for practicing managers to consider when aiming to establish and develop relationships in a Chinese business-to-business context.     

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.     

The role of sales representatives in cross-cultural business-to-business relationships

This study responds to the call for the “internationalization of sales research” by collecting data from 160 international buyers spanning 33 countries and regions. Based on survey data, archival sales records and cultural-distance indices, this research examines the performance-enhancing effect of sales rep-owned commitment as well as its antecedents under varying degrees of cultural distance. Our results show a strong and direct impact of rep-owned commitment, independent of the effect of firm-owned commitment, on enhancing performance indicators including sales volume, importers' purchase share, and importers' future purchase intentions. Moreover, we find two important antecedents to rep-owned commitment: benevolence trust and capability trust. Interestingly, cultural distance moderates the effects of benevolence and capability trust on rep-owned commitment: the larger the cultural distance, the stronger the effect of benevolence trust but the weaker the effect of capability trust. We conclude with theoretical and managerial implications to international marketing research and practice.     

Trust and forms of capital in business-to-business activities and relationships

The IMP group's ARA model, with its emphasis on interaction, captures social and economic dimensions of exchanges. We draw on it to compare three cases and assess how actors act in skilful and nuanced ways in mobilizing resources, given the very different norms of social and economic capital. We prioritize action ahead of structure and, given the inherent uncertainties that actors encounter in connection with resources, argue that trust is a cognitive and heuristic dimension of action, distinct from resources, actor-bonds and social capital. We conclude that for business practice, managers should be mindful that in order to trust others, they need to act in the distinct realms of social and economic capital, tempting though it is to interpret and measure the costs of actions economically.     

A framework for offshoring marketing processes in business-to-business marketing relationships

Outsourcing has been a prominent aspect of business strategies in the last three decades. Outsourcing of manufacturing processes is now complemented with outsourcing of various marketing process as well. More importantly, outsourcing to foreign locations — offshoring — has increased for marketing processes in recent years. In this context, the present paper develops a model that identifies the types of marketing interactions and processes that can be offshored in business-to-business markets. We suggest that the decision to offshore marketing processes and interactions depend upon the interaction process that is preferred and the importance of interaction process itself. Marketing interactions that are not critically important and/or those that can be performed through technology can be easily offshored. However, other marketing processes need to be examined in depth before being offshored. Implications for research and practice in the area of offshoring, as well as in the broader area of outsourcing, are also highlighted.     

Covalence and ionic bonding in business-to-business relationships: Insights from chemistry

The paper examines business-to-business (B2B) relationships using the framework of the covalence-ionic bonding theory in chemistry as an analogy to help make soft phenomena and relationships in B2B marketing more understandable to engineers and scientists in organizations and to managers with scientific and technical backgrounds. In the tradition of cross-fertilization of various scientific fields, the authors propose that the covalence-ionic bonding theory may provide insights in determining the factors that contribute to the emergence of bilateral, unilateral, and market relationships. This study compares and contrasts interparticle bonding with ways of managing B2B relationships. Beyond sheer analogy of the two phenomena, an explanation of B2B relationships and decision-making mechanisms is proposed. In adapting this concept theoretically, the meaning of the original parameters in physical science is assigned a new meaning in the marketing context. Furthermore, the paper extends conceptually the predictive capabilities of chemistry theories to relational behaviors in marketing. Drawing from a resource-based view of the firm, complementarity of resources and dependence levels are postulated to have critical roles in business bonding. Appropriate propositions are advanced, along with implications for managers and researchers.     

Measuring intangible value in business-to-business buyer-seller relationships: An intellectual capital perspective

The value that resides in a firm's relationships has both tangible and intangible aspects and both need to be developed and managed carefully. Marketing managers need to be able to understand these dimensions of value to manage them and to argue for their share of the firm's resources to effectively develop the value of the firm's relationships. This paper describes a study that adds to current knowledge of relationship value by testing a hypothesized model of the intangible part of the value that is manifested in buyer-seller relationships and by developing a set of scales to measure the hypothesized dimensions. The focus of the research, which synthesizes a conceptual framework from the intellectual capital literature, is on business-to-business situations and on the value of the relationship to the seller, rather than to the buyer. The analysis of data from a survey of relevant managers, using structural equation modeling techniques, gives support to the model and scales.     

Exercised power as a driver of trust and commitment in cross-border industrial buyer-seller relationships

The article reports the findings of a study conducted among 151 U.S. export manufacturers of industrial goods regarding their working relationships with foreign customers. Specifically, the emphasis is on the sources of power exercised and how these affect trust and commitment in the relationship through the mediating role of conflict and satisfaction. Using structural equation modelling, it was confirmed that the exercise of power derived from coercive sources increases conflict and reduces satisfaction, while the exercise of non-coercive power sources leads to lower conflict (but not significantly increasing satisfaction). Conflict was found to be negatively associated with trust, as opposed to satisfaction which enhances trust. Trust was subsequently revealed to foster commitment in the relationship. Conclusions and implications are derived from the study findings and directions for further research are provided.     

Temporal dynamics of trust in ongoing inter-organizational relationships

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study undertaken to understand the nature of trust and its consequences for both suppliers and buyers in short term (relatively new) and long term (older/more mature) relationships in inter-organizational contexts. Scholars have recently pointed out the importance of research that investigates the temporal characteristics and dynamics of trust in inter-organizational studies. Our paper responds to this call by indentifying the changing nature of the level of trust as the buyer–supplier relationship matures. Our findings contribute to sparse and conflicting previous research on the relationship between length of partnership and perceptions of trust, types of dark side consequences of trusting relationships, and reasons buyers and suppliers continue or terminate low/no-trust associations. Specifically, we illustrate that buyers and suppliers draw on substantially different metaphors for understanding the nature of trust in long and short term exchange relationships. Suppliers see marked differences in trust with long term versus short term exchange partners, while buyers see little or no difference. Suppliers and buyers also appear to have different conceptions of how trust is nested (or not) within the broader economic and/or personal relationship. Through our inductive model, we elaborate several types of betrayal and disappointment, distinguish several factors that lead suppliers and buyers to stay in relationships with partners they don't trust, and identify key issues that topple untrusting relationships into terminated relationships.     

Distinguishing supplier reputation from trust in buyer-supplier relationships

We argue that a firm's reputation (i.e., central, enduring, and distinctive corporate associations held by individuals outside of an organization), although under-researched relative to trust, is more important than trust in impacting buyer-supplier relationships. Our conceptualization draws on theories and extant research related to transaction cost economics, information economics, and interfirm trust. The constructs of trust and reputation are distinguished and their relative impacts on relationship commitment and willingness to invest in the future of the relationship are examined. Suggestive empirical evidence is provided from a survey of industrial buyers, and implications and specific directions for future research are discussed.     

Co-evolution of trust and dependence in customer–supplier relationships

The relational and dynamic aspects of interfirm trust and dependence produce a crucial, but insufficiently addressed, challenge for successful relationship coordination. In this paper we concentrate on this issue by examining how trust and dependence co-evolve in customer–supplier relationships. Building on a case study, we develop propositions and a model that illustrates how interorganizational trust and dependence co-evolve through the different phases of customer–supplier relationships and how we may distinguish cooperative and trustworthy actors from those who will behave opportunistically. Theoretical and practical implications are offered.     

Building trust in US-Japanese business relationships: Mediating role of cultural sensitivity

While evidence suggests trust plays a fundamental role in maintaining successful buyer-seller relationships in Japan, little is known conceptually as to how foreign sellers can best develop trust in the minds of their Japanese customers. In this research, we develop and test a multi-component model of US seller actions that manifest key trust-building processes (intentionality- and capability-processes) which sellers find effective in building trust with their Japanese buyers. In this unique cultural context, theory suggests trust develops when sellers demonstrate benevolent intentions toward the buyer and exhibit a strong capability to fulfill business promises. An analysis of 181 US sellers in Japan demonstrates that a combination of trust-building efforts is recognized as being critical in seller attempts to develop and sustain trust on the part of their Japanese customers. Importantly, cultural sensitivity mediates the impact of intentionality-based practices on buyer trust, while capability-based activities directly influence trust.     

Socializing behaviors in business-to-business selling: an exploratory study from the Republic of Ireland

For many salespeople in business-to-business industries, client entertainment is an integral part of their daily duties. Despite this anecdotal knowledge, few studies have so far attempted to examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of socializing with clients in a systematic manner. Presenting the results of a qualitative investigation, this paper shows that when approached strategically, socializing with clients can have positive effects on both the exchange as well as the relational aspects of the buyer-seller interaction. In particular, results indicate that some elements of a close buyer-seller relationship are formed as a result of the holistic experience with the other person and may only be established through interaction outside the office environment. The paper thus proposes that socializing strategies represent a unique tool in a salesperson's relationship selling toolkit—a tool that warrants increased attention in both sales practice and research.     

Managing the trade-off between relationships and value networks. Towards a value-based approach of customer relationship management in business-to-business markets

The management of buyer-seller relationships was an early antecedent to the development of customer relationship management (CRM) concepts. Currently, CRM concepts are being challenged by the rise of value networks. Value networks can and, often, do interfere with customer relationships and thereby call for a broader range of concepts to analyze and understand relationship management and the influence of value networks on relationships. This introductory article describes the nature of the problem between relationships and value networks, reviews the current state of research, and describes the contributions of the articles presented in this special issue on CRM in business-to-business markets.     

Conceptualizing and modeling interpersonal trust in exchange relationships: The effects of incomplete model specification

The importance of interpersonal trust in exchange relationships is well-established, and trust is known to have two important and distinct underlying forms, one cognitive, the other affective. Despite this, trust studies often model only the cognitive task-related form and omit the affective form. This article achieves two main objectives. First it demonstrates that interpersonal trust is best considered a bidimensional construct consisting of both cognitive and affective components, and that omitting either form of trust from empirical studies is a conceptual and specification error. Second, we reveal that both forms explain a large amount of variance in the quality of exchange relationships. Also, studies omitting affective trust ignore the more potent of the two trust dimensions. In addition, models examining only one form of trust strongly inflate the apparent effects of that form, and are diagnostically unsound. Our results have important theoretical and managerial implications regarding the conceptualization and measurement of interpersonal trust, and its role in improving the effectiveness of exchange relationships.