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In buyer-supplier relationships, salespeople engage in behaviors that buyers may (or may not) view as deceptive. Despite the salesperson's underlying miscreant or innocent motives, buyers have a difficult time attributing the intentionality of salesperson behaviors after the fact. While extant research has explicated various governance mechanisms to mitigate the occurrence of opportunistic behaviors a priori, scholarship is not as well-versed in understanding (a) the relational factors that influence the buyer's interpretation of debatably opportunistic salesperson behaviors and (b) the buyer's retributive response within the ongoing relationship. To bring clarity to these issues, the authors examine relationship factors that influence the likelihood of perceived salesperson opportunism following equivocal salesperson acts. Utilizing data from industrial buyers in the U.S. healthcare industry, this study shows that buyer specific investments are related positively to attributions of salesperson guile, whereas contractual agreements are related negatively to attributions of guile. Relationship solidarity moderates these effects. Further, we find that attributions of salesperson guile lead to perceived salesperson opportunism, which in turn results in buyers lowering their expectations of relationship continuity and increasing their retributive responses. We corroborate these findings with cross-sectional survey data from a sample of industrial buyers. Collectively, these findings hold implications with regard to the role of the buyer's attribution of salesperson guile for a specific behavior as a determinant of perceived opportunism in general, while also outlining conditions under which buyers are inclined to engage in retributive opportunism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International commerce has always driven human progress. Its inherent cultural diversity has maximized the new ideas that improve consumers’ lives around the world. The best international business relationships are maintained over the long term and managed through inventive negotiation processes. Investments in time and money are required to build the trust and honest information exchange that allow for exploitation of mutually beneficial opportunities. This article provides a database and associated tools to help international negotiators understand the cultural differences that may impact buyer–seller relationships between parties from twenty countries and cultures including the United States and Iran.

To succeed and grow, companies must win new customers. However, selling innovative solutions to prospective business customers remains challenging. We seek to explore how salespeople create, early in the sales process, collaborative customer mind-sets to accommodate learning and adoption of new solutions. By applying transformative learning theory and analyzing authentic video-recorded business-to-business (B2B) initial sales meetings, we are able to determine the microlevel processes and mechanisms taking place in transformative sales dialogue. In this article, we outline seven interactional activities occurring in reflective dialogue cycles, a key means by which salespeople create new customer mind-sets. Reflective dialogue cycles form a spiral-shaped process requiring completion to achieve a shared new understanding favorable to adopting new approaches. Through our analysis, we demonstrate the value of transformative learning theory in better understanding sales interactions. Along with theoretical contributions, our results may help managers and salespeople better develop new business customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addressing the call for the application of learning from other domains to the sales context, our work integrates the optimal distinctiveness theory with the study of buyer-seller relationships. We conceptualize two main buyer-seller relationship-building strategies - a value-added differentiation strategy and a compatibility-based assimilation strategy - and present an integrative theoretical framework explaining how these two strategies can be leveraged in the business and personal domains to meet customer needs and improve sales performance. Using the theory, we reconcile conflicting findings on the use of similarities and differences between salespeople and customers in buyer-seller relationships. Our theoretical framework helps salespeople address the dynamic nature of dyadic relationships strategically in a way that promotes customer satisfaction, improves the firm's performance, and nurtures its competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses multimethod approaches to develop a conceptual foundation for and empirical evidence of the performance implications of business-to-government (B2G) relationships. In-depth interviews reveal unique characteristics that differentiate B2G exchanges from commercial exchanges (e.g., procurement mission; regulations and oversight; scale, scope, and planning horizon) and highlight the resultant cost–benefit trade-offs for firms in this environment. Empirical longitudinal analyses of secondary data show that a firm's government customer emphasis (firm revenue dependence on B2G relationships) exerts a positive nonlinear effect on firm value but also increases firm risk (idiosyncratic and systematic). Government customer breadth and depth are two critical customer portfolio characteristics that moderate these effects. High government customer breadth creates more costs associated with an increasing government customer emphasis, mitigating the positive nonlinear effect on firm value. However, breadth provides diversification benefits that alleviate the increase in idiosyncratic risk that comes with greater government customer emphasis. Deep B2G relationships give firms key customer domain knowledge and insights, which help counteract the increased idiosyncratic and systematic risks of government customer emphasis. The authors discuss the implications for marketing theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research uses a combination of text mining, co-word analysis, and social network analysis (SNA) to review 132 international sales and sales management (ISSM) articles published between 1980 and 2017. The study provides a unique view of the past and future of ISSM research and provides three principal contributions. First, from a social network-analytic perspective, it offers a unique examination of the ways ISSM research topics are interconnected, as reflected by keyword network structure. Second, by conducting SNA across two periods (1980-1999 and 2000-2017) and examining the changes in network centrality measures, the study offers initial insights into the evolving nature of the ISSM literature. Third, the study reports keyword network disconnections (i.e., structural holes) to propose a fruitful agenda for future ISSM research. Taken together, this research offers a current perspective of the ISSM research domain's evolving nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report the findings of a study conducted among a sample of 202 Hong Kong-based Chinese importing companies regarding their working relationships with Western export manufacturers. In particular, the study emphasizes the effect of interpersonal factors on financial performance through the intervening roles of intercompany trust and relationship quality. Using structural equation modeling, the authors confirm that (1) several interpersonal relational dimensions--namely, personal communication (sijiao,), personal credibility (xinyongj, and personal affection fganqingj--positively influence interfirm trust; (2) trust plays an instrumental role in enhancing the components of the interfirm relationship quality (i.e., cooperation, commitment, and satisfaction); (3) interfirm relationship quality is positively related to superior financial performance; and (4) most of the associations between each of the interpersonal factors and interfirm trust were moderated by the importer's size and foreign supplier's origin as well as by the length of the relationship and which party initiated the relationship. The authors extract several conclusions and implications from the findings and provide directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on Emotion Regulation Theory, we examine the role of an exporter's emotional intelligence (EI) in enhancing the quality and boosting the long-term orientation of the working relationship with its import buyers. Using data gathered from 262 Greek exporters, we confirm that the proper use of EI helps to improve trust, commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction in the relationship with their importers, which subsequently contribute to its long-term orientation. This favorable effect of EI on relationship quality dimensions is amplified when exporters deal with importers located in countries with cultures characterized by low power distance, low individualism, low masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, and high (national) long-term orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A specific empirical finding in the buyer–seller literature – initially discovered by Moorman, Zaltman, and Deshpande and subsequently replicated by Grayson and Ambler – still suffers from incomplete explanation. In business-to-business marketing, why do some long-term buyers appear to trust their providers a great deal but not use the service provided? This research endeavours to more fully explain this ‘dark side’ of relationship selling by integrating work on the economic theory of entrenchment with Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh's seminal buyer–seller framework. The result is a modified conceptual model of the buyer–seller exchange in which potential seller entrenchment follows Dwyer et al.'s courting and commitment stages. Motivated by Dwyer et al.'s urging to examine their model using a negotiation lens, this research then borrows two contrasting orientations from the negotiation literature and offers propositions regarding how buyers and sellers interact at each stage of the exchange. In addition to enriching understanding of how buyers and sellers negotiate in the courting and commitment stages, this research is the first to offer insight into how both sides might negotiate when faced with seller entrenchment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Competing suppliers that collaborate to serve downstream original equipment manufacturer customers often encounter partners with overlapping and compatible knowledge bases. Such knowledge base compatibility provides supplier partners the opportunity to exchange knowledge efficiently, leading to greater knowledge sharing. However, the ease of misappropriation of the shared knowledge can offset this beneficial effect. This research proposes that the effect of knowledge base compatibility on supplier partners' knowledge sharing is moderated by the customer's participation in the collaborative effort and by the customer value such effort creates. The results of two empirical studies show that when levels of both customer participation and customer value are high, knowledge base compatibility between supplier partners leads to greater knowledge sharing. In contrast, when customer participation is high but customer value is low, knowledge base compatibility leads to lower levels of supplier knowledge sharing. This investigation validates the importance of key factors related to supplier partners' opportunity and motivation to share knowledge in coopetitive partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant research examining interpersonal trust in business-to-business (B2B) buyer–seller relationships focuses on its multidimensionality, mainly from a business perspective. Our research captures an element of business relationships that is heretofore under-examined: the personal side of the relationship between the buyer and seller. We examine the interplay between both business and personal trust on performance in the relationship, namely analyzing customer relationship satisfaction and customer loyalty. We also test our model using perceived market turbulence as a moderating variable since turbulence in the marketplace could strain the relationship between the buyer and seller and affect the strength of the statistical relationships between business and personal trust on performance in the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of threats to force supplier compliance is a common practice in current business affairs. Unfortunately, little is known regarding the supplier's decision process to comply to or resist such a coercive strategy. The paper aims to develop a more comprehensive view of the decision process used by suppliers when threatened by their customers, as well as discover new phenomena regarding supplier Decision-Making Under Threat (DUT). More specifically, it aims at (1) gaining a better understanding of threats by looking at their patterns and commonalities and (2) identifying which consideration factors are relevant when suppliers evaluate threats. To identify which consideration factors are relevant to suppliers when deciding how to react to threats, the study employed an exploratory approach by interviewing 17 marketing practitioners with experiences in DUT. The in-depth interviews lasted between thirty-five and sixty-five minutes and were transcribed. Descriptive coding and template analysis generated thirty-nine descriptors and nine categories that are deemed important when considering DUT. The authors also evaluated the intensity of each of the consideration factors present in the decision process. The results reveal that it is possible to categorize threats into three components: Objectives, Penalties and Manifestations. Objectives are what the customer is trying to achieve by using the threat, namely demanding price reductions, appropriating intellectual property, procuring financial statements, receiving a bribe, increasing technical requirements, accessing a cost breakdown, modifying delivery terms, and modifying payment terms. The penalty is what the supplier can expect to happen when refusing to comply, such as losing the customer's sales. Finally, manifestations describe how the threat is presented by the customer. Study results show that these manifestations may be categorized according to their level of ambiguity, predictability, and candor. The results also reveal that at least five cognitive decision criteria are typically considered during the decision process although at different intensity levels from each participant. These criteria include: Dependence, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Relationship Quality, Relational Norm Violations, and Mimetic Isomorphism. Several interesting discoveries were made. For example, Dependence is both the consideration factor for which most people emphasized its influence on their decision and for which most people said that it had no influence at all. Relational norm violations is unique by being the only criterion for which no participant mentioned that it does not influence their decision. The overwhelming majority of study participants considered more than three criteria during the DUT process. Finally, participants said that they experienced negative emotions such as anger and frustration when exposed to threats albeit most did not recognize that it played a role in their decision. These emotions are however believed to be a factor in reducing the supplier's willingness to comply. Overall, the study finds that DUT is a complex decision process regarding supplier adaptation, and can be a highly emotional experience with long-lasting effects. The face-to-face interviews used to collect narratives of participants being exposed to customer threats is deemed an appropriate and highly recommendable methodological approach. When collecting data on reactions to threats and their accompanying emotional reaction several non-verbal signs that the participants physically demonstrated were an essential component in fully interpreting the data. As such, future research on the topic could include video recordings of the interviews. The narratives were also very efficient in recalling the emotions associated with the coercive event though the interviews sometimes occurred several years afterward. The participants' opinions are consistent with academia's view regarding the ambiguous role of emotions during decision-making. On the one hand, emotions are recognized to play an important role, they should be acknowledged and understood, while on the other hand, many believe that emotions should not contaminate the decision process. By combining five cognitive criteria with emotions in a DUT framework, the paper incorporates knowledge from the field of psychology into the business-to-business marketing literature. The article highlights the fact that the study of both threats in a business setting and the role of emotions in decision-making are neglected topics that deserve more academic attention. From the customer's perspective an improved understanding of the supplier's DUT may help customers limit the damage to relationships when using coercive influence strategies such as threats. From the supplier's perspective, the results emphasize the importance to decompose their customer's threat in order to better respond to its use. By also taking into account all consideration factors suppliers can take better quality decisions. The results provide several recommendations such as to include intangibles in the cost-benefit analysis instead of solely focusing on the short-term financial impact. Emotional control has been stressed by the participants as a key managerial ability to master when faced with threats. By merging the influence strategy research stream and the supplier adaptation research stream together, the study generates a few original and noteworthy contributions. A better understanding of threats is garnered by breaking them down into three components, which consequently extends our understanding of influence strategies. The study also contributes to a deeper understanding of the supplier's DUT, a new concept described in the paper, by identifying how decision makers include multiple criteria in their decision process. Very few academic papers have specifically looked into threats as a coercive strategy despite its prevalent use in business environments. Those that did focused on a limited set of criteria when analyzing the decision to adapt. The article expands on these previous studies by proposing five decision criteria, which are often considered collectively by participants when examining adaptation under threat, and emphasizes a factor neglected in previous research, namely the role of emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization, combined with the proliferation of online review and payment systems, has been integral to the creation of the sharing economy. While the sharing economy has opened industries to additional workers, it also shift risks to users and leads to a hybridization of previously pure economic concepts such as markets and circuits of commerce. Due to this risk shift, how do sharing economy users, specifically Airbnb hosts, protect themselves from the risks inherent in a marketplace that is both formal and informal, and regularly crosses the boundaries between legal and illegal? Using qualitative interviews with 23 Airbnb hosts in New York City, I argue that Airbnb's shifting of risk to workers leads to a hybridized form of institutional work as hosts create a social circuitry in order to protect themselves. This research contributes to the larger literature on digitalized and informal markets and circuits, risk, and societal impact of digitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding the extensive literature on opportunism in buyer–seller relationships, scant empirical attention has been given to this issue in both international and Chinese contexts. Using a sample of 202 Hong Kong Chinese importers, this article highlights the harmful effect of Western exporters' opportunism on importers' long-term orientation through the intervening role of key behavioral constructs. The study confirms almost all hypothesized associations between the constructs examined, indicating that an exporter's opportunistic behavior reduces trust and generates conflict. In turn, low trust reduces commitment, and conflict impedes communication. Low levels of both commitment and communication reduce importers' satisfaction, which inhibits their long-term orientation. The importer's proactive initiation of the relationship moderates the link between opportunism and trust but not that of opportunism with conflict. The study also confirms the moderating role of importer dependence and exporters' marketing adaptation on the association of satisfaction with long-term orientation. The authors find moderating effects on this association through the Chinese constructs of renqing and mianzi, albeit in the opposite direction to that hypothesized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing electronic trading partner relationships is a key to successful development of an interorganizational systems (IOS) network. Firms often exercise their power and offer reciprocal investments to their trading partners in developing an IOS network. However, limited effort has been made to empirically validate their effects on increasing IOS usage between trading partners. This paper gauges the effects of these two relational factors--power and reciprocal investments--within the context of an electronic data interchange (EDI) network development. Moreover, the role of channel climate in increasing EDI usage is explicated with a particular focus on its determinants and impacts. With insights obtained from social exchange and transaction cost theories, a research model is developed and tested with data collected from 233 suppliers with electronic linkages via EDI with a nationally recognized retailer of home improvement supplies and materials in the United States. The customer's reciprocal investments in the form of BDI-related support are proven to be effective in increasing EDI volume and diversity. However, power exercised is found to be not effective. Suppliers' cooperation with the customer, which is influenced by perceived uncertainty, trust, and transaction-specific investments, is found to have strong effects on EDI volume and diversity. Finally, the reciprocal investments are found to be an even more effective strategy when suppliers desire to keep a more cooperative relationship with the customer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buyer-seller relationships have long been of intense interest to marketing academics and practitioners, most particularly within the domain of business-to-business markets, but also more recently within the purview of business-to-consumer markets. This paper looks at the role of gender in buyer-seller relationships. Covering the literature from sales and from consumer behaviour, the general lack of a specific gender perspective in the interactions between buyers and sellers is identified and weaknesses in the current literature are highlighted. It identifies an opportunity to develop and apply feminist research practice to this increasingly important area. The benefits, opportunities, and limitations of the feminist research approach are specified and some initial conclusions presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-operative relationships between organisations may create added value for the partners involved, but they can also pose a threat to the competitiveness of markets. This paper reviews the economic and legal frameworks of co-operative marketing relationships and seeks to distinguish these from collusive relationships. A model of development from competition to co-operation to collusion is proposed, in which definitions of collusion are continually evolving in response to environmental change. This paper seeks to reconcile the benefits accruing to businesses involved in co-operative relationships, with the possible welfare loss resulting from restrictive relationships. Conceptual frameworks underlying buyer-seller relationships are evaluated from the perspective of models of economic efficiency and legal frameworks. A number of recent cases are evaluated in the context of this discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Positive supplier relationships result in trust and eventually sustainability. However, the opposite seems to be true in the South African automotive supply chain relationships that are characterised by conflict. Literature states that in the absence of trust, sustainability is compromised. The problem pertains to the erosion of trust because of conflict between suppliers in the South African automotive supply chains. Objectives: The main purpose of the research was to address the question: What are the antecedents of trust between buyer and seller within the South African automotive supply chains? The primary objective was to determine the value-adding antecedents of trust followed by presenting the antecedent with the strongest correlation towards trust. Method: The study was explanatory and descriptive by nature to determine relationships between constructs. The empirical research utilised a quantitative census, thus targeting all senior managers representing Tier 1 automotive component suppliers. A deductive approach through a structured close-ended questionnaire tested the managers’ perception on trust. The response rate was 81.4% with 144 participants. After factor analysis, a path analysis was compiled, depicting the antecedents of trust. Results: The study found that antecedents showing the strongest correlation with trust were the core offering, inclusive of product delivery and quality followed by personal interaction that forms part of the sourcing process. Conclusion: The research study makes a theoretical contribution by presenting a conceptual structure on trust by depicting its antecedents. Managerial contributions include recommendations on how to enhance trust through a relational governance strategy.