Smart heuristics in business relationships: toward a typology
ISSN: 0025-1747
Article publication date: 3 September 2024
Issue publication date: 11 December 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of heuristics in business relationships. We distinguish between four categories: (1) general heuristics used in the context of a business relationship but that may also (and are often) used in other contexts; (2) relational context heuristics that are typically used in a relational context; (3) relational information heuristics that rely on relational information and (4) genuine relational heuristics that use relational information and are applied in relational contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
We draw on existing literature on heuristics and business relationships to inform our conceptual paper.
Findings
We apply this typology and discuss specific heuristics that fall under the different categories of our typology. These include word-of-mouth, tit-for-tat, imitation, friendliness, recognition and trust.
Research limitations/implications
We contribute to the heuristics literature by providing a novel typology of heuristics in business relationships. Emphasizing the interdependence between heuristics and business relationships, we identify genuine relational heuristics that capture the bidirectional relationships between business relationships and heuristics. Second, we contribute to the business relationships literature by providing a conceptual framework for understanding the types of heuristics managers use in business relationships and by discussing examples of specific heuristics and how they are applied in relational contexts.
Practical implications
We contribute to practice by providing a simple framework for making sense out of the “universe” of heuristics for business relationships.
Originality/value
Our paper provides a novel typology for understanding heuristics in business relationships.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Decision making and heuristics in business relationships”, guest edited by Simone Guercini, Antonella La Rocca and Stefanos Mouzas.
The first author gratefully acknowledges support through the Lee Kong Chian Fellowship, Singapore Management University.
Corrigendum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Reb, J. and Jha, N. (2024), “Smart heuristics in business relationships: toward a typology”, Management Decision, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-06-2023-1097 incorrectly listed the contact details for the corresponding author. This error occurred during the proofing process and has been corrected in the online version of the manuscript.
Citation
Reb, J. and Jha, N. (2024), "Smart heuristics in business relationships: toward a typology", Management Decision, Vol. 62 No. 11, pp. 3457-3472. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-06-2023-1097
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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