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This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

The objective of this research is to describe and apply a method with which to measure and evaluate mutual trust in dyadic business relationships with both one‐to‐one and multiple informants, as well as symmetric and asymmetric interactions.

Application of the perceptual bi‐directionality method, i.e. the PBD‐method, is introduced in this context to measure and evaluate the relationship properties of mutual trust in the context of one‐to‐one and multiple informants, as well as the symmetric and asymmetric interactions, in dyadic business relationships.

The overall impression of the mutual trust in the studied relationships is that they are well balanced. It may erroneous, since there may be balance deficiencies between the various trust dimensions. The stepwise evaluation of a case example reveals that there are substantial differences between the various trust dimensions measured in the dyadic business relationship.

It is argued that the measurement and evaluation of unidirectional trust issues is not enough in itself to understand the relationship properties of trust between two actors in dyadic business relationships, but that a bi‐directional approach should be applied in terms of the relationship properties of mutual trust. Furthermore, the approach of one‐to‐one key informants might also be insufficient. Instead multiple informants should be used in the measurement and evaluation of the relationship properties of mutual trust in dyadic business relationships and, symmetric, as well as asymmetric, interactions of mutual trust in dyadic contexts should be considered.

The PBD‐method is a formalised and structured method of how to measure and evaluate the mutuality of relationship properties in dyadic contexts. The outcome of the present research is also a set of generic mutuality measures that can be useful in different management and research applications.

The PBD‐method may be used to measure and evaluate multiple key informants' in asymmetric interactions of mutual relationship properties in dyadic contexts, instead of only matching one‐to‐one key informants in symmetric interactions.

This paper aims to understand an emerging paradigm for business-to-business selling, Sales 2.0, which connects various enabling technologies within leading sales processes to drive improved business and relational outcomes. In the context of Sales 2.0, this paper addresses the need for buyer–seller dyadic sales research in the literature and highlights the importance of understanding buyer and seller perspectives regarding technology expectations and relationship-building performance.

This research utilizes a dyadic (salesperson–customer) data collection methodology, involving 74 matched salesperson and customer responses (37 dyads) to an online survey. Existing salesperson (self-report) measures of customer technology expectations and relationship-building performance with customers were utilized and adapted to provide dyadic measures to test for buyer–seller perceptual differences.

The dyadic data analysis supports the presence of significant perceptual differences between the salesperson and their customer, respective of customer technology expectations and relationship-building performance measures. In particular, the analysis reveals bidirectional perceptual differences for the two measures, whereas the salesperson underestimates the importance of their customer’s technology expectations, but overestimates their relational performance relative to their customers.

As technology continues to transform salesperson interactions with customers, the value of capturing a deeper understanding about those interactions increases. This study uses matched salesperson–customer dyads from a health-care sales organization to provide researchers and practitioners with insightful findings with respect to buyer–seller interactions and perceptual differences. Further, the research uniquely advances dyadic measures of customer technology expectations and relationship-building performance with customers to advance sales research in the context of Sales 2.0.

The authors systematically review empirical dyadic service encounter research published in top-tier journals between 1972 and 2022.

The authors employed bibliometric techniques, co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis to map schools of thought and research frontiers within the dyadic service encounter literature. In total, the authors analyzed 155 articles. To ensure inclusion of high-quality research, the authors screened articles from 139 journals with “4” or “4*” ratings on the 2021 Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) journal list, in addition to articles published in three service sector-specific journals: Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing and Journal of Service Theory and Practice.

The authors' co-citation analysis identified four distinct clusters within the dyadic service encounter literature: (1) shaping and explaining service encounters; (2) emotions in service work; (3) modeling, manipulating and measuring encounter service quality and (4) emotional labor and regulation in dyadic service encounters. Furthermore, the authors' bibliographic coupling analysis generated three research clusters: (1) service encounter characteristics; (2) emotions and emotional labor and (3) service encounter interaction content.

The authors' comprehensive review synthesizes knowledge, summarizing similarities among research clusters within the service encounter realm. Noteworthy are research clusters that clarify the emotion-based underpinnings and reciprocal nature of behaviors and emotions within dyadic encounters. By conducting complementary bibliometric analyses, the authors trace the evolution of the service encounter literature, providing an overview of the present state of dyadic service encounter research. These analyses offer valuable insights into the current landscape of the field, identifying future dyadic service encounter research opportunities.

Argues that the unidirectional measurement and evaluation of service quality in any specific service encounter is not enough in itself to understand the existing service quality between two actors in a dyadic service encounter. Therefore, a method is introduced for the express purpose of analysing the perceptual bi‐directionality of service quality in order to measure and evaluate the dynamics of service quality in dyadic service encounters.

While the research of dyadic business relationships is often dedicated to measuring and evaluating the dependence between actors as a unidirectional phenomenon, it is sometimes referred to as a bi‐directional issue of importance in the management of a firm’s business relationships. A unidirectional measurement and evaluation of the dependence in a specific dyadic business relationship is not always sufficient to understand the existing dependence between two actors and instead a bi‐directional approach may be required. Furthermore, there is a lack of a formalised and structured procedure in order to measure and evaluate the mutual dependence in such a relationship. Therefore, this article introduces a dependence application of the perceptual bi‐directionality‐method, i.e. the PBD‐method, in order to measure and evaluate the mutual dependence in dyadic business relationships.

Past studies have paid extensive attention to investigate learning issues in individual, organizational and team contexts. Learning activities in the workplace, however, often occur in the interdisciplinary dyadic context. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to clarify what factors make interdisciplinary dyads lead to better learning effects. The authors attempted to clarify two major agendas: What knowledge factors (intellectual capitals) owned by the parties of the dyads can induce better learning effects? What contextual factors (learning tasks) can make better learning effects during the dyadic learning process?

To examine the previous agendas, the authors first conducted in-depth interviews and an exploratory survey so that a four-element dyadic intellectual capital (DIC) architecture was circumscribed: knowledge interdependency, expertise similarity, collaborative routines and mutual trust. Dyadic learning tasks were classified as exploitative and exploratory learning. The authors then sampled 248 respondents for the formal empirical survey to examine the relationship between DIC, dyadic learning tasks and knowledge sharing.

The statistical evidences confirmed the positive relationships between DIC and knowledge sharing, and the results also signified the previous relationships with a mediating effect from exploratory learning, while the effect of exploitative learning was not supported. Thus, only dyads (the two heads) with knowledge interdependency and mutual trust can make the exploratory task better than that of one individual (the one head).

This study provides a new insight into the learning issue with an interdisciplinary dyadic perspective to supplement the existing gap between academic efforts and learning practices in the workplace.

The paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at analysing a series of independent variables derived from international industrial marketing and channel management literature.

The respondents represent a number of dyadic business‐to‐business relationships of different duration, and involve firms of different size (multinational enterprise buyers and their corresponding medium sized enterprise suppliers).

Initial findings support much of the extant literature on relationship marketing, demonstrating that certain aspects of a relationship tend to change over time. In particular, the study revealed that: there is a high degree of optimism associated with dyadic relationships at early stages, and these are characterised by both parties having high initial perceptions of the relationship; in mid‐term relationships some negativity maybe apparent, where certain aspects regress; and in long‐term situations, there is a tendency for relationships to be well structured, and these are particularly highly perceived among both exchange parties.

The research approach shares those benefits as well as limitations associated with earlier empirical investigations. That is a trade‐off in favour of undertaking dyadic exploration, than administering large samples and data sets. As a consequence of the sample size, some caution should be exercised when interpreting these findings.

Firms need to pay particular attention to relationships of differing time duration. This is because specific aspects of relationships may not develop in a uniform direction.

The research attempts to unravel the complexities and difficulties associated with obtaining data of a dyadic perspective for a significant number of relationships of different length. Such studies that map the evolvement of buyer‐seller relations over time are rare.

This paper aims to extend the argument of DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, who called to bridge the gap between feedback-seeking and feedback-giving research. The paper pushes their argument further by suggesting that future feedback research should systematically adopt a dyadic and dynamic approach to enhance the understanding of feedback episodes.

This paper reviews previous empirical work in the feedback domain and develops conceptual arguments for linking feedback-seeking and feedback intervention research.

Drawing upon previous work, the authors conclude that the current depiction of feedback processes in the literature might have been overly static and one-sided. Furthermore, it is argued that feedback research might have not kept up to date with recent conceptual and methodological developments in dyadic organizational behavior research.

This paper builds on the argument of DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, in turn contributing to a more complete picture of how feedback processes unfold in organizations. While this paper profiles a few studies that have begun to bridge the disconnect between feedback-seeking and feedback-giving research, one of its limitations is that it does not adopt a systematic approach in reviewing all potential methodologies.

This paper provides a first step toward studying feedback episodes as dyadic and dynamic processes. In doing so it helps solving one of the long-standing puzzles in management research namely why feedback interventions are sometimes detrimental to performance.

El objetivo de este artículo es extender los argumentos de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, que hacen un llamamiento para conectar la investigación sobre buscar y ofrecer feedback (retroalimentación). Desarrollamos aún más su propuesta sugiriendo que la investigación futura sobre feedback debe adoptar sistemáticamente una aproximación diádica y dinámica para mejorar nuestra comprensión de los episodios de feedback.

El artículo revisa la literatura empírica en el campo del feedback y desarrolla argumentos conceptuales para vincular la investigación en busqueda de feedback e intervenciones de feedback.

Sobre los resultados de trabajos previos los autores concluyen que la imagen actual de los procesos de feedback en la literatura es excesivamente estática y desde un solo punto de vista. Es más, se argumenta que la investigación en feedback puede no haber seguido algunos desarrollos conceptuales y metodológicos recientes en la investigación sobre comportamiento organizativo diádico.

El presente trabajo toma los argumentos de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson como punto de partida, y con ello contribuye a desarrollar una imagen más completa sobre como los procesos de feedback se despliegan en las organizaciones. Si bien el trabajo comenta algunos trabajos que han comenzado a conectar las hasta la fecha desconectadas literaturas en buscar y ofrecer feedback, su limitación principal reside en que no adopta una revisión sistemática de todas las metodologías potenciales.

El trabajo ofrece un primer paso hace el estudio de los episodios de feedback como procesos diádicos y dinámicos. De este modo contribuye a solventar uno de los retos clásicos en la investigación en gestión: porqué las intervenciones de feedback son en ocasiones negativas para el rendimiento.

Este artigo visa estender o argumento de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, que preenche a lacuna entre a pesquisa sobre buscar feedback e dar feedback. Nós impulsionamos ainda mais o seu argumento, sugerindo que a futura pesquisa sobre o feedback deve adotar sistematicamente uma abordagem diádica e dinâmica para melhorar nossa compreensão dos episódios de feedback.

Este artigo revisa o trabalho empírico anterior no domínio do feedback e desenvolve argumentos conceituais para vincular pesquisas de busca de feedback e de intervenção de feedback.

Com base em trabalhos anteriores, os autores concluem que a representação atual dos processos de feedback na literatura pode ter sido excessivamente estática e unilateral. Além disso, argumenta-se que a pesquisa de feedback pode não ter se atualizado com desenvolvimentos conceituais e metodológicos recentes na pesquisa do comportamento organizacional diádico.

Este artigo baseia-se no argumento de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, contribuindo, por sua vez, para um quadro mais completo de como os processos de feedback se desdobram nas organizações. Enquanto o artigo mapeia alguns estudos que começaram a reduzir a desconexão entre a pequisa sobre buscar e dar feedback, uma de suas limitações é que ela não adota uma abordagem sistemática ao revisar todas as metodologias potenciais.

Este artigo fornece um primeiro passo para o estudo de episódios de feedback como processos diádicos e dinâmicos. Ao fazê-lo, ajuda a resolver um dos quebra-cabeças de longa data na pesquisa em administração, principalmente porque as intervenções de feedback às vezes são prejudiciais ao performance.

Research on business-to-business (B2B) pricing has been mainly focussed on the supplier’s pricing process, thus adopting traditionally an internal perspective and perceiving pricing as a profit distribution parameter rather than an opportunity for collaboration with customers. Recently, the opportunity to develop win-win, collaborative relationships in the B2B pricing process by embracing a supply chain perspective has started to attract the attention of scholars across several research streams, who have highlighted the emergence of this topic using different definitions, perspectives and methodologies. The purpose of this paper is to address the need for integrating the fragmented body of knowledge on B2B pricing toward supply chain collaboration.

This critical literature review adopts an interdisciplinary approach, focussing on industrial marketing and operations and supply chain management areas.

The authors provide a critical synthesis and discussion structured in four streams clustered around two dimensions, i.e. the “extension” of the collaboration in the pricing process along the supply chain and the “direction” of collaboration.

Drawing on the literature gaps, the paper concludes by proposing an agenda for future research for a relevant topic both for academics and practitioners.

This paper offers a novel comprehensive view of the supply chain collaboration in the B2B pricing process and provides opportunities for intensifying dialogue across different research areas.