Search results

This study aims to investigate how companies’ understanding of the business network influences the creation of value in business-to-business relationships. The authors do this by analysing dimensions in actors’ “network pictures” and illustrating how value perception and network understanding influence actors’ mutual effort to create value. Approaching relationship value from the point of actors’ cognitive understanding of their business network has so far been largely overlooked in relationship value research.

This study applies a qualitative case study methodology whereby dyadic data from a well-established business-to-business relationship is collected from 18 company representatives through personal interviews and group interviews supplemented by participant observations and company data.

The findings contribute with new insight into how companies’ understanding of their surrounding network influence (facilitates or limits) relationship value creation. The authors find that companies continuously reflect on changes in their networks and the related changes in partners’ value perceptions. Through value articulations, companies seek to explicitly express their value perception. Value reflections and value articulations create a dynamic process formed not only by the individual actor but also through their relationship and engagement in their network environment. This requires companies to develop their networking capabilities.

This paper presents findings, insights and contributions limited to a case study of a particular business relationship within an industrial setting. Although the findings and contributions are valid and in line with the criteria for rigorous qualitative research, the authors advocate and call for additional studies that investigate relationships value creation and address the interplay between actors’ network understanding and their actions and behaviour. One way to approach this would be to test the four propositions derived and presented as part of the present study.

The findings imply that management needs to be aware not only of the value created and delivered to a specific partner but also of how the partner’s understanding of the wider network will influence the value delivering and capturing process.

This study contributes to the growing literature on relationship value creation by outlining a dynamic process where relationship partners reflect upon and articulate value. Such activities are influenced by the partners’ network understanding and form the basis of the mutual relationship value creation effort. The findings also contribute to the network pictures literature by emphasizing insights into the formation of value perceptions through actors’ understanding of their surrounding networks.

Presents the results of an international marketing research, in which they integrate culture with manifestation of values, trust, and commitment as vital components of business‐to‐business relationships. Analyses trust, relationship commitment, and values in the context of business relationships in two former Yugoslav markets, Serbia and Croatia. The results from a survey of over 400 large‐ and medium‐sized companies show that Serbian firms evaluate trust and relationship commitment as more important than Croatian companies. Differences in evaluations of values, trust, and commitment for business‐to‐business relationships are explained as outcomes of culture and market situations. These findings provide companies with action menus of potential advantages to pursue for maintaining and developing business relationships.

The purpose of this study is to identify the types and features of business relationship when the value co-creation phenomenon is extended to an early stage of the value chain, in which technological innovation is essential, in a high-tech business-to-business (B2B) market.

The methodology of building a theory from a case study is adopted in this study to propose an early-stage value co-creation network. Qualitative data are coded on the basis of grounded theory coding after collecting the triangulation data from multiple sources.

In a high-tech B2B market, three types of business relationships (supplier–customer mutual, supplier-centric and network-based business relationships) co-create values at an early stage of the value chain. Intellectual resource, efficiency resource and supplier-centric business relationships are uniquely found in this stage.

This study provides new insight suggesting that the notion of value co-creation can be extended to early stages of the value chain in a high-tech B2B market. In addition, this research identifies vital business relationships and how these relationships develop successfully at an early-stage value co-creation network in a high-tech B2B market.

Technology development managers at an early stage of the value chain can co-create relationship benefits by building proposed business relationships integrating resources in a high-tech B2B market. In addition, marketing managers should consider the early stage as another source of value co-creation.

The notion of value co-creation is extended from the later stage to an early stage of the value chain in a high-tech B2B market. Consolidated framework of a value co-creation network integrating actors, resources and relationships, suggested in this study, will be valuable for further theoretical research and business application.

This study aims to explore the relationships, direct and indirect, between business customers’ perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty.

The study was set in the business banking industry, with data collected from 381 micro-enterprise business customers of a large South African bank by means of a self-administered, internet-based questionnaire.

The results reveal that business customers’ perception of value results in both economic and non-economic satisfaction. The results further indicate that non-economic satisfaction mediates the relationship between economic satisfaction and behavioural loyalty.

The study contributes to business services marketing literature by taking a multidimensional approach to the traditional value-satisfaction-loyalty chain.

The study contributes to business services marketing literature by emphasising the importance of perceived value in driving both economic and social outcomes, which, in turn, drives behavioural outcomes. By providing evidence of the outcomes associated with higher perceived value, service providers gain insights into the importance of focussing on value creation and the building of personal connections with micro-sized businesses to ensure future repurchase behaviour.

This research expands on current value research by positioning economic and non-economic satisfaction and attitudinal and behavioural loyalty as outcomes of business customers’ perceived value. This is possibly the first study to investigate satisfaction and loyalty as outcomes of perceived value where both comprise two distinct dimensions.

The paper aims to present how relationship value is created and how it influences the existing buyer‐supplier relationship and the buyer's performance. It seeks to introduce the construct of business relationship function to analyze why the business relationship is valuable and to investigate the links between business relationship function, relationship quality and buyer's performance. Moreover, it aims to investigate whether the availability of alternative suppliers changes the influence of business relationship function on relationship quality.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in 239 manufacturing firms in north‐west China, and the hyphotheses were tested using a structural equation model with LISREL software.

The results indicate that business relationship function has a direct as well as an indirect effect on buyer's performance through the mediating effect of relationship quality. The study also finds that business relationship function has a stronger influence on relationship quality than it does on buyer's performance. Moreover, the availability of alternative suppliers will weaken the influence of business relationship function on relationship quality.

This study concentrates on only the direct functions of business relationships and the indirect functions are neglected. Future studies should investigate the direct function as well as the indirect function, and the dynamic nature of business relationships should be considered.

The study suggests that managers should develop and maintain long‐term relationships through the fulfillment of business relationship functions. The role of function fulfillment is even more important when there is competition among alternative suppliers.

The study provides a sound agenda for future research on supply chain management and industrial marketing, and has important implications for practising managers, especially in the Chinese context and other similar developing countries.

Several studies have focussed on new ventures and the development of their first business relationships. However, the understanding of the value functions and involvement in those relationships remain inadequate. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relating process of a new venture by combining the value function framework and the notion of the degrees of involvement in business relationships.

The authors rely on two exploratory longitudinal case studies that focus on two start-ups. In both cases, the evolution of initial relationships with suppliers and customers over a period of time are studied.

The process of relating can occur through a diversity of business relationships manifested in both their value functions and their degree of involvement. The combination of value functions is not stable over time nor is the degree of involvement in business relationships. Moreover, specific interdependencies emerge between the value functions in the customer base and the supplier base of the new ventures over time.

This paper is among the few that explore the emergence of new ventures by considering both suppliers and customer relationships. From a business network perspective, the paper also shows that combining value functions and degrees of involvement provides a better understanding of the role of relationship diversity in the process of becoming a node in the business network.

Ulaga and Eggert (2006a) examined a framework of relationship value in business markets. This study aims to replicate their study to show that relationship benefits are more important than relationship costs when it comes to choosing a main supplier. This research also extends the original study by hypothesising that the development of relationship value has a positive impact on relationship marketing outcomes, thus providing evidence for the nomological validity of the original scale.

The study used empirical data from purchasing managers in manufacturing firms in the UK. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire. The study adopted a close replication to Ulaga and Eggert (2006a) using a rather similar context and methodology for comparison reasons.

Relationship benefits are more important than relationship costs when it comes to choosing a main supplier. Cost competitiveness is a necessary but not sufficient condition to differentiate in business markets. Value dimensions relate significantly to relationship marketing outcomes, providing evidence for the nomological validity of the original scale.

Given the dynamic nature of the relationship value construct, future longitudinal research could offer useful insights on how value is created over time.

Although internal cost reduction, which can ultimately lead to price reduction, should not be ignored, suppliers should focus on creating value through personal interaction, service quality, product enhancements and delivery efficiency.

The findings provide support for Ulaga and Eggert’s (2006a) conceptualisation, indicating that the relationship value is not merely a theoretical construct viewed on a high level of abstraction but rather can also be empirically measured.

Relationship is based on the idea of creating a win‐win situation for parties involved in a business engagement. The purpose of the article is to develop a model of mutual value creation and reciprocal return on relationships (ROR_R) assessment, which enables calculation of joint and separate gains from a relational business engagement.

The approach takes the form of a conceptual analysis, which is tested empirically through a real‐life case. The empirical part is based on a longitudinal empirical study including several empirical cases.

Following a practice matching process, resulting in mutual innovation and aligning of their processes, resources and competencies, the parties in a business engagement make investments in the relationship. This enables the creation of joint productivity gains. Valuation of joint productivity gains produces an incremental value, which can be shared between the parties through a price mechanism. Finally, based on this shared value and costs of investments in the relationship by the parties, a reciprocal return on the relationship can be assessed and split between the business parties.

The study addresses dyadic business engagements only. The findings enable calculation of reciprocal return on relationships (ROR_R) and form a basis of further development of marketing metrics and financial contribution of marketing, and of developing financial measures of intangible assets called for by the finance and investor communities.

Using the conceptual model and corresponding metrics, the financial outcome of the development of customer relationships as well as an assessment of the return on relationships with customers can be established.

The approach to assess the value of customer relationships as a two‐sided endeavor is novel, as well as the joint productivity construct and the value sharing approach, and the way of assessing ROR as a reciprocal measure that can be split between the business parties.

Today, we are at one of those rare inflection points along the path of human economic development. As the Industrial Age gave way to the Information Age, so now the Information Age has given way to the Relationship Age. Relationship Age economies, rather than based on raw materials or information, are based on the “hidden” assets of the firm, otherwise known as intangible assets. Intangible assets comprise the majority of a firm’s market value and the majority of intangible assets constitute the value contained within relationships: relationships with customers, employees, partners and suppliers. To find success in the Relationship Age and to drive sustainable market value, firms will need to develop a balanced approach in goal setting, quality programs and management techniques to grow and maximize their most important capital store, relationship assets.

This study aims to investigate whether higher value creation leads to higher value appropriation and to identify the boundary conditions in a buyer–supplier relationship that can explain why a particular supplier can appropriate higher value than others.

The study uses questionnaire surveys. The sample of the survey has 150 publicly-listed supplier firms in Taiwan. The unit of analysis is the buyer–supplier relationship.

In the buyer–supplier relationship, suppliers’ bargaining power, partnership and a supplier’s original brand manufacturing (OBM) business can strengthen the positive relationship between value creation and value appropriation.

This study adopts the unilateral viewpoint of suppliers; however, some constructs might require dyadic evaluation. This study only explores the spillover effect of OBM business on the relationship between value creation and appropriation.

The spillover effect of a supplier’s OBM business in a buyer–supplier relationship allows the buyer to share more common benefits and the supplier to capture more private benefits as compensation. By broadening its customer base, a supplier can increase its bargaining power. A supplier can also maintain a strategic partnership with each essential buyer.

To avoid the dark-side effect of partnership, the model provides the contingency that a supplier can capture more value from a buyer–supplier relationship.