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The purpose of this paper is to apply an economic sociology perspective to the activity–resource–actor (ARA) interaction model for business relationships. Interaction has been chosen as a conceptual domain where economic sociology has a particularly high potential to advance business-to-business (B2B) marketing in terms of its future research directions.

The paper provides a structured account of economic sociology through the description of eight key economic sociology concepts and discussion of the structuration theory. This is followed by an overview of the usage of the eight key economic sociology concepts in current B2B marketing research, and concludes with outlining eight specific future research directions which guide future research on interaction in business relationships.

Eight economic sociology concepts are identified: embeddedness, networks, institutions, power, social capital, identity, social structures and cognition. An overview of the application of these constructs within the B2B marketing literature shows how most of them are used as metaphors with a gap in understanding their economic sociology background.

Future research directions are described individually, do not include potential interaction effects and are developed within the ARA interaction model framework. Given the conceptual nature of the paper, it does not provide any empirical data and illustrations related to any of the eight key economic sociology concepts.

The paper answers a call for a wider integration of economic sociology into the B2B marketing literature. It provides a systematic eight-concept economic sociology framework to be used by B2B marketing theorists and researchers. The paper finishes with eight concrete future research directions through which an economic sociology perspective can help advance B2B marketing theory and business relationship management practice. A brief discussion of managerial implications is also provided at the end.

The System Concepts Laboratory (SCL) of Xerox PARC is in the second year of a research program investigating the support and enhancement of collaboration. To begin, we explain our research goals and operationally define “collaboration” as we have chosen to study it. Then, we describe the environment in which the research takes place, including the two‐site, distributed organization of SCL. In our first year, we have had many experiences that are relevant to understanding collaboration and we present a few of them and discuss how they are affecting the course of our future research. Also, we present a brief discussion of some hypotheses arising from our work so far, in hope of stimulating thought and work in the research of cooperative work.

The use of routines in the decision-making process of individuals, groups and organizations is a well accepted yet taken for granted phenomenon. One goal of organizations is to develop group routines that are efficient, but at the same time flexible. However, this presents a paradox because routines that are efficient at one point in time, or for a particular task, may persist, be unquestioned, and become increasingly inefficient for the group and the organization. This chapter develops a formal theory that describes the processes by which the legitimation of particular group structures impacts the development and use of group routines. The theory presented draws from theories of legitimation, expectation states theory, and institutional theory. The theory formally depicts three sources of legitimation: a referential belief structure (set of cultural beliefs) about expertise and leadership, authorization or superordinate support of a leader, and endorsement (support by group) of a leader. Specifically, the theory addresses: (1) how different sources of legitimation make groups more or less hierarchical; and (2) how the different sources of legitimation make group routines more or less flexible.

This paper aims to focus on time-constrained interactions involving industry and public actors, mainly universities, conducting research. This kind of interaction has become increasingly important to develop new pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics. The proposed theoretical frame relies on industrial marketing and purchasing’s interactive perspective on inter-organizational relationships and especially the activities, resource, actors model, combined with key concepts on temporary organizing and project management. This study identifies the temporality and time constraints imposed by this project on public–private interactions, specific coordination tools used to create such temporality and time constraints and their consequences, including positive and negative effects for the interacting parties.

The study builds on a single in-depth qualitative case study of a major antibiotics R&D collaboration project called ENABLE.

For negative consequences, this model includes the need for constantly rebuilding trust due to fast turnover of actors, difficulties in combining resources as efficiently as possible, resource constraints, bottlenecks and neglect of some activities, such as publishing, which are normally pivotal for universities. Despite these problematic consequences of temporality, resources are rapidly made available and new competencies learned quickly. Another positive effect is the possibility to achieve complex adaptations of resources and activities even in short time frames. Importantly, projects can act as a springboard for the parties to continue collaboration and in the long term develop a continuous business relationship.

Based on the findings the authors develop a model of time-constrained inter-organizational interaction between public and private organizations.

Utilizing a top-down approach of middle-range theorizing (MRT), the purpose of this paper is to integrate relational exchange with institutional theory to examine how companies manage supply chain relationships to achieve desired supply chain outcomes in industries characterized by varying degrees of regulatory mandates that restrict the choice of supply chain partners. The authors identify this supply chain relationship dynamic as constrained choice.

A moderated mediation model is tested using survey data from producers in the US wine industry to investigate the effects of regulatory pressure on the ability of wine producers to achieve operational coordination when responding to relational behaviors through either trust or calculative commitment.

Results find that relational behaviors can improve operational coordination through two distinct paths: trust or calculative commitment. With the moderating effect of regulatory pressure, relational behaviors more effectively facilitate operational coordination through trust. Alternately, regulatory pressure attenuates the mediated relationship through calculative commitment.

The research introduces constrained choice dynamics into the supply chain relationship literature via MRT. Integrating generative mechanisms from relational exchange and institutional theories provides theoretical depth and context-specific knowledge about relationships that operate in constrained choice situations.

Managers impacted by constrained choice should recognize that mechanisms typically resulting in positive relationship outcomes may respond differently in the presence of regulatory constraints. With greater regulatory pressure, efforts to enhance operational coordination are more effective using relational mechanisms to build trust. When trust is diminished, calculative commitment can be effective in achieving operational coordination, although extensive regulations make it more difficult.

Previous research traditionally assumes that managers are free to select suitable trading partners that ensure mutually beneficial relationships. The research develops a middle-range theory examining the constrained choice dynamic in relationships that are impacted to varying degrees by regulatory institutions.

Before addressing these three issues, I provide some background on the key theoretical approaches to legitimacy employed in this volume: two legitimacy theories in social psychology and institutional theory in organizational analysis. Virtually every contributor draws upon at least one of these theories; several authors draw upon two of these theories, offering a way to bridge them and/or apply them to a substantive concern.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the extent to which under- and over-investment problems affect hotel firms’ value around the time when acquisitions are announced.

Hotel firms are classified based on their financial constraints (under-investment), corporate governance mechanisms (over-investment) and organizational structures. Multivariate analyses are conducted utilizing the panel ordinary least squares regression to examine the effects of financial constraints, corporate governance mechanisms and organizational structures on acquisition returns.

The results show that financial constraints have a larger effect on the firm value compared to the effect of corporate governance. Also, acquisitions are viewed as over-investments in poorly governed, franchising and hotel-real estate investment trust (REIT) firms.

The analyses are limited to gains from acquisitions in the hotel industry. Therefore, future studies may examine the effects of capital expenditures and cash holdings on hotel firm value.

Acquisitions could help financially constrained firms reduce informational asymmetries. Firms could expand through franchising when they are financially constrained. However, franchising firms should take restrictive actions to control managers from making acquisitions. The hotel-REIT organizational form does not seem to cause under-investment problems, and it functions as an additional corporate governance mechanism.

In addition to the C-corporation organizational structure, hotel firms extensively adopt REIT and expand through franchising, which might affect under- and over-investment problems. Nonetheless, little is known about whether capital investments create or reduce value for hotel firms. This study helps to explain how financial constraints, corporate governance mechanisms and organizational structures affect hotel firms’ value.

The paper aims to analyse the nature of business communication and its influence on relationships development between Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries sourcing from Mainland Chinese sellers involved in manufacturing for sale to Western buyer firms.

A case study‐driven methodology with purposeful sampling is applied to yield maximum variation in the sampling to elicit underlying tendencies and generative mechanisms that exist within and across the multiple cases of relationships.

The paper finds that Mainland Chinese sellers and Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries tend not to have the close ties that might be expected. Mainland Chinese sellers constrained their use of social information, requiring Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries to use commercial information transfers to evaluate the trustworthiness of their Mainland Chinese partners. An ingroup/outgroup bias exacerbates the modesty bias of the Mainland Chinese and also hinders learning through the transfer of technical information within these Chinese interactions. On the other hand, Western buyers tend not to prefer social information interactions with their Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries, requiring these intermediaries to emphasise commercial information interactions to evaluate the trustworthiness of their Western buyers.

This research uses a restricted sample of case study respondents. Representative sampling across multiple contexts will assist in testing the generality of the findings.

For the West to source increasingly attractive manufactures from Mainland China, Hong Kong intermediaries will remain fundamentally important even though this creates further interactions. The aggregate of these multiple exchange arrangements is less problematic than would be the case if Western business were to deal directly with the Mainland Chinese.

This article sheds light on the nature of business communication interactions in a group of relationships between Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries and Mainland sellers, and buyers from the West. Implications for relationships development among the Chinese and Western actors are identified with propositions framed to guide further investigation.

Start-ups are companies that are not yet embedded in a pre-existing network of relationships. Studies that researched how start-ups act in their relationships focused on just one type of action and assumed that start-ups are autonomous in how they choose to act. However, organisational action in relationships is both interactive and dynamic. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how a start-up interacts with its partners over time.

The research aim is addressed through a longitudinal case study of a start-up in the medical device business. It was analysed how this start-up and its six key partners acted and reacted during 18 interactions episodes, what triggered these actions and what the outcomes of their actions were. In addition, the researchers explored if and how the subsequent episodes were related.

First, the case shows that the past and the future affect current episodes. Second, it shows that action was triggered by both internal and external events which could expand or constrain opportunities for future interactions. Third, the findings show that there was a pattern in the interaction modes used during the relationship. Fourth, the findings show that the initial mode of interaction was often imitated by the counterparty. Finally, it is shown that there are clear links between the trigger, interaction process and outcome in an interaction episode.

The results indicate that besides the focal firm, partners should always be actively and directly involved in any research into organisational action. Moreover, action in relationships should be characterised as a dynamic process that is in a state of continual change.

Managers of start-ups: can influence the outcomes of their relationships through their actions; have to react to both opportunities and conflicts in their relationships; can rely on their network to solve conflicts; and should closely consider their own actions and their counterparty’s actions.

The research is valuable because it studies the interactive and dynamic nature of start-ups’ action in relationships.