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The main goal of the paper is to describe the knowledge interconnection process embedded in an interactive business relationship. The purpose of this study is to understand the knowledge interconnection inside the supplier-buyer relationship in the field of contract manufacturing. The knowledge interconnection process is defined by the authors as a process linked to business relationships, which contains different types of knowledge and various sub-processes related to them.

The Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP) research framework has been applied and the contribution is a better understanding of the role of knowledge in the interactive business world. The empirical evidence is based on a case study of a Hungarian contract manufacturing company. This paper describes empirical, qualitative research about knowledge interconnection processes applying an abductive research design.

The knowledge interconnection process is linked to business relationships. It is a complex process, which contains three types of knowledge and five sub-processes. The knowledge evolution indicates the links between the different types of knowledge. The sub-processes relate to different types of knowledge and allow the flow of knowledge between the supplier and the buyer. In the business relationship, this flow of knowledge makes possible the new knowledge creation. A model of the knowledge interconnection process has been developed.

Single case studies can create rich descriptions of complex phenomena, but the possibility for generalization is limited. Another limitation is that the knowledge interconnection process has been studied only from the supplier’s perspective. The present research extends IMP’s knowledge of embedded knowledge. In addition, empirical research contributes to the emerging field of IMP research that explores knowledge as a resource but lacks an empirical foundation.

The knowledge interconnection process is a decisive factor in the development and maintenance of long-term customer relations in the field of contract manufacturing. The evolution of knowledge types – from the body of knowledge to knowledge in use – demands the management of different sub-processes. Knowledge selection, knowledge recombination, knowledge mobilization and new knowledge creation processes are more strongly related to the supplier-customer dyad, while the knowledge relocation process has a network character. The knowledge interconnection process influences the company’s body of knowledge and its relationship management capability.

The originality of the study is, on the one hand, an empirical examination of the process of knowledge interconnection. On the other hand, the development of a model of the knowledge interconnection process. A further feature is that empirical research has been conducted in the field of contract manufacturing.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of how start-ups initiate business relationships and to identify the subprocesses that characterise business-relationship initiations in a start-up context.

The paper builds on business-relationship initiation models, develops a theoretical framework of relationship initiation and its subprocesses and, in a multiple-case study, applies this framework to seven relationship initiations by start-ups.

The key findings of this study describe the process of business-relationship initiation by start-ups, which comprise six subprocesses. The authors’ detailed and structured initiation-process analyses show how the initiation process occurs in a start-up context and how start-ups develop their relationships. The authors’ analyses also reveal typical patterns and critical issues, such as asymmetry, that characterise start-ups’ business-relationship initiations, particularly with bigger players.

This paper develops a model of the relationship-initiation process, uses it in a start-up context and identifies the critical characteristics, including asymmetry, of start-up initiations; these contributions address both the literature on start-ups and the literature on relationship initiation and development.

This paper is the first to focus on how start-ups initiate business relationships; previous studies of business-relationship initiation have focussed on mature firms. Using the industrial marketing and purchasing approach, the paper contributes to shifting the focus from interactions between resource entities to relationship-initiation processes in the context of start-ups.

The concept of trust suffers from conceptual confusion. The current perspectives on trust within the B2B marketing domain could be visualised as a big box of which the borders are defined by the disciplines marketing, economics, psychology and sociology. The purpose of this paper is to enlarge the box by introducing neuroscientific insights on trust to the B2B marketing domain.

By a literature study on neuroscientific insights on trust, this paper examines how neuroscience can help to solve existing problems within trust research and how it can address problems that otherwise might not be considered.

The neural coordinates of trust not only show that trust entails cognitive and affective elements, but also that these elements are so intertwined that they cannot be completely separated. What can and should be separated are the concepts of trust and distrust: the neural coordinates of trust are clearly different from the neural coordinates of distrust. Furthermore, there are personal differences in the ease of trusting others, which are not only caused by previous experiences but also by differences in resting patterns of frontal electroencephalographic asymmetry and by differences in hormonal state.

Specifically, the neural difference between trust and distrust might shape the future research agenda for trust research within industrial marketing. It is likely that the process of distrust goes quick, whereas trust comes more slow. This is reflected in the dual processing theory, which is seen as a paradigm shift in the psychology of reasoning.

New perspectives and directions for trust research are presented. The distinction between trust and distrust is connected to approach- and avoidance-motivated behaviour, which is highly relevant for deepening the studies on trust within industrial marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how context influences the quality of business relationships. This theoretical question is studied from the point of view of trust, one of the important components of business relationship quality. The authors study how trust is related to the dynamics and management of the business relationship in the context of an emerging market.

This paper is based on qualitative interviews with 15 spare-parts resellers in the Tunisian automotive industry. The authors take a monadic view, interviewing resellers about their relationships with their wholesalers-importers. The decision to undertake the research in Tunisia is based on three factors. First, Tunisia is an emerging country and there is very little published research based in the Maghreb countries. Second, the Tunisian automotive parts market structure is relatively simple and, hence, easily understood, with most spare-parts being imported because of the low level of local production. Third, the actors in the study are all Tunisian companies, so research allows us to explore relationships between local companies in an emerging country.

The authors find that different kinds of trust play different roles over the dynamics of the relationship. Perceived trust is more important at the emergent stage of a relationship, and as the two parties learn from each other, experienced trust becomes more important in the established relationships. The initial perceived trust creates the possibility of building trust, and when mutual trust exists between the parties, it motivates them to maintain the relationship, but there is always the threat of the degradation of the quality of the relationship because of the violation or destruction of the trust.

This paper shows that more care should be taken when using trust as the variable under scrutiny. Different aspects of trust manifest themselves at various stages of the relationship building cycle.

The results emphasize that when initiating a business relationship, managers first need to create perceived trust. Thereafter, once trust is built up, it is the trust that may “manage” or act to control the on-going relationship as long as the partners’ behavior or network changes do not violate the trust.

The results of this paper show that there is a mutual but not necessarily symmetrical or balanced influence of trust on the behavior of the partners involved. The influence of the different parties is dependent on the power architecture, the history of the relationship and the network position of the actors.