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The value of long‐term relationships has become a widely studied variable in marketing. This article investigates two important characteristics of salespeople (consideration of future sales consequences and customer‐oriented selling) and their effects on the usage of long‐term relationships. In turn, associations between a long‐term relationship orientation, and a preference for long‐term compensation are explored. The findings suggest managerial and research implications for structuring of reward systems and potential tools for recruiting, selection and assignment of salespeople based on these characteristics.

This purpose of this study is to apply social exchange theory (SET) to explain how social exchange behaviors, such as the exchange of knowledge, information and respect between firms, would increase the likelihood of certification implementation and strengthen the relationships among partners. The main purposes of this study are to examine the significant connections between partner interactions and long-term orientation and to examine the links among long-term orientation, certifications and relationship quality.

To test the research hypotheses, structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze the data collected from 136 respondents who are top managers of manufacturing enterprises in Taiwan National Science Park.

Many enterprises in Taiwan regard conflict as a method to express more detailed information about collaboration in business and see conflict as a minus in making the quality of partnership healthier than before. It was affirmed that owning international certifications has an impact on long-term collaborative partnership. Conflicts within a partnership do not completely have a negative influence on relationship quality. Because enterprises want to keep stable partnerships and get long-term competitive advantages, they should continue creating smooth and efficient trading behaviors and should also consider relationship quality as an important factor with regard to their investment in some relationship-specific assets.

This study was intended to explore the connection between conflict and relationship quality; however, this relation suggested that conflict may be a negative influence but without any significant proof of the connection. Therefore, future researchers could examine this relation again in the context of Taiwanese enterprises.

This study had some implications for enterprises in Taiwan, especially in regard to maintaining a long-term partnership and deciding whether to acquire a specific certification. When firms decide to invest in a relationship-specific asset, they should consider the interaction with the partners and the quality of the partnership. It is suggested that firms should evaluate not only the immediate benefits and drawbacks but also the implications with regard to partner relationships. Meeting the requirements of partners is thus an effective approach to gain trust and commitment.

As the interactions with partners are executed progressively more smoothly, the relationship quality will become increasingly better. The possibility of having a long-term collaborative relationship becomes higher as the relationship quality improves. Therefore, as the relationship duration becomes increasingly longer, the cost of having an international certification will offer a return on the investment or even result in a profit.

A good relationship quality will lead to specific investments from partners, such as the one involving the implementation of specific certifications. The enterprises in Taiwan would prefer to develop a long-term partnership when their demands for a specific investment could be fulfilled. Consequently, enterprises can use the degree of relationship quality to assess the cost and benefits of implementing a certification and can, furthermore help in making the decision.

This research examined how moving to a residential care home, a specific form of long‐term care facility, influences the quality of the relationship between seniors and their family members and how policies in these homes can facilitate relationships between residents and their family members. In this exploratory study, a total of five non‐spousal family members participated in a focus group discussion, and an additional 10 family members participated in face‐to‐face interviews. The two main themes that emerged identified that admission to a long‐term care facility had no influence on family relationships, or it had a positive influence on family relationships. The respondents identified how policies in the home can maintain or enhance family relationships. In particular, they appreciated very flexible policies that included few restrictions on when and where they could interact with their relatives and appreciated facilities providing private spaces to accommodate family interaction. The results of this study, and future research, will aid administrators in long‐term care facilities to develop policies that most support and enhance the experience of seniors and their ongoing relationship with their family members.

This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of manufacturing firms’ long-term orientation towards their suppliers in the context of outsourcing relationships in China.

Based on survey data collected from 224 manufacturing firms in China, this study examines the hypothesized relationships.

The results show that task conflict has a negative effect on long-term orientation, both Chinese guanxi and formal control are useful governance mechanisms to enhance long-term orientation, and the negative effect of task conflict on the long-term orientation weakens as Chinese guanxi between a manufacturer and its supplier increases.

This study contributes to a better understanding of conflict management in outsourcing relationships in China.

The purpose of this paper is to delineate the impact of social context and savings attitudes on consumers’ self-reported long-term savings and discuss how these drivers can be influenced to increase an individual’s savings rate.

An online survey was conducted among 993 German savers. A structural equation model quantified the influence of the social context and an individual’s attitudes on long-term savings behavior, as stated by consumers.

Both social context constructs – subjective norms and relationship quality – exert a significant influence on the savings attitudes of perceived anxiety and perceived importance, which in turn significantly affect long-term savings. Furthermore, the results of a mediation analysis indicated that the social context only has an indirect effect on long-term savings.

The study was conducted in Germany only. Therefore, the results may not apply across cultures. In addition, the salient belief structures, access channels used, and savings product categories were not part of this study.

The results showed that financial institutions can influence an individual’s attitudes toward long-term savings by providing a satisfying and trusted relationship. The positive effect on savings attitudes will translate to an increased long-term savings rate. According to the analysis, financial service providers can only have an indirect effect on long-term savings behavior.

This paper delineates the impact of the social environment on long-term savings. This relationship has not been investigated in previous research. In addition, the influence of the social context within the attitudes-behavior framework for long-term savings is expounded.

The purpose of this study is to compare two models, traditional‐ and performance‐based, of Japanese retailers' channel relationships. The traditional model proposes Japanese retailers' long‐term orientation with their supplier is an antecedent of Japanese retailers' trust and dependence on the supplier. The performance model, on the other hand, proposes significant influences of suppliers' role performance and dependence on channel relationships.

Data were collected from Japanese department store buyers and specialty store buyers. A total of 141 cases were analyzed using the EQS structural equation modeling software.

Results show that the traditional model had a higher explanatory power than the performance model, which indicates the strong influence of culture on Japanese channel relationships.

Some measures have relatively poor psychometric properties. A further study should refine these measurements by exploring the meanings of these constructs from the cultural context.

This study provides insight into how cultural influences are embedded in distribution channel relationships.

This paper aims to explore how and why salespeople enhance or hinder long-term business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships at the interpersonal level by considering self-disclosure and relational cost and reward evaluations.

Data from interviews (N = 47) with B2B sales professionals were analyzed, focusing on the shift of the phases in long-term B2B customer relationships.

Long-term B2B customer relationships evolve at the interpersonal level through a process of continuous relational cost and reward evaluation, self-disclosure and business disclosure in three phases: becoming business partners, collaborative partners and collaborative and personal partners. The reward evaluations progress from being business related to including even more relational benefits. Disclosure progresses through general business disclosure and general self-disclosure; strategic business disclosure and personal life self-disclosure; and synergistic business disclosure and private self-disclosure.

The long-term B2B customer relationships could be studied at the interpersonal level from the customer’s perspective. Self-disclosure could be studied in cross-cultural settings as well as gender differences should be considered in future studies. Business and social penetration theory could be applied to investigate different types of relationships and other professional relationships, such as those between employers and employees. It would be important to test whether the business-related and self-disclosure subtypes apply to the development of other types of professional relationships or whether other disclosure subtypes exist. The authors recommend exploring salespeople’s and customers’ privacy management strategies in multiple communication channels.

Managers may apply the results of this study in their customer relationship management and sales training.

The findings outline a contextual extension of social penetration theory.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influential factors of the antecedents of relationship quality (RQ), RQ, and long-term relationship orientation between the members that constitute the insurance marketing channel.

This study uses in-depth interviews as well as a survey to examine long-term relationship orientation between life insurers and insurance intermediaries in Taiwan.

Results indicate that antecedents of RQ (customer orientation, expertise, similarity, and contact intensity) have a positive effect on RQ. Relationship qualities (trust, satisfaction, and commitment) have a positive effect on the long-term relationship orientation. The antecedents of RQ have a positive effect on the interaction of long-term relationship orientation through mediating effects of RQ.

It fills a gap in the literature by explores the long-term cooperative relationship between life insurers and insurance intermediaries based on the RQ perspective. Further, previous studies have focused on the automobile, food, electronic information, textile, and financial industries. Few studies have looked at insurance marketing outsourcing from a RQ perspective. Thus, this study will be useful to decision makers in the insurance industry seeking to improve their supplier-distributor relationships.

Taking the Spanish agro‐food sector as reference, the current work seeks to examine the moderating effect of the type of input exchanged; specifically, to analyze the potential differences in temporal orientation of the relationships established between companies and suppliers of “core” and “auxiliary” inputs.

The information was obtained by means of a postal survey of managers responsible for the supply function from a random sample of Spanish agro‐food companies, specifically wine producers. The reason for approaching these professionals was to obtain responses from individuals who are directly in contact with the firm's suppliers, and who negotiate the purchasing agreements.

The findings show that, although communication, trust and satisfaction are always important as evaluated elements, their importance is higher when “core” products are considered. The data also indicate that for the case of products that are considered “core”, the relation between commitment and the long‐term orientation of the relationship is not significant. In this way, the more relevant the input is, more important are communication, trust and satisfaction, and the less important is commitment.

Although many studies have analyzed the long‐term orientation of buyer‐seller relationships, very few have considered the influence of the type of product exchanged. And furthermore, no previous works have analyzed the moderating effect of product type on the factors determining this long‐term orientation.

The purpose of this study is to explore an integrative model of supplier success, using a case study of the Thai high-technology firms. The study focuses on buyer-supplier relationships of information systems (IS), including bundles of hardware, software and services because these relationships are dependent on both immediate performance quality of the IS and long-term maintenance of a strong buyer-supplier relationship.

The research used an integrative model that incorporated the DeLone and McLean (2003) IS success model, representing system quality and Clauss and Tangpong’s (2018) impregnable exchange relationship model, representing relationship quality. Exploratory mixed methods study incorporated interviews with supplier relationship managers at five Thai high-technology firms (n = 15) and a quantitative survey of buyer firms (n = 393).

Results supported the integrative system-supplier success model. The most significant limitation is that the study was only conducted in a single industry (high tech) when the IS buyer-supplier relationships modeled here are ubiquitous in modern business.

Despite this limitation, the research contributes to the literature by developing and testing a long-term buyer-supplier relationship success model that incorporates both the characteristics of an IS and the supplier characteristics that lead to positive outcomes.

This study makes intuitive sense and being demonstrated statistically – the fact that the overall quality of an IS, coupled with a well-liked, non-substitutable supplier with a history of good performance, would be considered to be a successful supplier relationship is not especially controversial. The value of the study lies in the integration of the two models to represent different aspects of supplier performance, which could have a different effect on the buyer-supplier relationship in the long-term.