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Relationship marketing focuses on building strong relationships with individual customers. Its emergence in the 1980s was however not so much a discovery, but a rediscovery of a truth which formed the foundation of many businesses. Partnering, at its best, is a long term commitment between two or more organisations for the purpose of achieving specific business objectives by maximising the effectiveness of each participant’s resources. The relationship is based upon trust, dedication to common goals and understanding each other’s individual expectations and values. This seems to suggest many similarities between relationship marketing and partnering. It is, however, still unclear as to what these similarities are. The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to compare relationship marketing with the partnering concept in the construction industry and, secondly, draw lessons from partnering in construction for relationship marketing.

Research on relational maintenance of long-distance or cross-residential romantic relationships is limited. Moreover, relatively little is known about relational maintenance among non-marital intimate partners in later life, many of whom prefer to live-apart-together (LAT) rather than cohabit. This research paper examines how older adults from the United States maintain their romantic relationships across residences. The authors conducted a grounded theory study drawing on interviews collected from 22 older adults in LAT relationships. The data revealed that older LAT partners engage in a process of safeguarding autonomy to maintain their partnerships and relationship satisfaction. Two broad strategies were identified: upholding separateness and reshaping expectations. While safeguarding autonomy was paramount, participants also emphasized the importance of having a flexible mindset about the physical copresence of their relationships. The findings have implications for practice, suggesting that creating an interdependent couple-identity may undermine, or at least have little bearing on, the relationship stability of older LAT couples. Future research is needed to determine how LAT experiences among racially/ethnically or socioeconomically diverse samples might differ.

Anchored on the broaden-and-build theory and the circumplex model, the authors develop and test a conceptual model in which satisfaction, influenced by an effective handling of communication, cooperation, conflict, and opportunism, is set as the predictor of inter-partner creativity in the relationship between hotels and their foreign travel agents under the Covid-19 pandemic.

The conceptual model was tested with data collected from 190 randomly selected hotel units located in Greece, using both online and drop-in questionnaire methods. Data were analyzed using SEM analysis.

Satisfaction with the working relationship was found to be enhanced by improving communication and cooperation, as well as by keeping conflict and opportunism at low levels. This was a strong predictor of inter-partner creativity, although less pronounced under high levels of relational distance and rigidity.

The study should be extended to other country settings, replicated at different levels of crisis severity, and use dyadic data. Additional environmental factors could be used as boundary conditions, while our model could be expanded to include additional drivers and consequences of inter-partner creativity.

To generate inter-partner creativity, there is a need to maintain high levels of satisfaction through proper communication, enhanced cooperation, conflict minimization, and avoidance of opportunistic actions. Also, to better translate satisfaction into inter-partner creativity, interacting parties should keep distance at low levels, while at the same time demonstrate greater flexibility.

The study unveils the role of effectively managing behavioral factors in inter-firm relationships to develop creative solutions to the Covid-19 crisis challenges, an issue neglected by prior research. The study also sheds light on the contingent effects of distance and rigidity, two important factors moderating relationships under crisis. The study applies for the first time two psychological-based theories, the broaden-and-build theory and the circumplex model, to an international marketing crisis situation.

This paper attempts to propose an integrated model for measuring the knowledge transfer effectiveness in university‐industry alliances. The so‐called “RDCE” model is thereby proposed as an integrated model for measuring the knowledge transfer effectiveness. By combining inter‐organizational relations (IORs), knowledge‐based view (KBV) and resource‐based view (RBV) of firms, this paper aims to focus on the influence of determinant factors such as partner complementarities, partner attributes, the characteristics of the coordination and relationship quality between industrial companies and universities that may lead to the effectiveness of knowledge transfer.

This framework thereby clarifies how mediating variables influenced the paths that constitute the direct, indirect and total effects of mediated models by integrating moderated regression analysis together with bootstrap resampling methods to ensure the precision in estimating confidence intervals of indirect effects and path analysis using structural equation models to test all the hypotheses simultaneously for the robustness of the results and conclusions.

The statistical results reveal that the proposed model has a significant mediating effect that contributes to knowledge transfer effectiveness. Only partner attributes and relationship factors have a direct impact on the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. This appears plausible since mere complementarities and coordination between partners may not lead to learning or knowledge transfer, which requires a certain depth of the partner interaction in terms of the specific attributes of partners, coordination and relationship quality.

The authors assumed that the alliance constitutes partnerships between firms of roughly equal size and market power. Therefore, this study provided only broad perspectives of collaboration among alliance partners, and did not capitalize on different degree of alliance integration and different types of collaboration.

Managerial suggestions on how to improve their knowledge transfer effectiveness are also provided at the end of the text.

There are numerous studies examining alliance network performance. Very few studies, however, have examined detailed collaborative activities in dyadic university‐industry partnerships and potential constructs for measuring knowledge transfer and commercialization in the research and development alliance between industrial firms and university context.

Relationship marketing has been playing an important role in the development of marketing theory and practice. Though the concept has been extensively applied in international marketing in understanding the dynamics of exporter-importer relationships, few studies have looked at dyadic data to investigate the impact of mutuality of relational variables on the exporter-importer relationships. The objective of this study is to understand the impact of mutuality of key relational variables on exporter-importer relationship performance. A dyadic model of mutuality is proposed. The model highlights the impact of balance, level and quality of perceptual bi-directionality of relational variables.

The model was tested using dyadic data collected from exporter-importer relationships involving Australian exporters and their Southeast Asian import partners through a cross-sectional, quantitative survey. Mutuality of relationship constructs was measured using the perceptual bi-directionality (PBD) method.

The results support the central hypothesis that mutuality of relational constructs has an impact on relationship performance.

The study is the first to apply the perceptual bi-directionality method to measure mutuality of relational constructs in an exporter-importer setting. The study contributes to the general understanding of international business and exporter-importer relationship performance in particular.

The use of subcontracting within the construction industry has become commonplace with many main contractors only undertaking the management and co‐ordination activities. The reliance on subcontractors has put much stress on the main contractor‐subcontractor relationship. As main contractors have realised that the greatest potential for cost savings lies with the subcontractors, the prevalence of unfair practices has increased. This paper describes a procurement approach, utilising limited competition, developed by a major UK main contractor in order to improve its relationships with subcontractors. The approach developed was based on research which identified: what the main contractor’s professional employees want from subcontractors; what subcontractors want from main contractors; and a study to compare the main contractor’s performance with that of its competitors. It was concluded that this approach offers a number of benefits for the client, the main contractor, partnering subcontractors and professional consultants, such as, lower costs, improved team approach and less confrontation.

To develop and test a new model of relational exchange in marketing‐oriented non‐equity international strategic alliances.

The model is tested using a sample of 97 matched dyads of US and Japanese firms in the electronics industry. The model was tested using three stage least squares.

The data generally support the proposed model for both nations/cultures. The results suggest that the benevolence dimension of trust is a more important determinant of managerially assessed alliance marketing performance for the Japanese firms relative to their US partners.

While strong inferences are inhibited by the nature of our data set, our research implies that cultural sensitivity is an important determinant of the credibility and benevolence dimensions of trust and quality information exchange. Also, exchanging quality information is a strong mediator of the trust‐performance relationship.

International marketing managers should be focused on the process of developing high levels of alliance marketing performance. Our results suggest that this performance can be linked, at least in part, to the exchange of relevant, timely, important information. Information exchange in turn depends on the development of trust and cultural sensitivity in the relationship.

This paper integrates the cultural sensitivity construct into a relational exchange model of international alliances, demonstrating the importance of being open to, and understanding of, culturally driven operational differences. The important behavioral construct we call quality information exchange is a mediator in the relational exchange model, an improvement over models that include only relational constructs such as trust and commitment.

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 study aims to explore the direct and indirect effects of sales opportunism and sales conflict as well as of non-economic and economic satisfaction in business-to-business (B2B) sales relationships. This understanding offers B2B buyers enhanced knowledge of sales business expectations towards sustainable business relationships in the future.

Through self-administered questionnaires, data were obtained from 237 sales or marketing managers/directors of small- and medium-sized companies across industries in Spain, who were randomly contacted via LinkedIn. The multivariate analysis of measurement and structural models was based on IBM SPSS Amos 27.

The study confirms that sales opportunism positively affects sales conflict. Moreover, sales opportunism is negatively associated with non-economic sales satisfaction, whereas non-economic sales satisfaction is positively associated with economic sales satisfaction. Consequently, if all associates are pleased with the relationship and the gains it can provide, a long-standing orientation can be achieved.

The study expands existing theory on seller–buyer relationships in a B2B context. It contextualises direct and indirect relationships between two antecedents (sales opportunism and sales conflict) and two postcedents (economic sales satisfaction and non-economic sales satisfaction) in sales business–buyer settings.

The study guides buyers in B2B relationships towards an improved understanding of how sales businesses perceive opportunism and conflict (as negative precursors) to impact non-economic satisfaction and how it can influence economic satisfaction.

Most studies explore B2B relationship building from the perspective of the buyer, thereby creating a shortfall in developing an understanding of all partner expectations in B2B relational intent. Moreover, the measurement of satisfaction as a multidimensional construct secured the integration of non-economic satisfaction and economic satisfaction within a single model allowing the constructs measured in this study to be holistically assessed.