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This paper aims at exploring the mediating role of organizational commitment that continues to be one of the most controversial issues in HRM. Using a self‐administered questionnaire, 1,000 employees from 20 industrial companies were randomly selected and surveyed in order to examine this mediating role. The results revealed that organizational commitment and its two factors (normative and continuance commitment) play different roles in mediating the relationship between perceived work climate and performance, as rated by the employees themselves and their immediate supervisors. The implications of the results for both managers and researchers are also discussed in the paper.

This study aims to investigate the dual effects of commitment-based governance on the relationship between formal control and public–private partnership (PPP) project performance. Formal control and relationship governance are two primary forms of inter-organizational governance that affect project performance. However, little is known about the interplay between formal control and commitment and its effect on PPP projects. More specifically, previous studies have failed to distinguish the function routes of relationship governance resulting from different types of formal control (process and outcome control).

This study adopts a questionnaire survey to empirically investigate the mechanism that commitment-based governance influences the relationship between formal control and PPP performance. After collecting data from public and private sector professionals involved in 101 Chinese PPP projects, the theoretical framework proposed in this paper is verified by the empirical results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results show that process control has an inverted U-shaped effect and outcome control has a significant positive influence on PPP project performance. Furthermore, commitment moderates the effect of formal control on PPP project performance by increasing the relevance of outcome control and mediates the inverted U-shaped relationship between process control and PPP project performance.

Managers should recognize that process control is a double-edged sword and prevent the overuse of process control. Managers should direct their attention toward efforts to improve the commitment, which allows for the effectiveness of outcome control strategies. Additionally, this study new measurement method for relationship governance suggests that managers should be aware of the difference in parties' perceptions of the relationship.

This study allows for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship governance-control nexus from a commitment perspective. The authors bring into light the dual role of commitment-based governance in the relationship between the two types of formal control and PPP project performance. Moreover, the new approach to measure relationship governance offers valuable insight into the measurement of variables about individual's perception.

The study focuses on how to build long-term relationships with multi-channel agencies (MCAs) (dealers) who serve multiple manufacturers on a non-exclusive basis in a business-to-business (B2B) market. This study looks at the framework of relational benefits-commitment-long term orientation in a business-to-business context.

Data were collected from MCAs of three leading companies in the food distribution business. The survey used established scales to measure the relational benefits (core, operational, social and special treatment), commitment (affective and calculative) and long-term orientation (LTO).

The findings of the study show that core, social and special treatment benefits influence calculative commitment, and operational and special treatment benefits influence affective commitment. The study also supports that calculative and affective commitment play an important role in understanding the loyalty of MCAs.

The research examines how relational benefits impact commitment and loyalty among MCAs and manufacturers, in a non-exclusive relationship, in the business-to-business environment. This study incorporates social exchange theory (SET), relational benefits paradigm and commitment and long-term orientation in its framework and tests it within the food distribution industry. This study is the first of its kind to examine the effects of relational benefits on MCAs behavior in a food supplier–buyer setting.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework involving dependence, relationship commitment, logistics outsourcing and service quality to exhibit the roles of the relational factors involved in logistics outsourcing and their outcomes.

Based on data collected from 361 companies in Greater China, the authors use the structural equation model approach to examine the hypothesized relationships.

Both normative and instrumental relationship commitment are necessary for third party logistics (3PL) users to cope with their goal dependence on 3PL providers. However, only normative relationship commitment is necessary when users perceive switch dependence. Normative relationship commitment also plays a more important role than instrumental relationship commitment in facilitating the adoption of 3PL logistic outsourcing. In addition, both basic and advanced outsourcing practices have a positive effect on service quality.

This study contributes to both 3PL theories and practices by clarifying how relationships between 3PL users and providers in China are managed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influences of relational variables on export performance and the interactions among relational variables in the emerging market context of Malaysia.

The study used a mail questionnaire sent to Malaysian companies that export to Arab-speaking countries and achieved a response rate of 27.92 percent, resulting in a sample of 106 exporters.

The results of the path analyses indicate a positive impact of relational variables (adaptation, cooperation and communication) on export performance. However, the authors found that the impact was mediated by trust and commitment, rather than being direct.

The findings suggest that the impact of relational variables on export performance is complex and indirect. Mediators and moderators play important roles in this relationship.

Firms should invest in export relationships with the aim of building trust and commitment, which are the primary factors that affect export performance.

The authors have shed light on the way relational variables affect export performance. Moreover, this study contributes to a better understanding of small emerging markets, which are poorly represented in studies in this field.

This study examines the relationships among trust, commitment, logistics outsourcing relationship quality (LORQ), relationship satisfaction, strategy alignment and logistics performance considering selected manufacturing firms in a developing country, Uganda.

Drawing on insights from the commitment-trust theory and strategy alignment literature, and using a cross-sectional survey design with a self-administered questionnaire, and applying the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to analyze quantifiable data obtained from managers of 103 manufacturing firms in Uganda outsourcing logistics operations, the study examined the logistics performance effects of trust, through commitment, LORQ and relationship satisfaction.

The study findings reveal that trust influences logistics performance, indirectly through its effects on commitment, LORQ and relationship satisfaction, sequentially, and that the positive effects of relationship satisfaction on logistics performance strengthen with improvements in LORQ. Strategy alignment exerted a strong positive influence on LORQ.

The study findings have important implications for theory development and literature. The study applies the commitment-trust view to both theoretically and empirically examine logistics outsourcing as a competitive strategy to enhance logistics performance, and thereby providing a theoretical base for future research. However, this research is confined to manufacturing firms in Uganda, and the results are not necessarily generalizable to other contexts.

The study findings provide insights for logistics managers regarding the role of trust, commitment, LORQ, relationship satisfaction and strategy alignment in enabling successful logistics outsourcing relationships, and how drawing on these, managers can improve firm logistics performance.

This study contributes to logistics management literature by empirically examining the relationship of trust, commitment, LORQ, relationship satisfaction and strategy alignment with logistics performance, considering manufacturing firms in a developing country, where these aspects have not been largely explored before. It highlights the need to build trust, promote greater commitment of logistics user firms in logistics outsourcing relationships as well as aligning logistics outsourcing strategies to improve LORQ and enhance logistics performance. Additionally, the study provides for the first-time new evidence for the moderation effect of LORQ on the influence of relationship satisfaction on logistics performance. The study findings suggest advancing further scholarly discussions on logistics outsourcing as a critical strategy to enhance firm logistics performance within a developing country context. Due to limitations in logistics infrastructure, and existing low-level technologies, logistics in developing countries still revolves around conventional materials handling, packaging, inventory and transportation operations, and logistics outsourcing is new, thereby presenting an interesting research context for empirical investigations on logistics in general, and logistics outsourcing in particular.

This research examines the importance of a set of underlying variables, such as willingness of the supplier to adapt to the dealer, built‐up relationship bonds, costs of terminating the relationship, level of shared values, formal and informal communication between the participating parties, opportunistic behavior by the supplier and perceived level of satisfaction in the relation‐ship, for achieving high trust and commitment within a supplier‐dealer relationship. Data for the analysis are generated from 114 purchasing managers at Swedish lumber dealers, an industry where collaborative relation‐ships are not very developed, but considered necessary for future success. Methodology is described and results are discussed. Concludes that companies trying to achieve high trust and commitment relationships, should create high satisfaction relationships, by decreasing their opportunistic behavior, adjusting to the needs of the other part, and developing shared values.

This paper seeks to examine the central role that commitment plays in driving customer loyalty and to identify the effect that confidence, social and special treatment benefits as well as relationship investment, communication and management have on the development of commitment, and ultimately customer loyalty.

The paper reports the results of a national mail survey of 591 consumers across nine different service industries.

The findings of the study suggest that relationship commitment drives customer loyalty and that confidence, social and special treatment benefits affect commitment to the service, as does relationship investment and management. Surprisingly, relationship communication was found to have a negative effect on commitment to the service.

This paper provides managers with insight as to how they can better create and sustain loyal relationships through the creation of customer commitment.

The paper empirically demonstrates the importance of commitment in developing and sustaining loyal relationships while also providing a detailed assessment of the role of relationship benefits and maintenance in creating committed customers.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of the commitment between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their banks in Nigeria from the perspective of the senior SME employees. The antecedents to, and outcomes from, commitment that underpin these crucial business-to-business (B2B) relationships are quantified as part of a proposed relationship model.

In total, 850 SMEs located across three Nigerian regions were targeted leading to the achievement of 491 complete surveys. The data collected comprised various validated items from which scales were developed. Data collection was supported by means of face-to-face interviews with senior SME representatives. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations modelling (SEM) were employed to validate the research model and quantify the associated relationships.

Two dimensions of commitment are relevant here, namely, the affective and calculative components. The key respective antecedents to these commitment dimensions are trust and social bonding for affective commitment and costs related to benefit loss for calculative commitment. Affective commitment has the greater marginal effect on SMEs’ behavioural intentions towards their banks.

The research could be expanding further in future studies through consideration of the banks’ perspectives alongside those of the SMEs as consumers.

This lies in the assessment of the relationships’ strengths and characteristics from the perspectives of SMEs as clients, a sector under-represented in relationship marketing research and in a location where B2B relationships have perhaps not been fully supported by their banking sector.

This study seeks to provide insights concerning the predictors of industrial importers' commitment to their foreign suppliers in a relationship paradigm involving an emerging market.

Integrating a review of the relevant importer-exporter and distributor-supplier relationship literature, a model of importer commitment was developed. Based on survey data obtained from industrial importers for an emerging market, CFA and SEM were employed to test the proposed theoretical model.

The findings significantly support the theoretical framework and most of the hypothesized path relationships in the model. Predictors such as importers' knowledge significantly and positively influenced commitment through the intermediation of trust, supplier opportunism had a significant and negative effect on importer commitment, again through the intermediation of trust, and transaction-specific investment had a direct effect on industrial importers' commitment. Supplier's opportunistic inclinations did not have a significant direct effect on the commitment of the importers.

This research only considers the views of industrial importers that limits generalization. The sample size, constrained by the total number of industrial importers in the country examined, was also somewhat of a limiting factor concerning SEM modeling.

This study suggests the factors that export managers need to consider in maintaining long-term relationship with their foreign buyers, while contributing to building the relationship through knowledge sharing and curbing opportunistic inclinations.

This paper examines the antecedents of trust and commitment in industrial importer and foreign supplier relationships in the context of an emerging market. Based on the earlier literature on B2B exchanges, the role of importers' knowledge in driving commitment through the intermediation of trust offers new insights. This is particularly important because the importers are experiencing unprecedented growth opportunities. Considering their need to make decisions quickly and gain advantages from suppliers, will they remain committed to a particular supplier? Or will their commitment be strengthened by gaining knowledge of the supplier? The tested model offers unique insights.