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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between competitive capabilities, including flexibility and collaboration between logistics service providers (LSPs) and their customers, and relationship quality, as measured by trust, dependence and commitment.

A total of 309 logistics managers were invited to participate in this study and structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the measurement and structural models.

The results show that both flexibility and collaboration positively influence trust and dependence. Moreover, dependence does not appear to influence commitment. Finally, the authors hypothesize and find that trust plays an important role in the research model and positively increase commitment.

The main limitation of this study is that this study used a cross-sectional survey approach to collect data on all research variables. Compared with longitudinal data, cross-sectional data might not be able to demonstrate completely the temporal sequence of the antecedents and consequences, which might result in spurious cause-effect inferences.

The findings offer several important implications for LSPs. First, the findings imply that LSPs need to make their customers want to share useful information related to operations and logistics. Second, flexibility plays an important role in forming customers’ trust in logistics service industry.

Little research has been done on combining a resource-based view (RBV) and relationship marketing (RM) together in logistics service context. Therefore, this study advances the RBV and RM and adds value to the literature by demonstrating the applicability of the observed relationships among LSPs.

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.