Authors: Judit Simon; Tibor Mandjak; Tibor Mandjak; Zsófia Tóth; Zsuzsanna Szalkai; Zsuzsanna Szalkai
In our paper we introduce the “relationship picture” as a concept that indicates how the people involved in a relationship see it. Relationship pictures are in fact the interpretation of the relationship in the actors’ mind. As such, the relationship picture is the mental basis of the analysis of and the actions in and about the relationship. It is a representation of the relationship and has a close connection with relationship value. The relationship picture is each partner’s particular reflection of the whole value of the relationship in which they are involved.Our main research question is: “how can the comprehension of the relationship picture help business relationship management?” To comprehend such a complex phenomena as the relationship picture, we attempt to discover the essential, the constituents and the structure of it.Research methodWe analyse a dyadic database of more than 170 business relationships in different industries. Dyadic data collection was conducted in Hungary between 2009 and 2011. There are 67 statements from the both buyer and supplier sides about the shared business relationship which exists between them.Research findingsThe theoretical conceptualisation of the relationship picture construct is one of our research findings. Based on a dyadic database an empirical exploration was conducted of two parties (buyer and supplier) relational picture of the same relationship.Interesting findings include the discovery and the comparison of the structure of different relationship pictures of the supplier and the buyer. We identified four factors on the supplier`s side: smoothness of relationship, the partner`s network potential, assumed support from the partner and sales expectations: and nine factors on the buyer`s side, namely also the smoothness of the relationship and the network potential, but also the importance of the purchased goods for the supplier, the utilization of the purchased goods needs some adaptation, savings on the purchase, buying expectations, satisfaction with financial conditions and the duration of the relationship.
The overall level of satisfaction is largely the same on the buyer`s and supplier`s side.Main contributionEmpirical exploration of the actors’ relationship picture is a contribution to the already existing literature on dyadic buyer-seller relationships. The paper illustrates an experience how to investigate and compare empirical data from a dyadic database. Because of the difficulties of dyadic data collection, this field is relatively under-researched.
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Conference: Rome, Italy (2012)