International business-relationship triads

• This paper addresses the question of whether the dyadic approach to international business relationships should, in some situations, be extended to a triadic one. In studies of business relationships the common view is that the relationship consists of two parties, one selling party and one buying party. However, in some, especially international business relationships an intermediary exists that has contact with both the selling party and the buying party, at the same time as the selling party and the buying party also have direct contact with each other, i.e. these relationships are triadic by nature. The purpose here is to investigate whether a triadic approach should be used in these types of situations. The empirical analysis is based on a subset of the database established within the IMP2-project The analysis of the data material was done using LISREL. Trust and commitment, two central concepts in studies within the field of business-to-business research, are used to investigate whether business-relationship triads are different from business-relationship dyads. The results indicate that this is very much the case.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Matematik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Mathematics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

international business

supplier relations

vendor relations

trust

social interaction

MATHEMATICS

MATEMATIK

Business studies

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)