Management of Relationships in a Public Tendering Context

• AbstractThe theory of contracts indicates that formal contracts has to be complemented some sort of relationship management. At least this is the ideal situation, expected to exist on a business-to-business market, where there exists no formal regulations preventing exchanges of actors. In other contexts, there could be a conflict between the role played by formal contracts and the parties freedom to exercise the relationship management needed in order to create long-term viable relationships. The focus in this paper is therefore to investigate how relationships evolve and are managed in a context where a formal contract is the governing factor, controlling the service delivered. As empirical context, we have used the public transport area, were it exist long-term dyadic contractual relationships resulting from public tendering processes. The results of the paper indicate that the contract to a high extent governs the relationship, and very little space is left over to the parties to handle the relationship freely. This stresses the importance of how the contract is formulated, since the way the contract is written affect the outcome for a long period of time

Ämnesord

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

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

Nyckelord

Företagsekonomi

Business Administration

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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