The deterioration of a business relationship- Typological approach of the customers’ reaction
authors
keywords
- Buyer-supplier relationship typology
- Commitment
- Degradation
- EVLN model
document type
COMMabstract
Inter-organisational relationships are sometimes subject to degradation. When incidents arise, and relationship attractiveness decreases, its evolution becomes uncertain. Adopting the supplier perspective, and starting from the idea that the outcome of the degradation process is mainly determined by customers’ reactions, this paper aims to develop a framework helping managers to understand those reactions. We propose that customers’ reactions vary as a function of the nature of the business relationship and the customer commitment when degradation begins. Based on a qualitative case study, a typology of business relationships is presented and it explains the specific reaction that each type of customer is likely to adopt.