Customer-Supplier Relationships in B2B, 1st ed. 2020
An Interaction Perspective on Actors in Business Networks

This book explores customer-supplier relationships in B2B markets focusing on interaction between parties. Drawing on three fields of research ? studies of relationships in marketing, social interactionism in sociology, and sense-making in social psychology ? the author explores the concepts and roles of actors in business relationships and how the behaviour of actors within an interaction affects the development of those relationships.

Based on a review of prior research and an original empirical study, the author argues that the presence of continuous close relationships between the customer and supplier organisations bestows features of a business network on B2B markets, with distinct interdependencies and ubiquitous interactions. Exploring buyer-seller interactions, the author contends that actors? mutually perceived identities ? continuously emergent and relationship-specific ? are the main factor in the development of business relationships and discusses the implications for management practice and research.

Chapter 1. EXPLORING THE ROLE OF ACTORS IN THE FORMATION OF MARKET RELATIONSHIPS

1.1 The peculiarity of business markets

1.2 The issues in focus

1.3 The study approach and methodology

1.4 Organisation of the volume

 Chapter 2. PERSPECTIVES ON MARKET – B2B MARKET AS NETWORK

2.1 Comparing perspectives on market

2.3 Market as institution

2.4 Market in the marketing perspective

2.5 Market-as-network 

Chapter 3. ANALYSING SUPPLIER CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

IN BUSINESS MARKETS

3.1 The substance of relationships

3.2 Relationships in markets

3.3 Content and functions of interorganisational business relationships

3.4 Connecting resources, activities and actors

3.5 Interaction in business relationships

3.6 Interlocking of behaviours and its consequences

Chapter 4. ACTORS IN INTERACTION

4.1 Actors from an interaction perspective

4.2 Actors in business relationships

4.3 Perceptions, interpretations and behaviours in interaction

4.4 Symbolic interactionism

4.5 Identity construction and sensemaking

4.6 Actors’ identities in business relationships

4.7 Interaction’s actors: inter-actors

Chapter 5. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF INTERACTION IN BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS

5.1  Organization of the field study  

5.2  Differences in identity attributed by different customers to the same supplier

5.4 Reflections on methodology and limitation of the study

6.1 The meaning of interaction in business relationships

6.2 The significance of heterogeneity and change in relational identities

6.3 Interaction’s actors

6.4 Implications for research and practice

Index

Antonella La Rocca is Associate Professor at Rennes School of Business, France, where she teaches B2B marketing. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing and on the board of the Association for Key Account Management. Her main research interests are innovation, entrepreneurship, and sales in business markets. She has co-edited volumes on innovation in healthcare and new business venturing, and is the author of several publications in Industrial Marketing Management, Management Decision and the IMP Journal. 

Reviews how different research streams treat the idea of market relationships, and how these work

Based on original field research with 128 observations on 32 customer–industrial company relationships

Offers novel insights on how interaction behaviours impact the development of buyer–seller relationships

Argues that actors in business relationships have fluid boundaries and are characterized by jointness, and multiple and transient identities

Shows that actors in interaction (‘interactors’) need capabilities beyond the traditional managerial skills of analysis, planning, and decision-making