ABSTRACT

Purpose

The study explores a seller’s perspective of the influence of opportunism and conflict, which are negatively loaded constructs, on non-economic satisfaction as a positively loaded construct. It further established the influence of non-economic satisfaction on economic satisfaction as a positively loaded construct from a sales perspective in a supplier–business relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The study followed a quantitative and exploratory approach. Respondents (sales or marketing managers/directors or key account managers) were asked to identify one main business customer with whom they had interacted in the last year. In addition, respondents were further required to keep the selected customer in mind when answering the questionnaire. Consequently, all 213 but one (one non-response bias) surveys were used in the data analysis. A 5-point Likert-type scale was used to determine the degree to which respondents agreed or disagreed with the items provided in the questionnaire relating to opportunism, conflict, non-economic satisfaction and economic satisfaction in seller–business relationships. The SPSS/Amos 24.0 software was used to conduct the multivariate analysis in two phases. Phase one comprised a confirmatory factor analysis, while phase 2 comprised structural equation modeling. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the measurement properties of each construct, while structural equation modeling was applied to evaluate the hypothesized relationships in the precursor and outcome research model.

Findings

The findings show that in seller–business relationships, sellers are of the opinion that buyer opportunism and the existence of conflict do affect a seller’s non-economic satisfaction directly, which in turn affects the economic satisfaction of seller–business relationships. Sellers further indicated a positive seller–business relationship can stimulate a long-term partnership if both opportunism and conflict are negatively related to non-economic satisfaction and non-economic satisfaction relates positively to economic satisfaction.

Research implications

The study makes a practical contribution through an improved understanding of a seller’s perspective on how opportunism relates to conflict, how these two precursors influence non-economic satisfaction and how the latter relates to economic satisfaction in a seller–business relationship environment. An improved understanding of a sellers perspective of the variables under study, can potentially stimulate a long-term partnership if both a seller and a buyer are in agreement that opportunism and conflict are negatively related to non-economic satisfaction and non-economic satisfaction relates positively to economic satisfaction.

In terms of the theoretical contribution this study explores a seller’s perspective in business relationships to validate whether the findings reported in previous studies based on buyer business relationships applies to seller–business relationships. This study therefore contributes to broaden the relevance of existing theory and the findings reported in previous studies on business relationships, but from a seller’s perspective. This is especially important considering the growing need in the B2B literature to also understand a sellers’ perspective when building long-term business-to-business relationships. Secondly it was established that sellers perceive

opportunism to be positively related to conflict in a seller–business relationship. Thirdly, it was established that sellers acknowledge that opportunism has a negative relationship to non-economic satisfaction in seller–business relationships. Seller’s in supplier–business relationships therefore view opportunism as a strain on the non-economic relationship between two parties since one partner can perceive that unfair negotiation practices or other forms of opportunism can benefit the other partner. This outcome can then ultimately have a negative influence on the economic satisfaction experienced, limiting the long-term potential of the relationship.

In addition, seller’s argue that the management of conflict becomes critically important in their relationship-building initiatives with buyers. They further argue that there has to be mutual understanding for the role of each partner in the relationship, that each partner wants to benefit economically from the relationship and that mutual exchange is founded on mutual agreement of what such exchange entails. Finally, it was validated that if both the seller and the buyer are content with the relationship and the benefits it has to offer, a long-term orientation can be secured.

Originality/value

A limited number of research studies explored the B2B relationship between opportunism, conflict and its influence on economic and non-economic satisfaction from the perspective of the seller. Opportunism and conflict as precursors to non-economic satisfaction, where economic satisfaction is an outcome, has not been previously researched from a seller–business relationship perspective. No previous study has focused on relationship marketing in B2B relationships from the perspective of a seller to establish the influence of opportunism and conflict on non-economic satisfaction, and its ultimate influence on economic satisfaction. This finding adds value as it indicates what constitutes non-economic satisfaction in seller–business relationships and how this has an influence economic satisfaction. The two precursors of non-economic satisfaction can be used in future to investigate the influence of non-economic satisfaction on different outcomes such as dependence, commitment, collaborative communication and environmental uncertainty. Considering this, the study contributes to Relationship Marketing theory by suggesting valuable measurement constructs.

中文翻译：

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机会主义和冲突是买卖双方客户关系中非经济和经济满意度结果的先兆

摘要

目的

该研究探讨了卖方对机会主义和冲突（作为负向构成）的影响对作为非正向负载的非经济满意度的影响的观点。从供应商与业务关系中的销售角度来看，它进一步确立了非经济满意度对经济满意度的影响，并将其作为积极的负担。

设计/方法/方法

该研究遵循定量和探索性方法。要求受访者（销售或市场经理/总监或大客户经理）确定他们去年与之互动过的一个主要商业客户。此外，还要求受访者在回答问卷时牢记所选客户。因此，在数据分析中使用了所有213项调查，但一项（一项无响应偏差）调查被使用。使用5点李克特型量表来确定受访者对调查表中与机会主义，冲突，非经济满意度和卖方-企业关系中的经济满意度相关的项目表示同意或不同意的程度。使用SPSS / Amos 24.0软件分两个阶段进行多元分析。第一阶段包括验证性因素分析，而第二阶段包括结构方程建模。验证性因子分析用于评估每种构建体的测量特性，而结构方程模型则用于评估前体和结果研究模型中的假设关系。

发现

研究结果表明，在卖方－业务关系中，卖方认为买方机会主义和冲突的存在确实会直接影响卖方的非经济满意度，进而影响卖方－业务关系的经济满意度。卖方还表示，如果机会主义和冲突与非经济满意度负相关，而非经济满意度与经济满意度正相关，那么积极的卖方－业务关系可以刺激长期合作关系。

研究意义

通过对卖方关于机会主义与冲突的关系，这两种先兆如何影响非经济满意度以及在卖方与企业关系环境中后者与经济满意度的关系的理解得到了更好的理解，该研究做出了实际的贡献。如果买卖双方都同意机会主义和冲突与非经济满意度负相关，而非经济满意度正相关，则对卖方对所研究变量的观点的更好理解可能会激发长期的伙伴关系。经济满意。

就理论贡献而言，本研究探讨了卖方在业务关系中的观点，以验证以前基于买方业务关系的研究报告所报告的发现是否适用于卖方与业务关系。因此，这项研究有助于拓宽现有理论和先前关于业务关系研究中报告的发现的相关性，但要从卖方的角度出发。考虑到B2B文献中日益增长的需要，即在建立长期业务对业务关系时也要了解卖方的观点，这一点尤其重要。其次，建立了卖方感知

机会主义与买卖双方之间的冲突正相关。第三，可以确定的是，卖方承认机会主义与卖方-企业关系中的非经济满意度具有负相关关系。因此，卖方在供应商与企业之间的关系中将机会主义视为对两方之间非经济关系的一种压力，因为一个合作伙伴可以认为不公平的谈判做法或其他形式的机会主义可以使另一伙伴受益。这样，此结果最终可能会对所体验的经济满意度产生负面影响，从而限制这种关系的长期潜力。

此外，卖方认为，在与买方建立关系的计划中，冲突的管理至关重要。他们进一步争辩说，必须对每个伙伴在关系中的角色有相互了解，每个伙伴都希望从关系中经济受益，并且相互交换是建立在相互同意这种交换需要什么的基础上的。最后，可以验证的是，如果买卖双方都对这种关系及其所提供的利益感到满意，则可以确保长期的发展方向。

创意/价值

有限的研究从卖方的角度探讨了机会主义，冲突及其对经济和非经济满意度的影响之间的B2B关系。机会主义和冲突是导致经济满意度的非经济满意度的先兆，以前从未从买卖双方关系的角度进行过研究。以前没有研究从卖方的角度关注B2B关系中的关系营销，以建立机会主义和冲突对非经济满意度的影响，以及对经济满意度的最终影响。这一发现增加了价值，因为它表明了构成卖方与企业关系的非经济满意度以及它如何影响经济满意度。非经济满意度的两个前兆可以在将来用于研究非经济满意度对不同结果的影响，例如依赖性，承诺，协作沟通和环境不确定性。考虑到这一点，本研究通过提出有价值的度量结构，为关系营销理论做出了贡献。