ABSTRACT

Purpose

The use of threats to force supplier compliance is a common practice in current business affairs. Unfortunately, little is known regarding the supplier’s decision process to comply to or resist such a coercive strategy. The paper aims to develop a more comprehensive view of the decision process used by suppliers when threatened by their customers, as well as discover new phenomena regarding supplier Decision-Making Under Threat (DUT). More specifically, it aims at (1) gaining a better understanding of threats by looking at their patterns and commonalities and (2) identifying which consideration factors are relevant when suppliers evaluate threats.

Method

To identify which consideration factors are relevant to suppliers when deciding how to react to threats, the study employed an exploratory approach by interviewing 17 marketing practitioners with experiences in DUT. The in-depth interviews lasted between thirty-five and sixty-five minutes and were transcribed. Descriptive coding and template analysis generated thirty-nine descriptors and nine categories that are deemed important when considering DUT. The authors also evaluated the intensity of each of the consideration factors present in the decision process.

Findings

The results reveal that it is possible to categorize threats into three components: Objectives, Penalties and Manifestations. Objectives are what the customer is trying to achieve by using the threat, namely demanding price reductions, appropriating intellectual property, procuring financial statements, receiving a bribe, increasing technical requirements, accessing a cost breakdown, modifying delivery terms, and modifying payment terms. The penalty is what the supplier can expect to happen when refusing to comply, such as losing the customer’s sales. Finally, manifestations describe how the threat is presented by the customer. Study results show that these manifestations may be categorized according to their level of ambiguity, predictability, and candor. The results also reveal that at least five cognitive decision criteria are typically considered during the decision process although at different intensity levels from each participant. These criteria include: Dependence, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Relationship Quality, Relational Norm Violations, and Mimetic Isomorphism. Several interesting discoveries were made. For example, Dependence is both the consideration factor for which most people emphasized its influence on their decision and for which most people said that it had no influence at all. Relational norm violations is unique by being the only criterion for which no participant mentioned that it does not influence their decision. The overwhelming majority of study participants considered more than three criteria during the DUT process. Finally, participants said that they experienced negative emotions such as anger and frustration when exposed to threats albeit most did not recognize that it played a role in their decision. These emotions are however believed to be a factor in reducing the supplier’s willingness to comply. Overall, the study finds that DUT is a complex decision process regarding supplier adaptation, and can be a highly emotional experience with long-lasting effects.

Research implications

The face-to-face interviews used to collect narratives of participants being exposed to customer threats is deemed an appropriate and highly recommendable methodological approach. When collecting data on reactions to threats and their accompanying emotional reaction several non-verbal signs that the participants physically demonstrated were an essential component in fully interpreting the data. As such, future research on the topic could include video recordings of the interviews. The narratives were also very efficient in recalling the emotions associated with the coercive event though the interviews sometimes occurred several years afterward.

The participants’ opinions are consistent with academia’s view regarding the ambiguous role of emotions during decision-making. On the one hand, emotions are recognized to play an important role, they should be acknowledged and understood, while on the other hand, many believe that emotions should not contaminate the decision process. By combining five cognitive criteria with emotions in a DUT framework, the paper incorporates knowledge from the field of psychology into the business-to-business marketing literature. The article highlights the fact that the study of both threats in a business setting and the role of emotions in decision-making are neglected topics that deserve more academic attention.

Practical implications

From the customer’s perspective an improved understanding of the supplier’s DUT may help customers limit the damage to relationships when using coercive influence strategies such as threats. From the supplier’s perspective, the results emphasize the importance to decompose their customer’s threat in order to better respond to its use. By also taking into account all consideration factors suppliers can take better quality decisions. The results provide several recommendations such as to include intangibles in the cost-benefit analysis instead of solely focusing on the short-term financial impact. Emotional control has been stressed by the participants as a key managerial ability to master when faced with threats.

Originality/value/contribution

By merging the influence strategy research stream and the supplier adaptation research stream together, the study generates a few original and noteworthy contributions. A better understanding of threats is garnered by breaking them down into three components, which consequently extends our understanding of influence strategies. The study also contributes to a deeper understanding of the supplier’s DUT, a new concept described in the paper, by identifying how decision makers include multiple criteria in their decision process.

Very few academic papers have specifically looked into threats as a coercive strategy despite its prevalent use in business environments. Those that did focused on a limited set of criteria when analyzing the decision to adapt. The article expands on these previous studies by proposing five decision criteria, which are often considered collectively by participants when examining adaptation under threat, and emphasizes a factor neglected in previous research, namely the role of emotions.

中文翻译：

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威胁下的决策探索

摘要

目的

使用威胁来强制供应商合规是当前业务中的一种普遍做法。不幸的是，关于供应商遵守或抵制这种强制性策略的决策过程知之甚少。本文旨在对供应商在受到客户威胁时使用的决策过程进行更全面的了解，并发现有关供应商的威胁下决策（DUT）的新现象。更具体地说，它旨在（1）通过查看威胁的模式和共性来更好地理解威胁，以及（2）确定供应商评估威胁时哪些考虑因素是相关的。

方法

为了确定在决定如何对威胁做出反应时与供应商相关的考虑因素，该研究采用探索性方法，采访了17位具有DUT经验的营销从业人员。深度访谈持续了35至65分钟，并被抄录。描述编码和模板分析生成了39个描述符和9个类别，在考虑DUT时被认为很重要。作者还评估了决策过程中每个考虑因素的强度。

发现

结果表明，将威胁分为三部分是可能的：目标，惩罚和表现。目标是客户通过使用威胁来实现的目标，即要求降价，盗用知识产权，购买财务报表，收受贿赂，增加技术要求，访问成本明细，修改交货条件以及修改付款条件。惩罚是供应商在拒绝遵守时（例如失去客户的销售）可能会发生的后果。最后，清单描述了客户如何提出威胁。研究结果表明，这些表现形式可以根据其歧义性，可预测性和坦率程度进行分类。结果还表明，尽管每个参与者的强度水平不同，但在决策过程中通常会考虑至少五个认知决策标准。这些标准包括：依赖关系，成本效益分析，关系质量，关系规范违规和模拟同构。取得了几个有趣的发现。例如，依赖性既是大多数人强调其影响决策的考虑因素，又是大多数人说它根本没有影响的考虑因素。关系规范违规是唯一的，没有参与者提到它不会影响他们的决定，因此它是唯一的准则。绝大多数研究参与者在DUT过程中考虑了三个以上的标准。最后，参与者说，他们在面对威胁时会遇到诸如愤怒和沮丧之类的消极情绪，尽管大多数人并未意识到它在他们的决定中发挥了作用。但是，这些情绪被认为是降低供应商遵守意愿的一个因素。总体而言，研究发现DUT是关于供应商适应的复杂决策过程，并且可以是具有持久影响的高度情感体验。

研究意义

面对面访谈用于收集受到客户威胁的参与者的叙述，被认为是一种适当且极受推荐的方法。在收集有关威胁反应及其伴随的情绪反应的数据时，参与者在身体上表现出的几种非语言迹象是充分解释数据的重要组成部分。因此，有关该主题的未来研究可能包括采访的录像。尽管访谈有时是在几年后进行的，但叙事在回忆与强迫事件有关的情绪方面也非常有效。

参与者的观点与学术界关于情感在决策过程中的歧义作用的观点是一致的。一方面，人们认识到情感起着重要的作用，应该承认和理解它们，而另一方面，许多人则认为情感不应该污染决策过程。通过在DUT框架中结合五个认知标准和情感，本文将来自心理学领域的知识整合到企业对企业的营销文献中。这篇文章强调了一个事实，即对商业环境中的威胁和情感在决策中的作用的研究都是被忽略的话题，值得更多的学术关注。

实际影响

从客户的角度来看，对供应商DUT的更好理解可以帮助客户在使用诸如威胁之类的强制性影响策略时限制对关系的损害。从供应商的角度来看，结果强调了分解客户威胁以更好地应对威胁的重要性。通过同时考虑所有考虑因素，供应商可以做出更好的质量决策。结果提供了一些建议，例如将无形资产包括在成本收益分析中，而不是仅仅关注短期财务影响。参与者已将情绪控制作为应对威胁的主要管理能力。

创意/价值/贡献

通过将影响力策略研究流和供应商适应性研究流合并在一起，该研究产生了一些原创且值得注意的贡献。将威胁分为三个部分，可以更好地理解威胁，从而扩展了我们对影响力策略的理解。通过确定决策者如何在决策过程中包括多个标准，该研究还有助于加深对供应商DUT（本文中描述的新概念）的了解。

尽管在商业环境中普遍使用威胁，但很少有学术论文专门将威胁作为一种强制策略来研究。那些确实在分析适应性决策时只关注一组有限的标准。本文通过提出五个决策标准对这些先前的研究进行了扩展，提出了五个决策标准，参与者在检查受到威胁的适应性时通常会集体考虑这些决策标准，并强调了先前研究中忽略的一个因素，即情感的作用。