Relationships with major customers may be advantageous to suppliers due to economies of scale and reputational benefits. In this study, we investigate whether unionization leads to disruptions in a firm's relationships with its customers. Our goal is to provide insights regarding the impact unionization has on a firm's sales relationships with its major customers. We predict that major customers will shift purchases away from suppliers that unionize to avoid potential disruptions. Using a difference-in-differences research design, our results show a negative association between supplier unionization and sales to major customers. Our findings are robust to addressing endogeneity concerns through a propensity score matched analysis and regression discontinuity research design. In addition, we find that supplier firm performance declines subsequent to unionization. We also find that suppliers experience significant increases in their cost of goods sold and the number of employees after supplier unionization, suggestive of higher input prices driving the disruption with major customers. Finally, we provide evidence that higher switching costs mitigate the decline in sales to major customers. Overall, our findings suggest that employee unionization can adversely affect a firm's relationships with their major customers.

中文翻译：

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公司工会化和客户关系中断*

由于规模经济和声誉利益，与主要客户的关系可能对供应商有利。在这项研究中，我们调查了工会化是否会导致公司与其客户关系的中断。我们的目标是提供有关工会化对公司与其主要客户的销售关系的影响的见解。我们预测，主要客户将把采购从加入工会的供应商那里转移，以避免潜在的中断。使用差异中的差异研究设计，我们的结果显示供应商工会化与向主要客户的销售之间存在负相关。我们的研究结果对于通过倾向得分匹配分析和回归不连续性研究设计来解决内生性问题是稳健的。此外，我们发现供应商公司的绩效在工会化后下降。我们还发现，在供应商工会化后，供应商的销售成本和员工人数显着增加，这表明较高的投入价格推动了主要客户的中断。最后，我们提供的证据表明，较高的转换成本可以缓解对主要客户的销售额下降。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，员工工会化会对公司与其主要客户的关系产生不利影响。我们提供的证据表明，较高的转换成本缓解了对主要客户的销售额下降。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，员工工会化会对公司与其主要客户的关系产生不利影响。我们提供的证据表明，较高的转换成本缓解了对主要客户的销售额下降。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，员工工会化会对公司与其主要客户的关系产生不利影响。