Purpose

Drawing on Foa and Foa’s elaboration of social exchange theory, the authors propose that buyers reciprocate perceived commitment on the part of the salesperson and supplier with commitment on their own parts because of strengthening of the relationship’s tacit governance mechanism – cooperative norms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses data from 155 buyers doing business with a multinational supplier. The buyers were from firms generating less than $100,000 in billings. The salesforce of the supplier firm sponsoring the research is responsible for account management and communicating directly with buyers.

Findings

Buyers, who feel that their suppliers are providing a symbolic, long-term, particularistic benefit (commitment), respond with their own strengthened commitment to the relationship; this mutualism is explained entirely by the mediating effect of the relationship’s cooperative norms. Where buyers perceive generally favorable treatment (satisfaction), without these three qualities, their own reciprocal commitment increases directly and cooperative norms play no part. The results also demonstrate the transition of buyer perceptions of the salesperson as they develop into beliefs about the selling firm as a whole.

Practical implications

Drawing on the “reciprocation-in-kind” principle, supplier firms seeking long-term, open-ended commitment from their customers should cultivate it via similarly long-term and open-ended commitments of their own. Attention must be given to the unwritten, often unstated “rules of the road” for business relationships, as these rules represent the mechanism through which investments in long-term, profitable partnerships bear fruit.

Originality/value

The conceptual model draws on and empirically tests Foa and Foa’s framework within social exchange theory to predict what form of buyer reciprocation will result, based on the characteristics of perceived seller-provided benefits. This study illustrates that the tacit governance structure of a B2B relationship – its cooperative norms – plays a critical role in the strength of a buyer’s commitment to its supplier.

中文翻译：

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买卖关系中合作规范在买方承诺形成中的中介作用

目的

借鉴 Foa 和 Foa 对社会交换理论的阐述，作者提出，由于加强了关系的默契治理机制——合作规范，购买者将销售人员和供应商的感知承诺与他们自己的承诺相回报。

设计/方法/方法

本研究使用来自与跨国供应商开展业务的 155 位买家的数据。买家来自收入低于 100,000 美元的公司。赞助研究的供应商公司的销售人员负责客户管理并直接与买家沟通。

发现

感觉他们的供应商正在提供一种象征性的、长期的、特殊的利益（承诺）的买家，以他们自己对这种关系的加强承诺来回应；这种共生关系完全可以通过关系合作规范的中介效应来解释。在购买者普遍认为有利的待遇（满意）的情况下，如果没有这三个品质，他们自己的互惠承诺会直接增加，合作规范将不起作用。结果还表明，当销售人员发展为对整个销售公司的信念时，买家对销售人员的看法发生了转变。

实际影响

借鉴“实物互惠”原则，寻求客户长期、开放式承诺的供应商公司应通过自己的类似长期和开放式承诺来培养这种承诺。必须注意业务关系中不成文的、通常未说明的“道路规则”，因为这些规则代表了投资于长期、有利可图的合作伙伴关系取得成果的机制。

原创性/价值

该概念模型在社会交换理论中借鉴并实证检验了 Foa 和 Foa 的框架，以根据感知到的卖方提供的利益的特征来预测买方互惠的形式。这项研究表明，B2B 关系的默契治理结构——其合作规范——在买方对其供应商的承诺强度方面发挥着关键作用。