M.M. Smirnova. Managing Relationships in Industrial Markets as a Source of Firm's Competitive Advantage
V.4, N3, 2006
The article investigates the potential of sustainable competitive advantage creation by managing buyer-seller relationships in industrial markets. We analyze the effectiveness of the efforts that the firms undertake in order to deploit the relationships' potential and their multiple effects on the firm's long-term competitiveness. The starting point of the investigation is the assumption that any interaction creates value for both sides involved. One of the key variables of the analysis are supplier's relational capabilities, regarded as a factor influencing the potential of relationship value creation. Trying to evaluate the success of the interaction, we analyze also the influence of the chosen strategy on firm's performance and its adaptability as readiness to meet market changes in future. The conceptual model proposed has been empirically tested on the base of the sample of German industrial firms.