Collaborative business arrangements based on relationship marketing have become ubiquitous over the past decades. Yet research studies of relationship value in international marketing channels are scarce. Drawing on the relational view of competitive advantage, this study investigates the drivers of relationship value in exporter-importer relationships and its impact on customer loyalty. The study findings reveal that relationship-specific investments, knowledge sharing, complementary capabilities, and relational norms are powerful contributors of importer-perceived value in an overseas supplier relationship. Importantly, exporter cultural sensitivity weakens the negative effect of psychic distance on relationship value; when cultural sensitivity is low, psychic distance takes on greater importance in attenuating relationship value, whereas when cultural sensitivity is high psychic distance has no discernible effect. In addition, the results demonstrate that relationship value results in insensitivity to competitive offerings and future purchase expansion. Implications for international marketing theory and practice are discussed.Keywords: relationship value, relationship-specific investments, knowledge sharing, complementary capabilities, relational norms, psychic distance, cultural sensitivity 3
Relationship Value: Drivers and Outcomes in International Marketing ChannelsOver the past three decades, a large body of research has shown that the development of strong, collaborative business relationships with few selected partners can result in relational and performance outcomes such as trust, commitment, coordination, increased sales, cost reductions, and profit growth (e.g., Cannon and Homburg 2001;Morgan and Hunt 1994; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal, and Evans 2006). Yet, the business press reports that many companies are dissatisfied with the effectiveness of their working partnerships (The that the effectiveness of relationship marketing strategies may vary depending on the exchange partner and context. The authors conclude that even the holistic, higher-order construct of relationship quality that had the greatest impact on objective performance, fails to capture fully the effects of an interfirm relationship on performance and call for further research on the "missing" relationship attributes that can enhance understanding of the spectrum of performance-relevant aspects of relationship marketing (Palmatier et al. 2006).
What could this relationship attribute be?Marketing theorists have long argued that value is what firms should create, deliver, and assess (e.g., Doyle 2000; Kotler and Keller 2011). Value typically refers to the trade-off between the benefits and sacrifices associated with an exchange relationship (e.g., Holbrook 1999;Zeithaml 1988). Firms do business with each other and develop close working relationships from a value-based perspective. Collaborating with a small number of suppliers can generate value for the customer through improvements in the core offering, within the 4 sourcing p...