A dyadic study of one firm's relationship portfolio

Abstract

Business relationships are a central feature of industrial networks. However, each firm in a relationship necessarily has a different perspective simply because of the complementary nature of the association, different firm history and different place of each partner within multiple perspectives of the network and the different boundaries. Further, each firm will operate with differing managerial purpose and timeline and in addition some variations in methods of managing. The result is that quantitative analysis of interaction within relationships requires separate examination of each party. More precisely the two firms of a relationship cannot be quantitatively examined by simply aggregating their separate perceptions concerning how they operate together. Rather firms may have asymmetric perspectives of their relationship, unless the firms work closely together and so have similar or symmetric views of their operations. Dyad studies of firms in business relationships are the only way to develop an understanding of the different ways firms operate relationships by managing each other (ie cooperate) and managing against each other (ie compete). However, there is a paucity of quantitative empirical dyadic studies. The literature observes that business relationships contain mixtures of cooperation and competition. This empirical paper presents a rare quantitative and qualitative dyadic study of the asymmetry and symmetry of perspectives of the strategic relationships of a single firm. The study applies regression analysis to find the active constructs explaining relationship performance by each firm. In the next part of the analysis the different forms of asymmetry and symmetry within 13 business relationships are examined, by examining the nature of the active constructs associated with each firm in the dyad. The study finishes by highlighting the issue of asymmetry and so provides theoretical implications for future studies of interaction.