Choice of Supplier in Embedded Markets: Relationship and Marketing Program Effects
作者研究了在嵌入社会关系的市场中，买卖双方的人际关系如何影响供应商选择，以及这种关系能否保护现有供应商免受新竞争者及其营销策略的冲击。他们提出了一个概念框架，涵盖关系变量和营销变量，并在企业对企业服务场景中进行了实证检验。结果发现，买卖双方的人际关系确实构成一种转换障碍，但其重要性远低于企业层面的转换成本和营销变量。此外，与转换成本不同，人际关系并未起到缓冲价格和产品竞争的作用。最后，作者指出买卖双方对转换决定因素的看法存在系统性差异。
Recent research has documented how exchanges between buyers and sellers are frequently embedded in social relationships. An unresolved question, however, is the extent to which such relationships protect incumbent suppliers from new competitors and their marketing programs. The authors develop a conceptual framework of how relationship and marketing variables influence choice of supplier and test the framework empirically in the context of business-to-business services. The results show that interpersonal relationships between buyers and suppliers serve as a switching barrier but are considerably less important than both firm-level switching costs and marketing variables. Moreover, unlike switching costs, interpersonal relationships do not play the frequently mentioned role of a buffer against price and product competition. Finally, the authors show that buyers and suppliers hold systematically different views of the determinants of switching.