Essays on supplier responsiveness and buyer firm value - Nyenrode ...

3.1 Introduction
The Netherlands, despite its limited natural resources, is on the forefront of world
commerce, with companies such as Philips and Unilever to its credit. Furthermore,
The Netherlands is one of the major trading partners of the United States of America
("U.S. Trade Balance," 2012). It also happens to be one of the largest foreign
investors in the US ("Foreign Direct Investment," 2010). A large part of the Dutch
economy is based on B2B trade. For example, they are the world’s third largest
agricultural exporter, and they have the world’s seventh largest port and terminal
facilities and Europe’s largest port (Nightingale, 2009; "Rotterdam’s Economy,"
2011).
On the one hand, there are important differences between the US and The
Netherlands. U.S. attitudes, be they at the consumer level or the national level, differ
towards different issues. For instance, the US is more welcoming of foreign
investments and less ecologically concerned than The Netherlands. Even the laws
regulating corporate governance are different (ING, 2010). The consequence of the
above mentioned differences are that different markets require different marketing
strategies and tactics. Therefore, in this chapter we will investigate whether the model
proposed in Chapter 2 will yield similar results as it did in the last chapter.
Table 3.1
The Netherlands Investment in the United States
On the other hand, in this era of convergence of demand via globalization,
many similarities now exist between customers or business partners in different
countries, and many businesses create products that cater to the needs of global
customers and cut across national boundaries (Holt, Quelch, & Taylor, 2004). For
example, Caterpillar’s construction equipment and after-sales service and Intel’s
ingredient branding strategy are product responses that cater to the needs and wants of
segments of customers across national boundaries. Then, given the importance of The
Netherlands and the United States as two major trading partners and the individual
firm level B2B relationships that make this trade possible, what is the role of
idiosyncratic relational risk in firm relationships? On an abstract economic level, at
the start of the recent credit crisis, The Netherlands was less affected when compared
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