Value Co-Creation in Industrial Buyer-Seller Partnerships ... - Doria

discovered through empirical studies. The models fell short of the understanding ofpurchases being short episodes in the larger context of a relationship. When discussingbusiness relationships, the starting point most often is the questioning of the notion of asingle transaction. The argument is that such a thing very seldom is seen to exist. Accordingto Macneil (1980) a transaction is manifested by money on one side, and a commodity onthe other side, without considering any relational elements. Macneil, whose background isin contract law, discusses transactions and relational contracts. The most importantdifference between discrete transactions and relations is that relational exchange happensover time; each transaction is related to its history and future. He concludes that even thesimplest form of discrete exchange involves a social element and that “ some elements ofrelationship underlie all transactions” even in the contract law sense. Dwyer et al. (1987)have also identified problems in the notion of a discrete transaction and argue that the ideaof such a thing is an idealized fiction, that relational dimensions must not be overlooked.The interaction approach takes the relationship as its unit of analysis, rather than singletransactions. It relies on the assumption that most business purchases are not individualevents and cannot be understood if they are examined alone. Business purchases are not theaction of one party and reaction (or not) of the other, and that what characterizes businesspurchases is that they involve two active parties interacting with each other (Håkansson1982, Ford 2002, p. 4).The interaction model is drawn from ideas in inter-organizational theory, newinstitutional economic theory, and marketing literature. The interaction model serves as afirm theoretical starting point for the conceptual discussion in this study, because itestablishes some of the inherent characteristics of buyer-seller relationships and thusprovides relevant conceptual building blocks.The basic assumptions of the interaction approach are the following:• “ Buyer and seller are active participants in the market.”• “ The relationship between buyer and seller are frequently long term, close, andinvolve a complex pattern of interaction between and within each company.”• “ The links between buyer and seller often become institutionalized into a set of rolesthat each party expects the other to perform” .• “ Close relationships are often considered in the context of continuous raw material orcomponents supply. The importance of previous purchases, mutual evaluation, andthe associated relationship between the companies in the case of infrequentlypurchased products is emphasized.” (Ford 1990, p 11)66