The Role of Perceived Product Importance in Organizational Busyer-Seller Relationships

The focus of industrial marketing is shifting toward buyer-seller partnership and greater emphasis is being placed on nurturing these relationships. Partnerships imply intensive ties and complex interaction processes between buyers and sellers. This paper focuses on the affect that perceived product importance has on the complexity of partnership interaction processes. The findings indicate the perceived product importance leads to high levels of cooperation, information exchange and social exchange, in addition to extensive interoranganizational networks involving many functional areas and hierarchical levels. On the other hand, in the industry studied, it did not lead to a mutual commitment of resources. The seller made substantial investments in the relationships with their customers, whereas, in general, the buyers were not perceived as having done so