Interfirm Structure and Buyer-Salesperson Behavior Impact on Relationship Outcomes

The individual level interaction between the buyer and salesperson can best be understood in the broader framework provided by the inter-firm relationship. Very little research has been conducted that examines both firm level and interpersonal level constructs in the context of business relationships. The primary purpose of this study is to design and test a theoretical model that examines the effect of inter-firm structure and buyer-salesperson behaviors on relationship outcomes. The results suggest that in established relationships, the external environment plays a role in determining the how buyer-seller firms structure their relationships. The way in which the relationship is structured plays an important role in determining how the buyer and salesperson interact. Both inter-firm structure and buyer-salesperson behaviors, in turn, influence buyer satisfaction

The Time Domain Implications of Phase Angles and Tau

In cross-spectral analysis, the tau statistic is used to infer lead-lag relationships between series in the time domain. Unfortunately, it is frequently inferred that tau is meaningful only when the phase diagram is linear. In this paper it is shown that tau is far more robust than is generally recognized. By appeal to the Cramer Decomposition Theorem, the time-domain interpretation of tau is developed and shown to possess optimum mean square properties. While some of the theoretical background is expository, its inclusion facilitates an intuitive analysis of a number of models. We focus in particular on a model that generates a phase reversal similar to that often found in the spectral analysis of aggregate economic series.