Business network connections and the atmosphere of dyadic business relationships

Abstract

Based on exchange network theory and business network concepts this paper hypothesizesthat five kinds of network connections affect three different dimensions of the atmosphereof dyadic business relationships. In other relationship studies these atmosphere dimensionshave been regarded as important links between relationship antecedent and outcomevariables. The results of our empirical study demonstrate that network connections havesignificant effects on the business relationship atmosphere. It also shows that differentconnections have different effects on four different atmosphere dimensions. The resultsindicate that relationship strategies have to be designed differently depending on thebusiness network contexts.During the last decade a number of studies have contributed to ourunderstanding of interfirm relationships in business markets (Anderson and Narus 1990;Anderson and Weitz 1989; Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987; Frazier 1983; Håkansson 1982;Hallén, Johanson and Seyed-Mohamed 1991; Heide and John 1988; Morgan and Hunt1994). Typically those studies have analysed the continuity of the dyadic relations againstthe background of characteristics of the parties and the products exchanged. It has beensuggested, however, that dyadic relations in business markets do not exist in isolation butare connected to each other and can fruitfully be considered within a network context(Achrol, Reve and Stern 1983; Anderson, Håkansson, and Johanson 1994, Baker 1990;Gadde and Mattsson 1987; Iacobucci and Hopkins 1992; Thorelli 1986; Webster 1993).The underlying assumption is that the commitment of a firm to a dyadic relationship tosome extent is contingent on the firm’s involvement in relationships with other parties.Case studies have provided a number of examples of the impact of thesurrounding network on single dyadic business relationships (Forsgren and Olsson 1992;Hertz 1993; Lee 1991). But so far no empirical studies have been reported about moregeneral impacts of networks on dyadic relations. This paper is an attempt to studyempirically some important aspects of business relationships and their networkconnections in such a way that it would be possible to analyse the impact of the network.The first section outlines the theoretical conceptualizations of relationships and networksemployed. The second section describes how the concepts have been operationalized andhow data have been collected and analysed. The third section shows the empirical resultsof the study. In the final section the results are discussed