Treat me well and I may leave you kindly: A configurational approach to a buyer’s relationship exit strategy

Habib, Farooq, Bastl, Marko, Karatzas, Antonios and Mena, Carlos (2020) Treat me well and I may leave you kindly: A configurational approach to a buyer’s relationship exit strategy. Industrial Marketing Management, 84. pp. 237-250. ISSN 0019-8501

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Abstract

Research shows that the choice of relationship exit strategy by the instigator of exit can have significant negative consequences for the party that is being dropped. In this study we focus on what we coin as kind exit, where the risk of harm to the supplier as a result of the buyer’s relationship termination is low. In line with current research, which is suggesting that the characteristics of a buyer-supplier relationship play a critical role in the instigator’s choice of exit strategy, we examine the link between the buyer’s perception of its relationship with the supplier and the manner in which the buyer-supplier relationship ends. We posit that this phenomenon is causally complex and context dependent, and as such, there will be multiple types of buyer-supplier relationships that will lead to a kind exit. To uncover these types, we examine 315 terminated buyer-supplier relationships in manufacturing and service sectors in the UK, employing fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our results show that contrary to extant literature, there is not one relationship type that leads to a kind exit; instead, we uncover four alternative equifinal configurations of relationship dimensions and two exogenous factors.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Innovation, Technology and Operations Management
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2019 02:42
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 05:04
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/71800
DOI:	10.1016/j.indmarman.2019.07.008

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