The Dark Sides of Relationships within Supply Chains: A Behaviorist Perspective on Inter-organizational Relationships[Les dark-side des relations au sein des Supply Chain : une perspective behavioriste des relations inter-organisationnelles]

Over the past decade, the term « dark side » of Inter-Organizational Relationships (IOR) has gained increasing prominence among researchers, referring to negative, problematic, or undesirable aspects that may emerge in these relationships. Aligned with this line of thought, the authors propose an analysis suggesting that business relationships are neither entirely clear nor entirely dark but rather represent a combination of both. This study aims to explore various aspects of the darkness spectrum proposed by Abosag et al. (2016) within the context of inter-organizational relationships. To achieve this, the authors conducted triangulation of data (secondary and primary) gathered through semi-structured interviews. The authors then coded the data to highlight four main themes: learning, tensions, conflicts, and mistrust. The primary findings of this study indicate that only three (learning, tension, conflict) out of the five aspects of the darkness spectrum proposed by Abosag et al. (2016) were identified in the analysis, and a sixth aspect emerged (mistrust).