Business network connections and the atmosphere of dyadic business relationships

Based on exchange network theory and business network concepts this paper hypothesizes that five kinds of network connections affect three different dimensions of the atmosphere of dyadic business relationships. In other relationship studies these atmosphere dimensions have been regarded as important links between relationship antecedent and outcome variables. The results of our empirical study demonstrate that network connections have significant effects on the business relationship atmosphere. It also shows that different connections have different effects on four different atmosphere dimensions. The results indicate that relationship strategies have to be designed differently depending on the business network contexts. During the last decade a number of studies have contributed to our understanding 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 Hunt 1994). Typically those studies have analysed the continuity of the dyadic relations against the background of characteristics of the parties and the products exchanged. It has been suggested, however, that dyadic relations in business markets do not exist in isolation but are 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 to some 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 the surrounding network on single dyadic business relationships (Forsgren and Olsson 1992; Hertz 1993; Lee 1991). But so far no empirical studies have been reported about more general impacts of networks on dyadic relations. This paper is an attempt to study empirically some important aspects of business relationships and their network connections 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 networks employed. The second section describes how the concepts have been operationalized and how data have been collected and analysed. The third section shows the empirical results of the study. In the final section the results are discussed.