24772978,
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The Impacts of Affective and Cognitive
Social Conflict in Business-to-Business
Buyer-Seller Relationships:
A Comparison of New versus Ongoing
Buyer-Seller Relationships
Richard E. Plank
David A. Reid
Stephen Newell
ABSTRACT.
Purpose.
The purpose of this paper is to report empirical
research that examined the impact of conflict in two different buyer-
seller situations, an ongoing relationship and a choice situation where
the buyer had to choose between two or more alternative suppliers. Con-
flict was defined as social conflict and has two distinct types, affective
and cognitive.
Methodology/Approach
. The methodology used was two mail sur-
veys to a random sample of purchasing association members who had
buying responsibilities in their firms. In one survey respondents were
asked to self-select a current buyer-seller relationship they had for a pe-
riod of at least one year and to indicate the degree of perceived conflict
Richard E. Plank is Associate Professor of Marketing, University of South Florida-
Lakeland, 3433 Winter Lake Road, Lakeland, FL 33803.
David A. Reid is Chair, Department of Professional Sales and Professor, William
Paterson University, Cotsakos College of Business, Wayne, NJ 07047.
Stephen Newell is Professor of Marketing, Western Michigan University, Haworth
College of Business, Department of Marketing, MS 5430, Kalamazoo, MI 49008.
Address correspondence to: Richard E. Plank (E-mail:
at the above address.
Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Vol. 14(2) 2007
Available online at
©
2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1300/J033v14n02_02
41
42
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING
they had with the key supplier representative as well as the amount of rela-
tionship loyalty they perceived they had with that supplier. The second
survey randomly assigned respondents to evaluate either a supplier whom
they gave business to in a choice situation or one they did not, thus estab-
lishing as the dependent variable the actual choice of whom they gave
business to.
Findings
. The findings are clear for affective types of conflict. When
affective conflict is perceived as higher the chance of getting an order in
a choice situation as well as the magnitude of the relationship loyalty
perception is negatively related. Cognitive conflict is not as clear. In
choice situations conflict was negatively related to choice, whereas in on
going relationships there was no impact. There was no indication of cog-
nitive conflict having a positive relationship.
Originality/Value/Contribution of the paper
. This study is the first
to examine perceptions of conflict with a significant other in a buyer-
seller relationship to try to determine how those perceptions might relate
to either buyer choice or loyalty. While the findings support the expected
relationship between affective conflict and outcomes, the findings with
regards to cognitive conflict suggest that this may be more complex then
originally thought and further points out the difficulty in managing
conflict across organizational boundaries.
doi:10.1300/J033v14n02_02
[Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Ser-
vice: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <
Website: <
© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc.
All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS.
Social conflict, buyer-seller relationships, relationship
loyalty, buyer decision making, conflict management
INTRODUCTION
Buyer-seller relationships in business markets have been extensively
studied. Methodologies employed have employed both qualitative as
well as quantitative approaches. Scholars in North America and Europe
have executed much of this research. Whereas, the North American
research tradition and modeling efforts have focused primarily on either
buyers or sellers, (e.g., Sheth 1973; Plank and Reid 1994), the European
tradition has focused mainly on dyads and networks (e.g., Hakansson
1982). Both research streams have contributed greatly to our under-
Plank, Reid, and Newell
43
standing of how buyers and sellers relate to one another, how business is
done, and how these relationships are changing.
One particular construct that has been absent as the focus of research is
conflict–in particular, what is referred to as social conflict. Social conflict
can be seen as the disagreement or differences between two or more peo-
ple. Thus, it generally examines conflict from an individual perspective
such as conflict between two or more people. Emiliani (2003) and
Vaaland and Hakansson (2003) have provided some conceptual insights
into this area. Stern and Gorman (1969) and more recently Duarte and
Davies (2003) have studied conflict in business relationships within
the distribution channel partners’ context. That stream of research has fo-
cused on conflict between organizations; thus, the organization serves as
the unit of analysis rather than investigating conflict at the individual
level. Only Reid et al. (2004) have empirically examined social conflict
within buyer-seller relationships.
The study of conflict and its resolution is significant. Research has
been both qualitative and quantitative and has investigated how conflict
is resolved, the antecedents of conflict, and the conflict process. Units
of analysis have included people, groups or teams, countries, and many
other specific applications. Results of past research indicate that con-
flict can be both destructive and constructive. In the marketing litera-
ture, power and conflict have long been important constructs in the
study of distribution channels (Stern and Gorman 1969). The nature
of the buyer-seller relationships in much of the past literature is one
in which the buyer is purchasing a product to be resold, whereas
the buyer-seller relationships examined in this study are between a
company and its suppliers purchasing products for use in the company
operations. In addition, the unit of analysis examined here is the in-
dividual, more specifically, conflict as perceived by a buyer in his/her
dealings with an individual salesperson.
The purpose of this paper is to examine conflict in buyer-seller rela-
tionships from an individual actor perspective. The unit of analysis will
be perceptions of the buyer of a salesperson they have interacted with.
The results of two quantitative studies will be discussed. The first study
investigates ongoing buyer-seller relationships and the impact of con-
flict on perceptions of relationship loyalty. The second study analyzes
the affect of conflict on choosing a supplier. Both studies represent the
first efforts at examining conflict in buyer-seller relationships in this
context.
What follows is a brief literature review to position the study within
both the North American and European research traditions. In particu-
44
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING
lar, we will examine conflict, the purchase decision-making process, and
the concept of relationship loyalty. Then hypotheses are developed,
methodologies explained, and results discussed. After which, managerial
suggestions will be presented and areas of future research suggested.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review will encompass three areas. First will be a brief
introduction focusing on the nature of buyer-seller relationships with
emphasis on work by Brennan and Turnbull (1999) that focuses on the
nature of the adaptations that firms make in the course of establishing
and/or maintaining relationships and directly relates to the constructs
examined in this research. Then, we will define conflict and explain its
central role in buyer-seller relationships. Finally, we will discuss the
concept of relationship loyalty, for which a new measure was developed
for this study.
Buyer-Seller Relationships in Business Markets
Buyer-seller relationships have been modeled for a long time from
a purely transactional perspective. Early textbooks, such as Alexander,
Cross, and Hill (1967), while alluding to longer-term relationships,
treated buying and selling as a short-term transactional phenomenon.
More recently, researchers have realized that business-to-business rela-
tionships are often complex and long lasting. In order for these relation-
ships to be enduring, adaptations by both parties need to be made. The
need to adapt constantly in business relationships is a core idea of what
is known as the IMP model (Hakansson 1982).
The IMP group (Impgroup.org) is a coalition of researchers,
primarily from Europe, who have studied industrial marketing and
purchasing using primarily in-depth interviewing methodology. Using
survey methodology, Metcalf, Frear, and Krishnan (1992) examined the
corec oncepts of the IMP model, how social and information exchange
andproduct importance, relate to the cooperation of parties and their ad-
aptations. Their research corroborated early findings from IMP research
on the importance of social and information exchange networks and
their impact on the ability for both firms to cooperate and adapt as nec-
essary. For an interesting review of the IMP approach and contribu-
tions, which focuses on just one conference, see Easton, Zolkiewski,
Plank, Reid, and Newell
45
and Bettany (2003). For a more thorough review see Turnbull, Ford, and
Cunningham (1996).
In the United States, this approach is referred to as relationship mar-
keting and has been broadened to apply to both end consumers as well
as business consumers (Sharma and Sheth 1997).
IMP research has also been heavily involved with the definition of
networks of companies and their interactions; so much of the work is
examining how more than two companies interact and form cooperative
networks (e.g., Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996). This is often re-
ferred to as supply chain management in the United States. And it has
been the subject of significant study and is an important concept in
many businesses (Scott et al. 2003; van Merode 2003; Schneerweiss
2003). Much of this work has its origin in the logistics area with units of
analysis ranging from individual firms, to dyads, and networks (Simchi-
Levi, Kaminski, and Simchi-Levi 2003). Others have called this context
value chain management (e.g., Porter 1986; McGuffog and Wadsley
1999), but regardless of what it is called, the focus is more on networks
similar to the IMP approach.
What caused the change from transactional to more relational buyer-
seller interactions is subject to debate. There seems to be a general agree-
ment that buyer-seller relationships have a different mix then they did
30 years ago (Sriram and Mummalaeni 1990). Cannon and Perreault
(1999) is an example of an empirical definition of types of relationships,
this one based on a large quantitative modeling exercise. They found
eight types of relationships, ranging from basic buying and selling (trans-
action relationship) to mutually adaptive and collaborative relationships
(longer-term relationships) that require a higher level of adaptation by
both parties.
Plank and Reid (2000) suggest much of this change is driven by in-
creased sophistication of organizational purchasing systems. In addi-
tion, the realization that inherent risk in purchasing can be lowered with
close personal relationships and single sourcing has also helped to drive
this change. Also, the role of technology, in particular computer tech-
nology that makes network communication more feasible and therefore
makes it easier to manage from a network or large system perspective,
has had a profound affect on the nature of business relationships (Plank
and Reid 2000; Swift 1995).
The IMP model provides a number of key ideas that relate to the cur-
rent research study. Besides the overall idea of examining the interac-
tions of buyer and seller, a major issue is the ongoing nature of the
adaptive behaviors that both buying and selling firms engage in to in-
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The Impacts of Affective and Cognitive
Social Conflict in Business-to-Business
Buyer-Seller Relationships:
A Comparison of New versus Ongoing
Buyer-Seller Relationships
Richard E. Plank
David A. Reid
Stephen Newell
ABSTRACT.
Purpose.
The purpose of this paper is to report empirical
research that examined the impact of conflict in two different buyer-
seller situations, an ongoing relationship and a choice situation where
the buyer had to choose between two or more alternative suppliers. Con-
flict was defined as social conflict and has two distinct types, affective
and cognitive.
Methodology/Approach
. The methodology used was two mail sur-
veys to a random sample of purchasing association members who had
buying responsibilities in their firms. In one survey respondents were
asked to self-select a current buyer-seller relationship they had for a pe-
riod of at least one year and to indicate the degree of perceived conflict
Richard E. Plank is Associate Professor of Marketing, University of South Florida-
Lakeland, 3433 Winter Lake Road, Lakeland, FL 33803.
David A. Reid is Chair, Department of Professional Sales and Professor, William
Paterson University, Cotsakos College of Business, Wayne, NJ 07047.
Stephen Newell is Professor of Marketing, Western Michigan University, Haworth
College of Business, Department of Marketing, MS 5430, Kalamazoo, MI 49008.
Address correspondence to: Richard E. Plank (E-mail:
at the above address.
Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Vol. 14(2) 2007
Available online at
©
2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1300/J033v14n02_02
41
42
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING
they had with the key supplier representative as well as the amount of rela-
tionship loyalty they perceived they had with that supplier. The second
survey randomly assigned respondents to evaluate either a supplier whom
they gave business to in a choice situation or one they did not, thus estab-
lishing as the dependent variable the actual choice of whom they gave
business to.
Findings
. The findings are clear for affective types of conflict. When
affective conflict is perceived as higher the chance of getting an order in
a choice situation as well as the magnitude of the relationship loyalty
perception is negatively related. Cognitive conflict is not as clear. In
choice situations conflict was negatively related to choice, whereas in on
going relationships there was no impact. There was no indication of cog-
nitive conflict having a positive relationship.
Originality/Value/Contribution of the paper
. This study is the first
to examine perceptions of conflict with a significant other in a buyer-
seller relationship to try to determine how those perceptions might relate
to either buyer choice or loyalty. While the findings support the expected
relationship between affective conflict and outcomes, the findings with
regards to cognitive conflict suggest that this may be more complex then
originally thought and further points out the difficulty in managing
conflict across organizational boundaries.
doi:10.1300/J033v14n02_02
[Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Ser-
vice: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <
Website: <
© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc.
All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS.
Social conflict, buyer-seller relationships, relationship
loyalty, buyer decision making, conflict management
INTRODUCTION
Buyer-seller relationships in business markets have been extensively
studied. Methodologies employed have employed both qualitative as
well as quantitative approaches. Scholars in North America and Europe
have executed much of this research. Whereas, the North American
research tradition and modeling efforts have focused primarily on either
buyers or sellers, (e.g., Sheth 1973; Plank and Reid 1994), the European
tradition has focused mainly on dyads and networks (e.g., Hakansson
1982). Both research streams have contributed greatly to our under-
Plank, Reid, and Newell
43
standing of how buyers and sellers relate to one another, how business is
done, and how these relationships are changing.
One particular construct that has been absent as the focus of research is
conflict–in particular, what is referred to as social conflict. Social conflict
can be seen as the disagreement or differences between two or more peo-
ple. Thus, it generally examines conflict from an individual perspective
such as conflict between two or more people. Emiliani (2003) and
Vaaland and Hakansson (2003) have provided some conceptual insights
into this area. Stern and Gorman (1969) and more recently Duarte and
Davies (2003) have studied conflict in business relationships within
the distribution channel partners’ context. That stream of research has fo-
cused on conflict between organizations; thus, the organization serves as
the unit of analysis rather than investigating conflict at the individual
level. Only Reid et al. (2004) have empirically examined social conflict
within buyer-seller relationships.
The study of conflict and its resolution is significant. Research has
been both qualitative and quantitative and has investigated how conflict
is resolved, the antecedents of conflict, and the conflict process. Units
of analysis have included people, groups or teams, countries, and many
other specific applications. Results of past research indicate that con-
flict can be both destructive and constructive. In the marketing litera-
ture, power and conflict have long been important constructs in the
study of distribution channels (Stern and Gorman 1969). The nature
of the buyer-seller relationships in much of the past literature is one
in which the buyer is purchasing a product to be resold, whereas
the buyer-seller relationships examined in this study are between a
company and its suppliers purchasing products for use in the company
operations. In addition, the unit of analysis examined here is the in-
dividual, more specifically, conflict as perceived by a buyer in his/her
dealings with an individual salesperson.
The purpose of this paper is to examine conflict in buyer-seller rela-
tionships from an individual actor perspective. The unit of analysis will
be perceptions of the buyer of a salesperson they have interacted with.
The results of two quantitative studies will be discussed. The first study
investigates ongoing buyer-seller relationships and the impact of con-
flict on perceptions of relationship loyalty. The second study analyzes
the affect of conflict on choosing a supplier. Both studies represent the
first efforts at examining conflict in buyer-seller relationships in this
context.
What follows is a brief literature review to position the study within
both the North American and European research traditions. In particu-
44
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING
lar, we will examine conflict, the purchase decision-making process, and
the concept of relationship loyalty. Then hypotheses are developed,
methodologies explained, and results discussed. After which, managerial
suggestions will be presented and areas of future research suggested.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review will encompass three areas. First will be a brief
introduction focusing on the nature of buyer-seller relationships with
emphasis on work by Brennan and Turnbull (1999) that focuses on the
nature of the adaptations that firms make in the course of establishing
and/or maintaining relationships and directly relates to the constructs
examined in this research. Then, we will define conflict and explain its
central role in buyer-seller relationships. Finally, we will discuss the
concept of relationship loyalty, for which a new measure was developed
for this study.
Buyer-Seller Relationships in Business Markets
Buyer-seller relationships have been modeled for a long time from
a purely transactional perspective. Early textbooks, such as Alexander,
Cross, and Hill (1967), while alluding to longer-term relationships,
treated buying and selling as a short-term transactional phenomenon.
More recently, researchers have realized that business-to-business rela-
tionships are often complex and long lasting. In order for these relation-
ships to be enduring, adaptations by both parties need to be made. The
need to adapt constantly in business relationships is a core idea of what
is known as the IMP model (Hakansson 1982).
The IMP group (Impgroup.org) is a coalition of researchers,
primarily from Europe, who have studied industrial marketing and
purchasing using primarily in-depth interviewing methodology. Using
survey methodology, Metcalf, Frear, and Krishnan (1992) examined the
corec oncepts of the IMP model, how social and information exchange
andproduct importance, relate to the cooperation of parties and their ad-
aptations. Their research corroborated early findings from IMP research
on the importance of social and information exchange networks and
their impact on the ability for both firms to cooperate and adapt as nec-
essary. For an interesting review of the IMP approach and contribu-
tions, which focuses on just one conference, see Easton, Zolkiewski,
Plank, Reid, and Newell
45
and Bettany (2003). For a more thorough review see Turnbull, Ford, and
Cunningham (1996).
In the United States, this approach is referred to as relationship mar-
keting and has been broadened to apply to both end consumers as well
as business consumers (Sharma and Sheth 1997).
IMP research has also been heavily involved with the definition of
networks of companies and their interactions; so much of the work is
examining how more than two companies interact and form cooperative
networks (e.g., Turnbull, Ford, and Cunningham 1996). This is often re-
ferred to as supply chain management in the United States. And it has
been the subject of significant study and is an important concept in
many businesses (Scott et al. 2003; van Merode 2003; Schneerweiss
2003). Much of this work has its origin in the logistics area with units of
analysis ranging from individual firms, to dyads, and networks (Simchi-
Levi, Kaminski, and Simchi-Levi 2003). Others have called this context
value chain management (e.g., Porter 1986; McGuffog and Wadsley
1999), but regardless of what it is called, the focus is more on networks
similar to the IMP approach.
What caused the change from transactional to more relational buyer-
seller interactions is subject to debate. There seems to be a general agree-
ment that buyer-seller relationships have a different mix then they did
30 years ago (Sriram and Mummalaeni 1990). Cannon and Perreault
(1999) is an example of an empirical definition of types of relationships,
this one based on a large quantitative modeling exercise. They found
eight types of relationships, ranging from basic buying and selling (trans-
action relationship) to mutually adaptive and collaborative relationships
(longer-term relationships) that require a higher level of adaptation by
both parties.
Plank and Reid (2000) suggest much of this change is driven by in-
creased sophistication of organizational purchasing systems. In addi-
tion, the realization that inherent risk in purchasing can be lowered with
close personal relationships and single sourcing has also helped to drive
this change. Also, the role of technology, in particular computer tech-
nology that makes network communication more feasible and therefore
makes it easier to manage from a network or large system perspective,
has had a profound affect on the nature of business relationships (Plank
and Reid 2000; Swift 1995).
The IMP model provides a number of key ideas that relate to the cur-
rent research study. Besides the overall idea of examining the interac-
tions of buyer and seller, a major issue is the ongoing nature of the
adaptive behaviors that both buying and selling firms engage in to in-
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