Indicating relationship success : finding new agricultural Business-to-Business partners by evaluating the potential for relationship success

Sammanfattning: When a company seeks to enter a new market, the multiple choices of possible new business relationships exist. Further, establishing new relationships is a time-consuming procedure associated with high uncertainty and high costs. Hence, if the firm does not succeed in pinpointing the most suitable business partners to collaborate with, the firm may both forfeit other possible good relationships, as well as resources invested. Based on this notion the aim of this thesis is to explore how a manufacturing company can base the selection of future dealership Business-to-Business partners by evaluating indicators of a possible business relationship’s potential to become successful. The choice of focusing on the Business-to-Business relationship between a manufacturer and a dealership company originates from being influenced by the issues facing the Swedish agricultural machinery manufacturer Väderstad-Verken AB, who is putting attention to explore the US market. The method of the study is conducted as a multi-strategy design, where both qualitative and quantitative data was collected in eight states in the United States. In conjunction with existing theoretical findings in the research field of Relationship Marketing, the collected empirical data supports the model developed in this study. The main finding is that the model provides is a number of measurable indicators Relationship Benefits, and Trustworthiness. Enabling an evaluation, these two indicators are further decomposed into the sub-indicators Service Benefits, Image Benefits, Flexibility Benefits, Cost Benefits, Shared Values, Communication, and Opportunistic Behavior. By illustrating how a company, in an initial phase may look forward and evaluate the potential for relationship success, the study has brought additional focus to the dynamics of a Business-to-Business relationship.