Beyond commitment: entrenchment in the buyer-seller exchange

A specific empirical finding in the buyer-seller literature - initially discovered by Moorman, Zaltman, and Deshpande and subsequently replicated by Grayson and Ambler - still suffers from incomplete explanation. In business-to-business marketing, why do some long-term buyers appear to trust their p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of personal selling & sales management 2014-01, Vol.34 (4), p.272-284
Main Author: Jelinek, Ronald
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business to business commerce
buyer-seller relationships
Commitments
distributive bargaining
Economic theory
entrenchment theory
integrative negotiating
Negotiations
Organizational behavior
Personal selling
Purchasing
Relationship marketing
relationship selling
Studies
Vendor supplier relations
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Summary:A specific empirical finding in the buyer-seller literature - initially discovered by Moorman, Zaltman, and Deshpande and subsequently replicated by Grayson and Ambler - still suffers from incomplete explanation. In business-to-business marketing, why do some long-term buyers appear to trust their providers a great deal but not use the service provided? This research endeavours to more fully explain this 'dark side' of relationship selling by integrating work on the economic theory of entrenchment with Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh's seminal buyer-seller framework. The result is a modified conceptual model of the buyer-seller exchange in which potential seller entrenchment follows Dwyer et al.'s courting and commitment stages. Motivated by Dwyer et al.'s urging to examine their model using a negotiation lens, this research then borrows two contrasting orientations from the negotiation literature and offers propositions regarding how buyers and sellers interact at each stage of the exchange. In addition to enriching understanding of how buyers and sellers negotiate in the courting and commitment stages, this research is the first to offer insight into how both sides might negotiate when faced with seller entrenchment.
ISSN:0885-3134
1557-7813
DOI:10.1080/08853134.2014.890904