The Business Relationship Closeness Inventory (BRCI)

Technical, economic and social changes in the marketing environment caused many companies to embrace a concept now known as relationship marketing in order to secure profitability and thus the continuing existence of a company in the long-term. Relationship quality may thus be considered to be the central element of this new strategy (sequence of effects: relationship quality - duration of a business relationship - profitability). Although theoretical articles suppose that high-quality customer-supplier relationships last longer than low-quality business relationships and the duration of an exchange relationship, in turn, is linked to profitability, no empirical evidence exists. The project outlined in this proposal seeks to close this research gap. In addition to addressing the vital issues of constituent characteristics of relationships and success factors of exchange relationships, the rigorous research conducted in this area is also intended to prove the above mentioned sequence of effects and to develop a measuring instrument that tests the predictive power of relationship quality for the duration of a business relationship and its profitability. The possibility to predict the duration of a business relationship by looking at the quality of this relationship is of high practical relevance, given that the investments in the exchange relationship both partners make often have to be determined already when they enter into a business relationship. An instrument for measuring relationship quality that predicts the duration of a relationship would thus be a significant decision- making aid for both companies and customers. The research questions posed as part of this project will be answered by systematically conceptualizing a construct (Bagozzi 1984), by drawing on previous findings and theories of social psychology (Social Exchange Theory), by using sophisticated data-collection procedures (dyadic longitudinal analysis), and by employing methods that are well established in marketing research (e.g. Structural Equation Modeling, Multi-Trait-Multi-Method).