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Service providers on highly competitive online outsourcing platforms employ various signals to entice buyers to make online purchases. One such signal—the solution exemplars—attracts attention through depictions of exemplary prior work completed by the service providers. Unfortunately, it is not known the extent to which solution exemplar characteristics affect sales performance nor is it clear how such signals perform in the presence of complementary signals such as service provider expertise. This paper explores these issues.

Extending signaling theory, the authors develop a model to explore the effects of solution exemplar characteristics (i.e. exemplar quantity, exemplar diversity and exemplar popularity) on sales performance under the moderating impact of service provider expertise. The authors test the model using proprietary data from ZBJ.com, a leading online outsourcing platform in China.

Exemplar quantity and exemplar popularity positively affect sales performance; exemplar diversity has no significant impact on sales performance and service provider expertise positively moderates the relationships between exemplar quantity, exemplar popularity and sales performance.

This work makes several significant contributions. First, the authors enrich the research on signals in online outsourcing by exploring the impact of solution exemplar characteristics on sales performance. Second, the authors analyze three solution exemplar characteristics: exemplar quantity, exemplar diversity and exemplar popularity. Third, this work shows that service provider expertise moderates the relationship between solution exemplar characteristics and sales performance. Important practical implications for both online outsourcing platforms and service providers are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to focus its attention on the analysis of buyer-seller interactions in facility services. In particular it proposes to investigate the interactions Italian municipalities develop with sellers involved in facility services outsourcing and to evaluate how scientific contributions on business service (filtered through Service Dominant Logic) are constitutive paradigms of the interactions investigated.

The investigation is based on 15 case studies of small and medium-sized municipalities that are built on in-depth interviews with technical staff who, together with the mayors, perform the role of facility managers. Results from case studies are triangulated with secondary data and observations emerging from focus groups.

The research reveals paradoxes in the outsourcing processes of business services implemented by the public organizations analyzed. From these paradoxes it derives that the outsourcing of facility services in Italian municipalities is associated more with transactions than with interactions (municipalities do not act as operant resources) and that the transactions activated do not necessary generate efficiency.

Normative rules together with contextual factors jeopardize the adaptation in public organizations of interaction approaches to business service resulting from service and industrial marketing. The value of the paper lies in the identification of paradoxes as synthetic expressions of the divergences between empirical results and specialized interaction approaches on business services. In the light of these divergences, the paper proposes a contextualized re-interpretation of Service Dominant Logic.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

The authors aim to conceptually show how social capital between service buyer and partner firm in a service triad impacts the service buyer's opportunism risk regarding the service provider's behavior.

The authors draw on social capital theory to conceptually derive propositions on the role of social capital with regard to the antecedents of opportunism in service triads.

Based on literature, the authors show how social capital between service buyer and partner firm decreases the service buyer's opportunism risk regarding the provider's behavior. Structural capital enhances information flows, thus reducing ambiguity. Relational capital reduces ambiguity as well as the service buyer' dependence. Cognitive capital enhances the mitigating effect of relational norms.

The authors extend the conceptual perspective on social capital and opportunism risk to triadic environments. Besides empirical validation, a resulting research program could follow three avenues: interdependencies between other relationships in service triads, the impact of social capital on effects other than opportunism as well as the role of relationships between individual boundary-spanners.

When deciding upon service outsourcing in triads, service buyers should assess their resulting opportunism risk, considering not only the service provider but also their relationship to the partner firm.

The propositions entail a shift from a dyadic to a triadic perspective. Analyzing the established dyadic concepts of social capital and opportunism in a triadic environment, the authors contribute to theory on triads as the simplest building blocks of networks.

Higher market complexity and increasing competitive intensity are forcing traditional trading companies to change their positions in the goods delivery services supply chain by continuously extending the service business through interaction with customers. However, the existing literature tends to be somewhat vague in defining interaction behaviors with different customers and a service strategy for the service integrator wishing to move along the continuum. The purpose of this paper is to identify service strategies that correspond with specific customer demands.

Using multiple methodologies and data sources, the study highlights three different service strategies including resources supply capability, demand management and strategy fit with buys.

The study finds that these strategies have different impacts on competitiveness for different types of downstream enterprises. For large enterprises, resources supply capability and strategy fit are significant factors – while for small and medium‐sized enterprises, resources supply capability, as well as demand management play an important role to supplier's competitiveness.

Based on the research, the paper draws the conclusion that it is important to understand the buyer's demand and offer the service that the buyer really needs.

Sustainability-related risk management of logistics service providers (LSPs) is an essential part of sustainability performance of focal companies, as logistics services touch the entire supply chain (SC) – from raw material sources to end-customers. The purpose of this paper, draws on resource-based view and stakeholder theory in exploring how companies can manage environmental and social sustainability-related risks from logistics service suppliers. This kind of capability is essential in order to maintain reputation in the eyes of stakeholders, and to maintain long-term financial performance.

The data of this multiple-case study were collected from semi-structured interviews in eight case-companies in Finland. Five of the cases are primary logistics buyers, and three represent LSP companies.

The cross-case analysis showed that primary buyers of logistics services use their sustainability criteria as a prerequisite for LSP candidates, and when the level is adequate and equal, other factors, e.g. price and capacity, are decisive. Based on the analysis, large LSPs are preparing for the future competition, and act in a more sustainable manner than their customers (buyers) expect at the moment, while small LSPs strictly comply with the regulation. However, buyers’ requirements for sustainable logistics services are increasing as the stakeholder expectations for comprehensively sustainable SCs are growing.

Only little research has been conducted on sustainable logistics from the buyer company’s risk management perspective. This paper adds the knowledge of sustainability-related risk management in purchasing of logistics services and in the logistics industry.

The purpose of this paper is to specify and test factors surrounding relationship strength between buyers and suppliers in a global, business‐to‐business (B2B) services context. In so doing, the paper helps extend relationship marketing theories to this under‐researched domain.

A literature review, along with results of field interviews and surveys, provide a conceptual framework for the relationship strength formation process in the context of multi‐cultures. The research then tests a model of hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling.

The paper confirms the influence of perceived value, switching costs and relationship quality (satisfaction, trust and affective commitment) on relationship strength. As predicted, relationship quality mediates the influence that perceived value has on relationship strength. Switching costs further mediate the influence that relationship quality has on relationship strength which, in turn, influences substitution scarcity. No support, however, was offered for the proposed moderating influence that national culture (as measured by a buyer's country masculinity and individualism) has on quality/strength linkages and value/strength linkages.

The sample of buyers in 42 countries includes a higher share of buyers from individualist than collective countries. Consequently, a more balanced cultural sample may have supported the otherwise rejected proposition that culture has a moderating impact on relationship building.

The study provides managerially relevant (“actionable”) results which may help buyers execute customer retention strategies that lead to higher customer profitability.

This study adds to the limited literature on building B2B service relationships in a global context. The paper seeks to provide a balanced account of the social and economic aspects of relationship strength formation.

The purpose of this paper is to specify and test factors surrounding trusting relationships between buyers and suppliers in a global, business‐to‐business services context. In so doing, the paper aims to help to extend relationship marketing theories to this under‐researched domain.

A literature review and results of qualitative interviews in the paper provide a conceptual framework for the trust formation process and relational outcomes of trust. The research then tests a model of hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling.

The paper confirms the influence of trust building behaviors (social interaction, open communications, customer orientation) and service outcomes (technical, functional and economic quality) on trust formation. Trust is shown to have a positive influence on key relational outcomes, loyalty commitment and share of purchases.

The sample consists of buyers of aviation component repair services who may be susceptible to idiosyncratic industry pressures. Further, the sample of buyers in 42 countries includes a higher share of buyers from individualist countries.

The study provides managerially relevant (“actionable”) results that may help buyers execute customer retention strategies that lead to higher customer profitability.

This study adds to the limited literature on building trust in B2B services in a global context. The paper seeks to provide a balanced account of the interpersonal and tangible aspects of trust formation.

A study of the price discounts granted by Morton Salt Company and other producers of table salt in the U.S. on their sales of table salt to grocery wholesalers and retailers. The discounts were found to be illegal under the Robinson-Patman Act by the Federal Trade Commission and the Supreme Court. The Commission and the Court believed that the discounts were unjustified price concessions granted to “large” buyers, consistent with the concerns of the Robinson-Patman Act. However, the evidence indicates that the most common discount – the “carload discount” – was received by virtually all buyers, regardless of the buyer’s size; the other discounts – “annual volume” discounts – though received primarily by “large” buyers, were likely cost based. The history of the discounts and likely reasons why they were granted are explored in detail.

In successful purchasing relationships, effective communication is a key factor. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the choice of communication media is affected by different stages in the relationship development process and by different purchasing contexts: product and service purchasing.

The study initially reviews the literature on inter‐organizational communication and purchasing relationships. In order to explore the research question, data were gathered through semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with purchasing managers, buyers and their suppliers in three product and three service purchasing relationships.

The study identifies a relationship development framework that influences the communication media selection in two purchasing contexts. It confirms that communication media selection is affected by the communication needs of the participants, the stage of relationship development, and the purchasing context.

This research was limited to six buyer/supplier relationships involving a single multinational buyer organization, so although a range of purchasing contexts was considered, the findings have limited application. The relationship development process and the incidence of media selection should be further examined in varied contexts and a survey of buyers and suppliers should test the framework.

This study is a refinement of the existing predominantly single‐respondent, survey‐based studies in the literature in that both parties in a series of purchasing dyads were interviewed. The paper makes a contribution as it illustrates the application of the media richness theory, explores the contextual factors surrounding media selection and provides a buyer‐supplier relationship development framework based on behavioural and functional aspects of the relationship.