Purchase Professionals’ Cynicism About Cooperating With Suppliers: Does It Impact Top Management Efforts to Induce Relational Behaviors in Buyer-Supplier Relationships?

In today’s relationship marketing era companies seem to be focusing on relationships with their suppliers to a great extent. Following the trend, scholars have shown a significant interest exploring antecedents, especially ‘trust’ related variables that may predict relationship outcomes. Extending this literature, the current study examines predictors beyond trust, and views relationship building from a perspective of organizational change initiative. We seek to investigate the impact of managers’ cynicism towards cooperative business paradigm. A model was tested using survey data collected from purchase managers who are members of National Association of Purchase Managers in USA. Results of the study suggest that organizational support dimensions: (i) Relationship Implementation Infrastructure and (ii) Interfunctional Interaction Satisfaction have positive influence on External Relationship Behaviors. Also, findings support the hypothesis that purchase managers’ Relationship Cynicism impacts top management efforts to induce relational behaviors. Results also reconfirmed the positive link between relational behaviors and relationship performance.