Interpreting the nature of business to business exchanges through the use of Fiske’s Relational Models Theory

Organizational strategies determine with which other businesses a firm will interact. However, organizational strategies are in part implemented through the interactions of the two businesses’ boundary-spanning personnel. This paper uses Fiske’s Relational Models Theory (Fiske, 1992, 2004) to develop an analysis of the interplay between the macro- and micro-level dimensions of business-to-business interactions. The analysis provides insights into the nature of an exchange that evolves through the macro- and micro-interactions which occur in organizational exchanges as they change over time.