Why do businesses stay in bad relationships? A traumatic-bonding theory of dysfunctional relationships in B-to-B marketing

It is well-established in the B-to-B literature that business relationships entail frictions. Yet, more knowledge is arguably needed about why some friction-filled relationships differentiate themselves by experiencing growing attachment because of these frictions, as there is a paucity of research that unravel the conceptual mechanisms underlying such counterintuitive behavior. We argue that one approach which may be instrumental in conceptualizing this phenomenon is found in existing work on abusive relationships from the discipline of victimology . Against this backdrop, we draw upon traumatic-bonding theory , originally developed to understand abusive romantic relationships, to conceptualize why B-to-B firms may remain, and even grow stronger emotional bonds, in a harmful relationship. Our study contributes in at least three ways: First, we provide a novel conceptualization of the understudied phenomenon of businesses staying loyal to bad relationships. Second, we provide a conceptual integration of two very different fields, i.e. victimology and industrial marketing, which each have important insights on the dark side of relationships that can cross-fertilize each other. Third, our conceptualization contributes by being a so-called “provocation theory” that (hopefully) spurs debate by challenging preconceptions of established and taken-for-granted phenomena.