ABSTRACT
Just like certain behaviours can make or break interpersonal relationships such as a marriage, theoretical and empirical research as well as anecdotal evidence from different companies shows that, in business-to-business or business-to-consumer relationships, there exist certain mechanisms that either improve (positive mediating mechanisms) or severely damage (negative mediating mechanisms) these relationships and even lead to their dissolution. Here we will discuss the drivers of both positive and negative mediating mechanisms. We will then review the effects of positive and negative mediating mechanisms on relationship performance. Finally, we will summarise research findings on situations in which these mechanisms are especially helpful or detrimental to a business relationship. There are various drivers that have an impact on positive and negative mediating
mechanisms of relationship performance – for instance, how well partners are able to communicate with each other, the dependence of business partners on one other, investments in the relationship, relationship duration, level of expertise and similarity all affect the development of positive and negative mediating mechanisms. We summarise the most common theoretical underpinnings for these linkages, which include equity theory, social exchange theory, relationship marketing and transaction cost economics, synthesising decades of empirical results from seminal academic research.
