Business Relationships as Value Drivers?

Abstract

The aim of our paper is to understand better the relation between business relationships and business performance. This paper is one of the first steps in a research program intended to examine the value-creating role of business relationships. Organisations are acting, developing in their environments. Business means the exchange with this environment. These organisations are embedded in the business network. In the business network, actors are mutually dependent on each other. The other actors increasingly influence business performance, through the network. Efficiency and efficacy are no longer the internal questions of a company. Business relationships are the forms and the tools of the actors' interdependency. How could business relationships influence (help?) business performance? In the case of Hungarian industries, we would like to investigate these kinds of problems. We will start by describing the main concepts of value creation. After summarising the characteristics of business relationships, we will examine Hungarian practice. Using a database of a Hungarian research program “In global competition” – micro-economic factors of the competitiveness of the Hungarian economy (a sample of 300 companies) we have analysed some business relationship issues. After evaluating the performance measurement practice of Hungarian companies from the point of view of business relationships, we analysed the reasons behind long term contracts with customers and suppliers, and the factors influencing purchasing success. Our aim is to compare the approach and the practice of successful and lagging companies, and discover the connection between business relationships and business performance. Based on our very first research findings we will conclude with a new conceptual framework of the role of business relationships in business performance. In our paper we will try to match financial, operational, and marketing approaches.