Exploring the nature of long-term buyer-seller relationships in the Western Australian nursery industry.

摘要

Following a review of the literature on relationship marketing, this paper presents the results of a survey of 34 wholesale nurseries and 36 retail nurseries in Western Australia, which examined the nature of the nurseries' relationship with their preferred trading partner. The key dimensions of satisfaction, trust, commitment, communication, power dependence, and willingness of the preferred trading partner to make relationship-specific investments were explored. Results reveal, among others, that Western Australian wholesale and retail nurseries developed preferred relationships because the association assured them of higher performance standards from their respective partners. Preferred wholesale plant suppliers acknowledge that their "in-supplier" status demanded higher performance standards and they responded accordingly by addressing the needs of their preferred retail customers more successfully than alternative suppliers.