How relationship commitment is recognized in the build-up phase, maturity phase and decline phase of the relationship life cycle from a manufacturing companies point of view has not been researched before. That is why this research will aim to provide a better insight to how relationship commitment works in a business to business relationship between a buyer and a seller within the field of manufacturing companies. An empirical study was made and a questionnaire was send to 700 purchasers in Swedish manufacturing companies with 58 replies, where each company could choose if they currently wanted to expand their relationship with their most valued supplier to correctly categorize the relationship as being in build-up phase, maturity phase or decline phase. The results show that the commitment components are recognized differently in the different phases. However, some surprising results were found, which rejected some of our hypotheses which could be related to our small sample size. Limitations was made to only Swedish manufacturing companies but should still give some insight on how commitment changes as a relationship develops.
Betyg D, 170601