Determining quality of business-to-business relationships: A study of Indian IT-enabled service providers

Summary What factors determine quality of inter-firm relationships involving cross-border sourcing of information-technology enabled services (ITES)? This paper addresses this heretofore underexamined question by drawing on the relationship-focused and global sourcing literature and employing a multi-method research technique. Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected from the top executives of Indian ITES industry suggest that perceptual evaluation of (i) three intangible firm assets (employee, organization, and management-related), and (ii) recent firm performance positively impact relationship quality. Based on the empirical findings we discuss implications for theory and practice and provide directions for future research.