Relationships of individual and groups among three-plus firms represent the cornerstone concept in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. The three-plus firms include manufacturer-supplier to manufacturer-customer to distributor-customer, and facilitators (e.g., transportation and management...

The common thread of the five papers in this volume is that making sense and achieving deep knowledge of three-plus B2B relationships are necessary antecedents for achieving high operating effectiveness, high (on-time) efficiency, and sustaining profits for each firm in these relationships.

In order to get good access to a buyer’s resources, which contribute to relationship value creation, a seller needs to put resources into the relationship, and the bonds between the buyer and seller need to be strong. This paper reports on a preliminary study that assesses how the expected...