1. ¹Department of Marketing Business Division, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, ITESM, Tlalpan, Mexico
2. ²Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, ITESM, Tlalpan, Mexico

Correspondence: Rajagopal, Department of Marketing Business Division, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, ITESM, Mexico City Campus, 222 Calle del Puente, Col. Ejidos de Huipulco, Tlalpan, 14380 DF Mexico. E-mail: rajagopal@itesm.mx

Received March 2007; Accepted October 2007; Published online 16 January 2008.

Abstract

This paper examines the effectiveness of business-to-business relationships in reference to the suppliers of office equipments serving the industrial accounts in Mexico. The study addresses broadly the performance-related issues as to what extent is the impact of quality of services responsible for doing business with the organizational buyers. Discussions in the paper also analyse the impact of channel function performance on relationship quality, which is moderated by the extent dependence structure of the relationship. The results of the study showed that the impact of buyer–supplier co-dependency and relationship quality significantly affects the supplier performance. It has been argued in the paper that the market orientation is positively associated with measures of channel performance such as service quality and the extent of buyer satisfaction. The study also demonstrates that in the processes of managing business relationships, cognitive dimensions like trust, commitment, and low level of conflicts provide 'win-win' situation for buyers and suppliers. Finally, this study attempts to make contributions to the literature on buyer–supplier relationships towards cognitive and relational perspectives leading to optimizing functional efficiency of a firm.