Business Commons^™

The Function And Character Of Relationship Benefits: Transferring Capabilities And Resources To The Small Firm, Stephen Kelly

Adjunct Professor Stephen J Kelly

Purpose – This paper aims to critique the foundations of the relationship benefits concept and develop a theoretical model that is tested and validated. Design/methodology/approach – A series of exploratory in-depth interviews were initially conducted and the results considered against extant literature. This was followed by a mail survey of the selected population that resulted in 254 usable responses that represented an effective response rate of 21.4 per cent. Findings – The findings demonstrate that relationship benefits sought by small firms collaborating with larger partners can be classified as cost, service, image and flexibility benefits and suggest that their transfer …