Investigating the antecedents of relationship strenght in B2B markets: Turkish plastics industry case

This dissertation is an attempt to investigate the antecedents of relationship strength in industrial markets by proposing a structural model comprised of empathy, salesperson skills, reliance, and perceived value as the constructs. The research involves first, flexible qualitative interviews with the key decision makers of several industrial companies' in the plastics industry in Turkey and then, quantitatively exploring the relationships between these constructs with the data collected from 109 respondents from B2B companies. Smart PLS was used to test the hypotheses and to analyze the relationships amongst the proposed constructs. The research is unique in the sense that relatively new constructs such as empathy and reliance that were not contemplated deeply in the B2B literature before were employed. The results indicate that reliance and perceived value are the key antecedents of relationship strength in B2B markets. Reliance was found to emerge as consequences of cognitive components of empathy and salesperson's professional skills (salesmanship skills), while affective drivers such as affective empathy, interpersonal and technical skills of salesperson were not found to have any significant effect in the formation of reliance and relationship strength. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by proposing a holistic framework for the formation of relationship strength in B2B marketing. Managerial implications of the study and proposed theoretical framework were discussed in detail. Key words: B2B Marketing, Industrial Markets, Relationship Strength, Empathy, Reliance, Salesperson Role in B2B