What is the connection between trust, conflict, fairness, dependence and turnover intention in an interorganizational relationship? A descriptive study based on the partnership between a leading supplier and its resellers in the Scandinavian print services market.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out what the connection is between trust, conflict, fairness, dependence and turnover intention in an interorganizational relationship. I have analyzed this research question amongst the Scandinavian resellers of a leading print services supplier. Thesis inspiration comes from a study which investigated the significance of supplier fairness in the development of relationships between smaller, vulnerable resellers and larger, dominant suppliers (Kumar, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 1995). The foundation of this study originates from Andreassen’s (2006) definition of a relationship, and social exchange theory. Theory pertaining to trust, conflict, fairness, dependence and turnover intention is also presented. The research design is descriptive and, as the survey did not generate a large amount of data, it was augmented with a group interview to further probe the analysis results. The study shows that there is a significant, negative relationship between dependence and turnover intention. Other studies show that trust, conflict and fairness do play significant roles in interorganizational relationships. This could indicate that the model, meant to explain turnover intention, is too modest – or that turnover intention can be better explained by variables which are not part of this study. Key words: marketing, relation, interorganizational, social exchange theory, trust, conflict, fairness, justice, dependence, turnover intention, relationship quality, supplier, reseller, alliance, channel, print services, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Scandinavia.