Business Relationships and Structural Bonding: A Study of American Metal Industry

산업재 거래관계와 구조적 결합: 미국 금속산업의 분석 연구

Metal industry is one of the most representative heavy industries and the median sales volume of steel and nonferrous metal companies is over one billion dollars in the case America [Forbes 2006]. As seen in the recent business market situation, an increasing number of industrial manufacturers and suppliers are moving from adversarial to cooperative exchange attitudes that support the long-term relationships with their customers. This article presents the results of an empirical study of the antecedent factors of business relationships in metal industry of the United States. Commitment has been reviewed as a significant and critical variable in research on inter-organizational relationships (Hong et al. 2007, Kim et al. 2007). The future stability of any buyer-seller relationship depends upon the commitment made by the interactants to their relationship. Commitment, according to Dwyer et al. [1987], refers to "an implicit or explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchange partners" and they consider commitment to be the most advanced phase of buyer-seller exchange relationship. Bonds are made because the members need their partners in order to do something and this integration on a task basis can be either symbiotic or cooperative (Svensson 2008). To the extent that members seek the same or mutually supporting ends, there will be strong bonds among them. In other words, the principle that affects the strength of bonds is 'economy of decision making' [Turner 1970]. These bonds provide an important idea to study the causes of business long-term relationships in a sense that organizations can be mutually bonded by a common interest in the economic matters. Recently, the framework of structural bonding has been used to study the buyer-seller relationships in industrial marketing [Han and Sung 2008, Williams et al. 1998, Wilson 1995] in that this structural bonding is a crucial part of the theoretical justification for distinguishing discrete transactions from ongoing long-term relationships. The major antecedent factors of buyer commitment such as technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance were identified and explored from the perspective of structural bonding. Research hypotheses were developed and tested by using survey data from the middle managers in the metal industry. H1: Level of technology of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H2: Comparison level of alternatives is negatively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H3: Amount of the transaction-specific assets is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H4: Importance of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H5: Level of structural bonding is positively related to the level of commitment to the relationship. To examine the major antecedent factors of industrial buyer's structural bonding and long-term relationship, questionnaire was prepared, mailed out to the sample of 400 purchasing managers of the US metal industry (SIC codes 33 and 34). After a follow-up request, 139 informants returnedthe questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 35 percent. 134 responses were used in the final analysis after dropping 5 incomplete questionnaires. All measures were analyzed for reliability and validity following the guidelines offered by Churchill [1979] and Anderson and Gerbing [1988]., the results of fitting the model to the data indicated that the hypothesized model provides a good fit to the data. Goodness-of-fit index (GFI = 0.94) and other indices ( chi-square = 78.02 with p-value = 0.13, Adjusted GFI = 0.90, Normed Fit Index = 0.92) indicated that a major proportion of variances and covariances in the data was accounted for by the model as a whole, and all the parameter estimates showed statistical significance as evidenced by large t-values. All the factor loadings were significantly different from zero. On these grounds we judged the hypothesized model to be a reasonable representation of the data. The results from the present study suggest several implications for buyer-seller relationships. Theoretically, we attempted to conceptualize the antecedent factors of buyer-seller long-term relationships from the perspective of structural bondingin metal industry. The four underlying determinants (i.e. technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance) of structural bonding are very critical variables of buyer-seller long-term business relationships. Our model of structural bonding makes an attempt to systematically examine the relationship between the antecedent factors of structural bonding and long-term commitment. Managerially, this research provides industrial purchasing managers with a good framework to assess the interaction processes with their partners and, ability to position their business relationships from the perspective of structural bonding. In other words, based on those underlying variables, industrial purchasing managers can determine the strength of the company's relationships with the key suppliers and its state of preparation to be a successful partner with those suppliers. Both the supplying and customer companies can also benefit by using the concept of 'structural bonding' and evaluating their relationships with key business partners from the structural point of view. In general, the results indicate that structural bonding gives a critical impact on the level of relationship commitment. Managerial implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.

산업재 거래관계에서 구매자와 공급업체간의 장기 거래관계의 형성은 전형적인 현상이며 그동안 많은 연구들이 이러한 장기관계의 결정 요인과 그로 인한 결과에 관해 다양한 연구들을 수행해 왔다고 할 수 있다. 특히 금속산업은 산업재의 대표적인 산업 분야로 미국 금속산업 시장의 경우 기업당 평균 매출이 최소 10억 달러가 넘는 중요한 시장이라고 볼 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 중요한 의미를 갖는 미국 금속산업 시장에서 구매기업과 공급기업간의 거래관계를 형성하는 대표적인 요인으로 구조적 결합이라는 개념을 정립하고 이러한 구조적 결합을 결정하는 네가지 주요 변수(기술, 대체안 비교수준, 거래특유자산, 거래 중요성)들을 찾아내 이를 연구모형화하고 각각의 변수에 대한 연구가설을 다음과 같이 설정하였다. H1: 기술수준은 구조적 결합에 정의 영향을 미칠 것이다. H2: 대체안 비교수준은 구조적 결합에 정의 영향을 미칠 것이다. H3: 거래특유자산은 구조적 결합에 정의 영향을 미칠 것이다. H4: 거래의 중요성은 구조적 결합에 정의 영향을 미칠 것이다. H5: 구조적 결합은 몰입의 수준에 정의 영향을 미칠 것이다. 연구 가설의 검증을 위해 미국 금속산업에서 400개 기업을 선정해 설문조사를 실시 하였고 총 139개의 설문지를 회수하여 최종 분석에 사용하였다. 연구 가설과 연구 모형의 검증을 위해 구조방정식 모형과 LISREL을 사용하였고 최종 분석 결과 모든 가설이 체택되었다. 마지막으로 본 연구결과를 통한 마케팅전략적 시사점과 연구가 갖는 한계점에 대하여도 결론 부분에서 토론하였다.