Abstract

Collaborative relationships in the supply chain have been researched in various literatures for decades. This research has drawn on and created numerous constructs and theories describing different relationships, their antecedents and outcomes. Inconsistencies still exist in the phenomena that connect the various constructs as well as how these connections are viewed by the buyer and supplier. The purpose of the current research is to examine these connections using a relationship common to every supply chain—a transportation relationship—thus beginning a discourse on the future of interfirm relationship theories and methods to create and test them. Through a model built using extant theory and a survey of shippers and motor carriers, study results exemplify the potential for clarification that exists in this important area of research faces. Implications for transportation practice and relationship theory as well as opportunities for future research are discussed.

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