Perception configurations in business relationships

Abstract

There is a growing interest in relationships in the marketing literature, which has resulted in increasing attention to relational aspects of business. How the actors perceive the relationship thus emerges as a key issue. Traditionally, customer perceptions, for example, perceived service quality, satisfaction and value have played an important role in service management. However, in a business setting it is more appropriate to study both the seller’s and the buyer’s perceptions. This paper proposes a configuration map to depict both parties’ perceptions. This map can be used to capture both the composition and the dynamics of perception configurations, and it is generically applicable to dyadic perception studies.