An Application of the Investment Model to Buyer-Seller Relationships: A Dyadic Perspective

Abstract

Relationships between buying and selling firms have been characterized by many scholars as being conceptually similar to marriages, or committed relationships between two people. Prior research has explored the question of how relationships between buyers and sellers are formed and maintained. This paper takes a well-tested model of interpersonal attraction, the Investment Model, and applies it to the relationships between organizational buyers and salespeople in an attempt to understand their decisions to either remain in a business relationship or to terminate that relationship.