Title: 'Antecedents' and 'postcedents' in relation to satisfaction in Taiwanese business relationships

Authors: Tzong-Ru (Jiun-Shen) Lee, Goran Svensson, Tore Mysen

Addresses: Department of Marketing, National Chung-Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC. ' Oslo School of Management, P.O. Box 1195, Sentrum, 0107 Oslo, Norway. ' Oslo School of Management, P.O. Box 1195, Sentrum, 0107 Oslo, Norway

Abstract: The research objective is to test whether satisfaction in business relationships may constitute a mediating construct between trust and commitment on the one hand, and coordination, cooperation and continuity expectancy on the other. The structural relationships are summarised in an AMP-model (i.e., antecedents, mediator and postcedents), the sample at that time consisted of attitudes among leading executives in small and medium-sized companies in Taiwan. The tested structural relationships of the AMP-model complement previous theory and research of antecedents and postcedents in relation to satisfaction in business relationships. One contribution is that the empirical findings indicate that satisfaction in studied buyer-supplier relationships may be seen as a mediating construct between antecedents (such as trust and commitment) and postcedents (such as coordination, cooperation and continuity). Research limitations and suggestions for further research are provided.

Keywords: Taiwan; business relationships; quality; trust; commitment; satisfaction; coordination; cooperation; continuity; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; antecedents; mediator; postcedents; structural relationships; buyer-supplier relationships.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2010.030735

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2010 Vol.3 No.2, pp.199 - 213

Published online: 01 Jan 2010 *

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