Business relationship development of British exporters in the Indonesian market.

This thesis seeks to obtain a greater understanding of the development and management of business relationships in a high-risk and uncertain market. It is suggested that the existing literature on business relationship development has been mainly developed from a basis of conceptual works. Empirical works are still limited and were mainly based on deductive-quantitative approaches. The contribution of this study lies in the use of a different perspective, which emerged from inductive logic of theory development.A range of literature is reviewed to search for understandings of business relationship development. It is suggested that current theory mainly explains business relationship development in stable markets, which offers a rather deterministic view. Understanding was not obtained on how an unstable market environment could affect business relationships although the literature suggested that the environment might have an effect on the development. Therefore, this study aims to provide a richer understanding of the underlying process that triggers the development.The experience of six British manufacturing companies exporting to a high-risk and uncertain market (Indonesia) was explored in order to develop understandings and explanations of the phenomena observed. The literature did not dictate the process of the theory development, which led to an investigation of greater depth from a different perspective (learning orientation) to obtain understanding of the development of business relationships. The main contribution of the thesis is that the findings suggested that business relationship development was influenced by intangible firm elements, namely: learning orientation, market orientation and risk behaviour. The orientations triggered development of business relationship elements, such as: trust, commitment and satisfaction. High level of intangible firm elements led to stable business relationships since the elements, particularly learning orientation, stimulates exporters to commit to a relationship, to trust partners and promote mutual satisfaction. In contrast, to some extent, low levels of intangible firm elements led to unstable business relationships since exporters could not maintain commitment, trust or satisfaction in the relationships. The study contributes to the understanding that experiential and continuous learning processes facilitate knowledge building and create understanding of the market and that customers stimulate the development of business relationships. In order to cope with environmental uncertainty, exporters need to learn to build knowledge, which can be used to create a sustainable impact on a company's operation in the market. The current study contributes to theory by suggesting that exporters who lack learning orientation are not only less able to cultivate stable working business relationships but also less able to provide ongoing supports that directly aids their customers/partners in winning and keeping their business in an uncertain market.