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Buyer–supplier interactions in business services: variety in relational interfaces

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Abstract

Business services have become a considerable share of many firms’ external resources. Several service typologies have been proposed. This study explores the underlying dynamic of interaction patterns in business services through the lens of relational interfaces. Five exploratory case studies show the presence of variety in the buyer–supplier interfaces. Thus, the relevance of the interaction patterns to increasing a firm’s productivity or innovativeness may require an assessment of this variety in relational interfaces.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are gratefully acknowledge financial support from FCT- Fundação para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (Portugal), national funding through research grant UIDB/04521/2020. We also thank Luis Galveias for his assistance in collecting data. All three authors contributed equally to this work and are listed in alphabetical order.

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  1. Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Management Department, ADVANCE/CSG, Lisboa University – ISEG, Rua do Quelhas, no. 6, 1200-781, Lisboa, Portugal

    Cristina Sales Baptista, João Mota & Jose Novais Santos

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  1. Cristina Sales Baptista
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  2. João Mota
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  3. Jose Novais Santos
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Correspondence to Cristina Sales Baptista.

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Baptista, C.S., Mota, J. & Santos, J.N. Buyer–supplier interactions in business services: variety in relational interfaces. Serv Bus 16, 621–643 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-022-00494-9

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