Bartosz Deszczyński

Purpose: This study develops a pathway towards mid-range theorizing of resource interaction (RI) within the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) tradition, aiming to reduce conceptual dispersion and strengthen the explanatory articulation of business network research. Design/methodology/approach: The paper advances a mechanism-oriented conceptual framework grounded in IMP assumptions and outlines a research approach that combines analytical abstraction with empirical exploration. The objective is to identify recurring interaction patterns across empirical settings while preserving the relational and processual foundations of the tradition. Findings: The study clarifies the analytical scope of RI mid-range theorizing by introducing isolating mechanisms and boundary conditions, and proposes resource interaction maturity as a central explanatory construct. Drawing on the 4R model, the study demonstrates how established IMP concepts can be reinterpreted to support mid-range explanation. Research limitations/implications: The paper is conceptual. It contributes to ongoing discussions on cumulative theory development within the IMP tradition by offering a structured approach to mid-range theorizing of resource interaction. Practical implications: By identifying recurring patterns of relational practices associated with resource interaction processes, the framework provides a basis for managerial reflection on how firms engage in business networking. Originality/value: The study contributes to IMP research by articulating a mid-range theorizing approach to resource interaction, specifying its analytical scope, and demonstrating how existing IMP concepts can be mobilized to enhance explanatory clarity.

This chapter conceptualises the relational business model and examines its role in driving business performance by integrating inter-organisational relationships, value creation, and the service profit chain (SPC). It proposes a comprehensive, application-oriented conceptualisation of the relational business model by expanding the SPC to encompass diverse inter-organisational relationships and their complexity. This approach highlights the multidirectional processes of value creation involving all internal and external actors, addressing gaps in existing frameworks and offering practical implications for relationship management. The proposed model aligns with the servitisation of the economy and provides a robust foundation for understanding and enhancing the relational dynamics that underpin business success.

The significance of relationships in business is widely recognised, yet many companies fail to implement an effective relational business model. This disparity raises critical questions: How can truly relationship-oriented businesses be distinguished from those merely paying lip service to the concept? What practices set these companies apart, and is the relational business model a genuine source of organisational resilience? To explore these questions, a quantitative CATI survey was conducted with 124 companies, divided into two groups: those with organisational resilience and those less successful. The survey examined 23 specific actions and strategies related to relationship management, IT systems, and process management. Chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests were used to analyse variations in categorical frequencies, complemented by V Cramer’s coefficient to assess effect sizes. The findings show how the relational business model is operationalised in top-performing companies (relational champions) and highlight its direct link to achieving organisational resilience. These results offer actionable insights for organisations seeking to transition from a transactional to a relational approach, emphasising the importance of consistent, strategic implementation to build lasting, high-value relationships with employees, customers, and other partners.

This book explores the power of relationships in shaping resilient and sustainable businesses. In an era of uncertainty, where disruptions challenge

This introduction presents the central argument of the book: that achieving performance, resilience, and sustainability in today’s turbulent business environment requires moving beyond the limits of narrow competitive logic based solely on operational optimisation towards relational business models anchored in collaboration. Resilience is conceptualised as a capability that depends on adaptability, continued resource development, and the willingness to maintain buffers that ensure long-term stability. At the same time, sustainability is framed as an integrated strategic output that combines economic, social, and environmental goals. These objectives cannot be realised in organisational isolation. Performance emerges through embedded relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, and broader business and non-business actors. Relational business models enable co-creation of value, redistribution of risk, stronger innovation trajectories, and shared commitments over extended time horizons. The introduction outlines how the subsequent parts of the book explore theoretical foundations, the influence of digitalisation, and pathways by which inter-organisational collaboration, relationships, and relational business models support sustainable development.

Motivation: The cornerstone of this paper is the assumption that in order to accelerate the internationalization process, companies trying to enter foreign markets have to “borrow” relationship capital from one or several mediating agents. The concept of relationship mediating agents fits into the network approach to internationalization and explains why entities with a dense network of connections tend to be more successful than single players. Aim: To examine the phenomenon of relationship capital mediation by different actors (agents) in the internationalization process as to the availability of these agents and their impact on the success of internationalization process. Results: The network perspective on internationalization is refined through the concept of relationship capital mediation. The paper introduces a typology of RCMA and outlines the relationship resources they provide in different timeframes related to the internationalization process, before, during and after the actual business project.

Purpose: To validate the impact of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technologies on stable competitive advantage of companies. Confronting the existing ambiguous research. Design/methodology/approach: In step one, 757 publications were verified in a systematic literature review to establish precise CRM technology implementation success indicators. In step two, phone surveys were conducted with 608 corporate respondents to link CRM technology implementation success indicators with stable competitive advantage. Step three involved statistical inference applying machine-learning powered association rules/basket analysis. Findings: The best and the worst-performing companies simultaneously reported only low to moderate levels of CRM technology implementation success indicators. Both groups of companies do not differ significantly as far as CRM technology applications are concerned. Hence, direct impact of CRM technology on achieving stable competitive advantage was negatively validated. Research limitations/implications: Spatial positioning of this research in the Polish market demands studies in other markets to ensure the generality of findings. Research on CRM technology does not embrace other industry 4.0 technologies. Studies dealing with other technologies would shed more light on the overall role of the industry 4.0 revolution and the constraints in implementing new technologies. Originality/value: The research supposed that the ambiguity in existing research is caused by the methodical mistake: mixing the best and the worst-performing companies in one research survey. A hypothesis was established stating that the CRM technologies will only significantly impact stable competitive advantage of the best performing firms that have the competence to exploit their potential. This hypothesis was negatively verified.

This chapter operationalizes and tests the preliminary proposal of the RM maturity model in field research. The first section discusses the design of the 40-question questionnaire, which aims to verify the links between RM maturity and sustainable competitive advantage. Different classes of research biases are addressed on a semantic level, and a scoring method based on the Net Promoter Score methodology is introduced. The second section presents the analytical strategy and the design of the empirical test, encompassing the self-reporting of business respondents and machine learning analytical techniques. The product of this analysis is a set of association rules, which separate a ‘basket’ of 10 critical RM activities and approaches linked by 16 rules, typically in a reciprocal way. The third section comments on the detailed empirical results on RM maturity and sustainable competitive advantage, which are found to be much in line with business ethics. The hallmark of an ethical RM-mature firm is open internal vertical and horizontal communication, which enables the company to be a meaningful partner in the relationships with its customers and other stakeholders.

This chapter introduces the notion of competitive advantage in multiple research perspectives of the dominant strategic management schools, and references the academic discourse on the fundamental issue of the locus of competitive advantage. Its first section briefly presents exemplary attempts to organize the body of knowledge on the theory of the firm, including strategic management as an associated theory, and argues why the notion of competitive advantage lies at the heart of this book’s research agenda. In the second section, the dispute between the proponents of Industrial Organization Economics and the Resource-Based View is recounted. Following this, the relationship approach is introduced as a concept that facilitates market coordination based on cooperation.

In this chapter the domain of relationship management (RM) is discussed and the notion of the RM mid-range theory is introduced. The first section highlights the socio-economic duality of RM and presents the core characteristics of the RM business model. The diversity of partly overlapping relational constructs is commented on, and a uniform semantic programme for RM is proposed that links the notion of relationship capital and three RM dimensions: structural, psychological and behavioral. In the second section, the role of mid-range theories in linking macro and micro theoretical levels is presented. The theoretical boundaries (the content) of the envisioned RM mid-range theory are outlined, which link the RM business model, the key relational activities and approaches, and business performance. A hypothetical system of theories for competitive advantage is drafted, where the general theory level is occupied by the Resource-Advantage Theory of Competition followed by the upper mid-range theory level; where the RM mid-range theory is placed, completed by the specific market type mid-range theory level; and where network-based and market-based relational theories are positioned.