Citation:
Marriage without the option of divorce: measuring the quality of long-term collaborative business relationships, Co-creating Emergent Insight, Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Multi-organisational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks, pp 69-75, (Eds: Paul Hibbert), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, 25th-28th June 2003.
Abstract:
An often unforeseen feature of long term, collaborative business relationships
characterized by the investment of highly specific assets is the partners become
locked into the arrangement. Exit may become too costly and difficult due to the
loss of irretrievable investments and the adverse effect on business continuity
(Hirschman, 1970). But, as long as goodwill and benefits flows are maintained,
all is well. However, if problems are encountered that undermine trust,
commitment will suffer and the inadequacy of contract law to adequately resolve
complex relationship problems will be realized. An unhappy marriage results
without the option of divorce. The partners can either co-exist in a mutually
disadvantageous arrangement or, realizing the lack of an escape choice, learn to
adapt and to re-invigorate the partnership. This paper describes a research
project that examined the pure monopolistic business relationships within UK
Defence Procurement. From the researchers point of view this environment is
particularly interesting because the variability resulting from competition is
removed and the links between the partner organisations, including the effect of
key behavioural variables, are more visible. It aims to show how a suite of
techniques was used to measure and describe an environment that has received
scant attention from management researchers. These relationships are
characterized by high technology, long durations (up to 40 years), strategically
important products and services and the regular expenditure of large sums of
public money. They have a tradition of adversarial relationships, late, over-
budget projects and low economic returns (Parker & Hartley, 1997). The study
aimed to understand the dynamics within these relationships and to determine if
it was possible to identify those factors that maintain goodwill and benefit
flows and those that might re-invigorate failure situations.
