Consistency Judgments, Embeddedness, and Relationship Outcomes in Interorganizational Networks

P research has shown how outcomes in interorganizational relationships are influenced by the characteristics of the individual relationship in question. Focusing on relationships between suppliers and their organizational buyers, we augment this perspective by positing that relationship outcomes are also influenced by social comparison processes involving perceptions of a supplier’s practices across comparable buyer relationships. Based on past research on embedded ties and institutional theory, we propose that the effect of these comparison processes depends on the nature of a buyer’s existing interorganizational ties and on the norms that are brought to bear on the relationship in question. We test our propositions based on 788 observations of organizational buyers who have relationships with the same supplier. Our findings paint a complex, multilevel picture of the process by which relationship outcomes come about in interorganizational networks.