The perfect match: interpersonal relationships and their impact on chain management

Abstract

Within the German wine industry, more and more wine estates engage in collaborations to secure grape and wine qualities and quantities to meet the market demands, creating vertically coordinated supply chain networks. The focus of many scholars in this field is mainly set on structural arrangements and less on relational management mechanisms, as studies of structures and their implementation are more readily undertaken and quantified. Both structural and relational mechanisms and their influence on the different levels such as network-, dyad and firm-level are researched. In the agri-food industry, small and medium-sized businesses, often family-led, prevail, amplifying the influence of single decision-makers on cooperative decisions. In such a setting, personal relationships and social bonds are stronger than in classical B2B relationships in other industries. Research on chain management does not, generally, take the interpersonal or individual influence of decisions-makers into account. However, recent and emerging literature indicates an influence of managers on chain management. Hence, the questions arise how do managers affect decisions and how can the interpersonal influence be managed? This paper aims to expand the theoretical framework of chain management including the impacts of behavioural and interpersonal aspects in decision-making regarding relationship management.