The Quality of Business Relationships in the Automotive Industry and the Company Performance: The Case of Polish and Brazilian Markets

Abstract

This paper aims to determine how relationship quality can influence company performance in the business- to-business setting of the automotive wholesalers and car dealers. Building on prior research and the results of focus study, we propose relationship quality as a higher construct comprising trust, respect, openness and commitment. The mail survey method was chosen for data collection and the studies were carried out in Poland and Brazil. The results show coexistence of a high level of relationship quality and very good company performance, both in Poland and Brazil, however the entities in Poland assess the quality of the relationship significantly higher than companies in Brazil.

Keywords

• business relationships
• quality of relationships
• company performance
• automotive industry