Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Industrial Marketing Management

The involvement and influence of emotions in problematic business relationships

Jaana Tähtinen a,⁎, Keith Blois b,c

a Department of Marketing, P.O. Box 4600, 90014 University of Oulu, Finlandb University of Oxford and Lancaster University, UKc Department of Marketing, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster LA1 4YX, UK

⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 8 553 2586; fax:E-mail addresses: jaana.tahtinen@oulu.fi (J. Tähtinen

(K. Blois).

0019-8501/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. Aldoi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.06.030

a b s t r a c t

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 30 November 2010Received in revised form 25 March 2011Accepted 14 June 2011Available online 16 July 2011

Keywords:Emotional experienceEmotion scriptsRelationship dynamicsProblematic business relationships

This paper discusses emotions as mediators in business-to-business relationships which is an understudiedtopic. Yet within consumer marketing, emotions have been widely studied, and calls have been made forbusiness relationship research to take account of managers' emotions. This study addresses the gap by firstlyestablishing the relevance of emotions in problematic business relationships and secondly showing howemotions are a major component in determining the outcomes of the problematic relationships. Interviewdata in the form of narratives describing problematic relationships is analyzed and identifies both theemotions experienced by participants and their role in the future course of the business relationship.

+358 8 553 2906.), keith.blois@btinternet.com

l rights reserved.

© 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The influence of emotions on the enactment of exchanges inbusiness-to-business marketing has received little attention. Incomparison, research on affective processes is firmly established inconsumer behavior and advertising (see Cohen & Areni, 1991; Hansen& Christensen, 2007; Huang, 2001), services marketing (e.g. Barger &Grandey, 2006; Dallimore, Sparks, & Butcher, 2007; Grace, 2008), andmanagement research (e.g. Barsade, Brief, & Spataro, 2003; Fineman,2000). For example, Kumar (2008) shows that emotions influencestrategic alliances' development and their future.

The arguments that have supported the study of emotions inthese research streams can be traced to, for example, the sociologyof emotion (e.g. Barbalet, 1998; Kemper, 1978) and the affectheuristic research (Slovic, Finucane, Peters, & MacGregor, 2002),which argue that both human decision making and actions areembedded in emotions and therefore these three cannot bemeaningfully separated. Even subconscious emotions may drivebehavior (Winkielman & Berridge, 2004). Against this background,this study argues that a research gap remains in studying the role ofemotions in B2B marketing and particularly in buyer–sellerrelationships.

The few existing studies on emotions in B2B relationships focus oneither how emotions influence the development of the relationshipsor the customers' emotional responses to sellers' actions. In the firstcategory, Andersen and Kumar (2006) conceptually consider the roleof emotions in shaping business relationships at their initiation,

development, voluntary and forced termination, and re-establish-ment stages. In another conceptual study, Bagozzi (2006) exploressalespersons' and customers' emotions, their self-regulation and theirimpact on the exchange relationships. Bagozzi, Belschak, and Verbeke(2010) empirically study salespersons' emotional self-regulation, howthey cope with emotionally challenging situations and achieve bettersocial relationships. In the second category, focusing on customers'emotional responses to sellers' positive and/or negative actions, wefind only two studies; a survey by Selnes and Grønhaug (2000) and anexperiment by Wang and Huff (2007).

As shown, the existing but limited conceptual and empiricalresearch lacks longitudinal designs and variety in data collection. Yet,decision making is influenced both by the emotions of the personexperiencing the emotion and also of their counterparts' interpreta-tion of the information that emotions provide about the person'sfeelings (Ekman, 1993), intentions (Van Kleef, De Dreu, & Manstead,2004), and orientation toward the relationship (Knutson, 1996).Hence, context related research and empirical data on the variety ofemotions which both buyers and sellers experience are needed.Moreover, without longitudinal data little is known about howemotions influence the course of the relationship.

To fill in some of the gaps, this paper focuses on the involvementand influence of emotions in business relationships. Since studies ofemotions within business marketing are rare, the study also utilizesresearch from social psychology and organizational behavior andposes two research questions. Firstly, what emotions are involvedboth during problematic relationships and when the relationship isrecalled? Secondly, how the emotions influence a problematicrelationship's development?

Empirically, we study problematic relationships because conflictsare emotionally defined and perceived by a triggering event (Bodtker

908 J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

& Jameson Katz, 2001) and negative events trigger stronger emotionsthan positive ones (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohns,2001). Thus, problematic relationships can be expected to triggerstronger emotions and their influence can be more easily detected,aiding this study's aim of theory development.

Moreover, knowledge on emotions is needed before we can studyhow to turn negative communications and atmospheres intocollaborative ones (see e.g. Salo, Tähtinen, & Ulkuniemi, 2009; Zang,Griffith, & Cavusgil, 2006). Apart from Ryan and Blois (2010), to thebest of our knowledge, studies focusing on emotions duringproblematic relationships or problematic phases do not exist.

In this study, a problematic business relationship refers to onewhose future is being questioned, for any reason. Such a relationshipmay continue or end, however, its future is being evaluated by at leastone actor. The influence or consequences of emotions are then definedvery broadly as either the ending of the relationship [at any stage of itsdevelopment including the very earliest phase of the ExploratoryStage (Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987)] or its recovery. We do not suggestthat the consequences happen solely because of emotions, but thatemotions are an important influencing factor. The general setting ofthis study is pictured in Fig. 1.

This exploratory study first establishes a theoretical starting point,and then applies the theory to the data to identify the emotionsinvolved and their influence in business relationships. Empirically,this study uses interview data from suppliers' and business customers'narratives of problematic relationships with their counterparts inFinland and elsewhere. Finally it discusses the results, theirimplications and future work to be done.

2. Business relationships as inter-organizational interactionby managers

Bagozzi (2006) suggests that business relationships may need tobe conceptualized in a new way that includes both rational andemotional forces. This study regards a business relationship asinteraction between two companies (Blois, 1972; Ford, Gadde,Håkansson, Snehota, & Waluszewski, 2008) partly performed bymanagers representing their companies. This view is inspired bycritical realism (Sayer, 1992) and social exchange theory (Thibaut &Kelley, 1959). Hence, business relationships are social phenomenaand emergent interaction progressions, creating structures that theninfluence the processes. Therefore, emotions are not only features ofindividual managers' behavior but also impact on the businessrelationship's atmosphere (Gergen, 1997). Thus relationship develop-ment is not expected to follow any predictable pattern or phases, but isinfluenced by different contingencies, agency, and reasons rather thancauses (Parrot, 2001).

However, to be able to understand business relationships as socialinteraction, a micro level of analysis is adapted. Ford et al. (2008) statethat interaction is a substantive process that influences and isinfluenced by all the elements of business: actors, activities andresources. We argue that the actor layer or the interpersonal links

Fig. 1. The role of emotions in a problematic business relationship.

developed between individuals through interaction (Ford et al.,2008), are a key to the understanding of business relationships as asocial phenomenon. This is the layer where attraction, trust, andcommitment; the elements of a relational infrastructure of a businessrelationship, grow or diminish (Anderson & Weitz, 1992; Halinen,1997; Moorman, Zalthman, & Deshpandé, 1992) and thus this studyfocuses on this micro layer.

Although focusing on the managers' emotions, we recognize thatthe micro level is influenced by the ‘upper’ levels, i.e. the companylevel, the relationship level, and the network level. Thus managers'behavior is influenced, though not determined, by the forces at theinstitutional and organizational levels (Marchington & Vincent, 2004).Following Ashkanasy (2003) who distinguishes five levels of analysisfor studying emotion, namely: within-person; differences betweenindividuals; in dyads; groups; and, organizations, this study focuseson the micro level of emotions expressed and interpreted bymanagers in a dyad. However, it recognizes that these emotions areembedded in the atmosphere of the business relationship and thus areshaped by the company cultures and structures of the two companies.So, whenever managers interact, as in B2B relationships, emotions arelikely to be involved (Lawler & Thye, 2007) and influence the futureevents in that relationship.

3. Emotions in problematic business relationships

3.1. The variety of emotions involved in problematic businessrelationships

Emotions and moods can both be categorized under affectivereactions (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). A manager may be feelinghappy for no specific reason (mood), or because they just signed animportant contract with a new client (emotion) (Russell & Barrett,1999). Thus, in this study an emotion is defined as a short-lived,relatively intense affective reaction experienced in response to animportant event (Frijda, 1988) or change (Ben-Zeev, 1996) that issignificant to the person or the company (Stanley & Burrows, 2001).

Which emotions can then be assumed to be involved in businessrelationships? Here, a classification of ‘basic’ emotions by Shaver,Schwartz, Kirson, and O'Connor (1987) will be used, as we aim tohighlight the variety of emotions that are involved. Accordingly, thebasic emotions are: love; joy; surprise; anger; sadness; and, fear,1

each forming a category to which 135 other emotion names can berelated. This list closely resembles earlier studies on basic emotions(e.g. Ekman, 1984; Epstein, 1984; Fehr & Russel, 1984; Izard, 1977)but includes ‘surprise’ — an emotion that may arise within aproblematic business relationships (Halinen & Tähtinen, 2002;Lucero, 2008), and thus is useful in this study. However, when takingthe context of problematic business relationships into consideration,it is assumed that love may not be involved. Nevertheless, if thebusiness relationship recovers from its problems, positive emotionscategorized under ‘joy’ can be involved (Salo et al., 2009).

When problems arise, social and socio-moral emotions support theefforts to develop and continue the relationship instead of ending it.Lawler and Thye's (2007) relational cohesion theory suggests thatfrequent exchanges create positive social emotions which enhancerelational cohesion. This perception of the exchange relation as aunifying force results in commitment (defined as attachment, in thiscase, to the dyad) and is manifested in staying in the relationship andpossibly expanding the relationship. Indeed, a review by Bagozzi(2006) argues that the regulatory mechanisms in salesperson–customer interactions work through interpersonal social emotions.

1 It is necessary to note that the list uses English labels for emotions and not all ofthem may equate with the Finnish (the language of the empirical data discussed inSection 4) labels.

909J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

Positive interpersonal social emotions are: attachment; empathicconcern [originally empathy, but we use the label by Davis (1994),which excludes any personal distress from the emotion]; and, pridewhile negative ones are: embarrassment; envy; guilt; jealousy;shame; and, social anxiety. These self-conscious emotions arise fromand relate to social relationships and coordinate people's responsesand provide self-control to better fit the relationships. Socio-moralemotions (e.g. desire for approval and acceptance, pride, fear of andrespect of superiors, shame, and guilt) provide the self-control neededto cooperate Fiske (2002) and resist impulses to exit a relationship(Frijda, 1988). Thus, we assume that both social and socio-moralemotions are associated with recovered business relationships.

The emotions that are expressed during a business relationship arenot the only ones involved. A manager may also be ‘lookingbackward’, thus reappraising events that have already happened,and this may produce different emotions than those experienced atthe time (Lawler & Thye, 2007). For this reason, this study focuses onthe emotions felt during a problematic relationship and those feltseparately when reflecting on it. A theoretical response to the firstresearch question is that a variety of basic emotions, excluding love,are involved in troubled business relationships, and more specifically,social/socio-moral emotions are involved in recovered relationships.In the following, the second research question about the influence ofemotions will be discussed.

3.2. The mechanisms through which emotions influence businessrelationships

We suggest that emotions influence what happens in businessrelationships through three mechanisms. Firstly, the emotionalexperiences are influential because of the physiological, cognitive,and behavioral responses to a significant event or change (Bodtker &Jameson Katz, 2001). As pictured in Fig. 2, an emotion influences boththe manager's behavior in the subsequent task and evokes emotionsfrom the othermanagers involved (Fisher, 2002;Weiss & Cropanzano,1996). How and which emotions it is acceptable for a manager toexpress and which must be suppressed is determined by culturalexpression rules. These rules are shaped in the interaction, andinfluenced by the cultures of the interacting companies, but also bythe managers. The rules bring stability and predictability, althoughindividuals have different abilities to control the manner in whichthey express emotions. Once the manager has reacted, the responsemay form a second significant event that is then appraised by othersexperiencing or seeing, hearing, or reading about it. Business dyadsalso offer opportunities for manipulation of emotional interaction(Goffman, 1969). For example, a Buyer may intentionally appearangry with the expectation that the Salesperson will respond in a waydesired and this might even be to make the Salesperson angry so thatthe Buyer can complain about it!

Fig. 2. An emotion episode at a dyadic level.

Secondly, Fig. 2 also pictures the second mechanism; an emotionscript (Abelson, 1981; Fehr & Russel, 1984; Gibson, 2008). The scriptcharacterizes a particular emotion, its reason, and what is expected tohappen because of it. It also helps us to understand a particularconsequence. For example a buyer having a phone conversation witha production manager about a supplier's products while smiling(consequence) communicates to us that the buyer is feeling happy(an emotion) (see Gergen, 1997; Stanley & Burrows, 2001). Based onthat, we can assume the reason: the production manager is pleasedwith the products and with the buyer (a triggering event). Emotionalcommunication helps to coordinate the dyadic interactions bysuggesting what is expected to happen; what the buyer intends todo (Gibson, 2008) (in this example to continue to use the products);and, serving as an input to the supplier's behavior evokingcomplementary and reciprocal emotions (Keltner & Heidt, 1999).

Thirdly, emotions help managers to solve relational problems(Keltner & Heidt, 1999). A problem being an event that producesemotions it therefore encourages action to be taken to solve theproblem. Thus, an important function of emotions is to directmanagers' attention toward relevant events, either to protect themfrom dangerous events or to nurture positive outcomes (Stanley &Burrows, 2001). Therefore, the problem solving, protective, and ‘profitincreasing’ functions of emotions are important in problematicbusiness relationships.

3.3. What do we know about emotions in business relationships?

No studies could be found that specifically address emotions inproblematic business relationships so studies on emotions in businessrelationships in general are reviewed here. Andersen and Kumar(2006) theoretically elaborate on individual boundary spanners,boundary spanner groups and other members of the buying andselling organizations and propose that during positive developmentphases, boundary spanners feel positive emotions such as joy, andduring termination they feel sadness and other negative emotions.They propose that influential groups' negative emotions may “lead torelationship termination” (Andersen & Kumar, 2006, p.532) and thateven influential individuals' negative emotions may encouragerelationship ending. The re-establishment phase is suggested to be“critically dependent on the emergence of positive affective statesamong influential organizational members” (Andersen & Kumar,2006, p.532). Thus, these general propositions suggest that positiveand negative affective reactions of influential individuals and groupsdo influence the phases of business relationships, and therefore alsoproblematic relationships.

Bagozzi (2006) reviews studies on the regulation of salesperson–customer interactions and argues that these interactions, as well asthe needs that arise from inter-firm and interpersonal relationships,include the goals and values not only of the firms, but also ofindividuals. The review indicates that research is only beginning toexplain and understand the cultural practices, tendencies andcontingencies that influence the process of sales-persons' self-regulation. Bagozzi et al. (2010) show that salespersons differ intheir emotional wisdom, and suggest that those with greateremotional wisdom achieve better in customer relationships. Thesesalespeople use emotions strategically, i.e. perceive others' emotionsaccurately, adapt their emotions to the situation, and remainauthentic at the same time. Emotionally wise salespeople regulatetheir emotions according to strong moral norms so that others acceptit. Salo et al. (2009) present a case where in spite of arguments andnegative emotions, a relationship was recovered through restoringactions taken by all parties. This would suggest that self-regulation byboth buyers and sellers is associated with recovered problematicrelationships.

Selnes and Grønhaug (2000) show that supplier's failure to keepits promises triggers negative customer emotions, which decreases

910 J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

customer's satisfaction and loyalty intentions. Wang and Huff (2007)also show that the negative emotions are more intensive, when trustin the relationship is low. On the other hand, if the buyer sees thesupplier as behaving in a way that benefits both parties (benevo-lence), it produces positive emotions and increases the customer'sintention to continue the relationship (Selnes & Grønhaug, 2000).However, since these two studies do not make use of longitudinalnarrative data, certain types of events cannot be connected toparticular emotions and their consequences as a script.

The following section describes the empirical study and examinesits results in the context of this literature review.

4. The empirical study

Empirically, this study validates the relevance of studyingemotions within problematic business relationships. Thus, we firstanalyze the frequency with which managers use various emotionalexpressions of both basic and social/socio-moral emotions whentalking about problematic business relationships. Secondly, tounderstand how emotions influence business relationships, weconnect the emotions to what happened overall in the relationship,did it end or did it continue as recovered. This is done with the help ofemotion scripts.

The study re-uses (see Thompson, 2000) existing interview datasets of problematic relationships. Qualitative data was chosen to aidthe theory development aim with a rich description of an under-studied phenomenon (Eisenhardt, 1989; Kvale, 1996). The dataoriginates from two separate research projects; both were casestudies with narrative interviews, a technique developed by Schuetze(1977) (via Bauer, 1996) and focused on software industry, wherelong-term relationships are common (see Alajoutsijärvi, Mannermaa,& Tikkanen, 2000). Narrative interview is commonly applied whenthe issue at hand is potentially embarrassing or sensitive (Bauer,1996).

Project 1 studied a relationship that ended, because of severeproblems.Data Set 1 consists ofnarratives from22 informants frombothsides of the dyad (as well as from network actors). Project 2 gatheredboth relationship ending and recovery stories, and the respondentswere managers representing either a supplier or a buyer company.Some of the narratives are about collaborative relationships. Thus, inData Set 2, each of the 10 informants tells several narratives aboutdissolved and recovered relationships; resulting in 28 narratives(Table 1. For details see Appendix 1–2). Data Set 1 includes male andfemale managers from different hierarchical levels, but Data Set 2 is allmale and mostly at CEO or owner–manager level. The first author haddesigned the interviewguides and conducted the interviews. In all casesthe interviewees were talking about relationships that had eitheralready ended or, if the recovered relationships still existed, the eventsdiscussed had already happened.

The two data sets which balance each other in terms of therichness of the data, the gender and managerial status of theinformants, were combined into one. This creates a variety ofnarratives as the emotional expressions stem from different relation-

Table 1The interview data.

Data set 1 Data set 2

Number of informants 22 10Number of relationships that the datatalks about

1 dissolved 14 dissolved, 14recovered

Number of narratives 27 28Words in total 69.739 50.541Interview duration On average 1 h

10 minOn average 1 h08 min

ships and individuals (see Kvale, 1996). It should be stressed that,because the interviews were not designed to study emotions theinterviews did not include any questions about emotions. Thus, theemotion words and expressions were produced spontaneously.

The interviews and the content analysis were conducted in Finnishby the first author, who was able to remember the narratives'character. N'Vivo8 software (see Dembkowski & Hanmer-Lloyd, 1995)was used. The data was analyzed once and thus no interrater orintrarater reliability measures (Weber, 1990) were calculated.However, the use of computer-aided text analysis enhances thereliability of coding, since coding rules were made explicit (Wolfe,Gephart, & Johnson, 1993). Moreover, the exact number of theexpressions is not vital here, since the goal is to find out the variety ofemotions involved in problematic business relationships, not theirfrequency. The level of analysis is the emotional expressions and theinfluence of emotions in shaping events within the structure we call abusiness relationship.

The content analysis utilizes the categorization of basic emotionsby Shaver et al. (1987), socio-moral emotions (Fiske, 2002; Lawler &Thye, 2007), and of social emotions presented in Bagozzi (2006) asnodes in the coding scheme. Thus, the data was examined todetermine whether or not the informants express emotions whentelling stories of business relationships, and, if they do, the frequencyof the emotional expressions. Quantitative content analysis (Weber,1990) was performed by reading each narrative and categorizing anyverbal emotional expression noted, under an appropriate emotionnode. Examples of direct emotion phrases are: “it was quiteconfusing” and “we started out all happy”, which were categorizedas expressions of basic emotions of fear and joy respectively.However, although the narrative included direct expressions ofemotion they were not taken out of their context. For example “Itold that as a vengeance, we will organize a meeting where we speakwith three-letter abbreviations”was not categorized as an expressionof vengefulness, because the rest of the narrative revealed that it wassaid as a joke.

The narratives also included less direct emotional expressions.Nevertheless, where the emotional behavior of the informant becameclear from the narrative, the researcher could categorize any indirectexpressions. An example of an indirect expression is: “It could haveresulted in an argument, if we would have just given them, if we hadlooked only at the contract, but they were very honest and confessedthat they simply did not know how to do it [the product] properly,and paid our money back. They lost a lot of money in doing so.” Thispart of a narrative was categorized as ‘empathic concern’, since thefull narrative was told as an example of an unwanted ending of arelationship.

Fineman (2004) suggests that simply identifying the emotionalwords in the stories does not explain much and that analysis shouldidentify the emotional form and context of the stories. Since many ofthe narratives connected the emotional experiences to certain eventsin the relationship, the analysis was able to contextualize theemotions by emotion scripts. Emotion scripts consist of: triggeringevent — emotional response — the consequences (i.e. the end orrecovery of the relationship). In other words, the emotion nodes wereconnected with categories of events that were derived from the data,and the consequences for the relationship.

4.1. The frequency analysis

Only two interviews contained no emotional expressions and lovewas the only basic emotion not expressed in any of the narratives (seeTable 2). The emotional expressions that most often occurred inthe data are related to sadness (75 expressions) and anger (41 ex-pressions). Given that it can be assumed that problems in a businessrelationship trigger more negative than positive emotions this is notsurprising.

Table 2The basic, socio-moral and social emotions expressed and not expressed in the data.

Basic emotions/no of expressions Socio-moral & social emotions/no ofexpressions

Sadness, 75, of which 27 in recoveredrelationships

Empathic concern, 5, of which 1 inrecovered relationships

Anger, 41, of which 13 in recoveredrelationships

Pride, 2, both in recovered relationships

Joy, 31, of which 14 in recoveredrelationships

Guilt, Shame, 2, both in recoveredrelationships

Surprise, 31, of which 5 in recoveredrelationships

Attachment to dyad, 1, in a recoveredrelationship

Fear, 18, of which 3 in recoveredrelationships

Envy, Jealousy

Love Fear of superiorDesire for approval and acceptanceRespect for superiorSocial anxietyEmbarrassment

Note: The numbers indicate the frequency that these emotions were identified in theinterview transcripts.

911J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

The emotions that encourage the continuance of the relationship,namely socio-moral emotions and social emotions were rarelyexpressed. However, there were expressions of empathic concern,pride, shame, and, attachment to the dyad. Since most of the datarelates to problematic and terminated relationships, there areobviously fewer expressions of those socio-moral emotions thatmaintain relationships. However, pride, shame and attachment to thedyad was only expressed in narratives of recovered relationships.

The most frequently expressed of Shaver et al.'s (1987) basicemotions were ‘sadness’ (including: disappointment; neglect; and,remorse); ‘anger’ (including: annoyance; bitterness; disgust; frustra-tion; hostility; and, rage); and ‘joy’ (including: excitement; content-ment; happiness; optimism; and, relief). The category of ‘surprise’included amazement and astonishment while the final category ‘fear’includes: anxiety; nervousness; tenseness; and, uncertainty.

Taken together, the frequency analysis shows that emotions areexpressed when talking about what had happened in problematicbusiness relationships, and thus emotions are a relevant object of studywithin business-to-business marketing. The frequency analysis on joyproposes that positive emotions are needed to sustain problematicrelationships. However, the analysis suggests that positive emotions arealso involved in relationships that end. Nevertheless, as suggested byAndersen and Kumar (2006), most of the expressed emotions arenegative ones because the data relates to the ending phases of re-lationships. The results on sadness, anger and fear, since they are alsoexpressed innarratives of recovered relationships, suggest that negativeemotions encourage business relationship ending.

In the following, the emotional expressions are related to theevents that produced them as well as to the subsequent events. Thusthe emotions are positioned in the interactionwithinwhich theywereproduced and which they influenced.

4.2. Emotion scripts

In this section, the triggering events, emotional responses, and theconsequences of the emotions are combined into emotion scripts.Examples of emotion scripts for each of the emotions are givensupported by a quote from the data.

Sadness (disappointment, neglect, remorse) was produced whenthe partner's behavior did not mirror the wishes and behavior of theactor. The first quotation shows how, after the business relationshiphad run into serious problems, the boundary spanners from the buyercompany tried to resolve the issues with their counterparts, but theirefforts were not appreciated, and they felt disappointed and neglected

by the supplier. As a result they involved their senior managementand filed an official complaint.

Quote 1: Buyer's Manager1: We filed an official complaint, whenwe felt that the supplier did not take us seriously. — We said thatwe are an important customer for you since we are a largecompany, so let's try again. — It did not help and we felt that thesupplier was not willing to cooperate.

Emotion script 1: Neglect and disappointment produced bysupplier's lack of effort to resolve the disagreement. The outcomewas that the matter was taken to the buyer's senior managers afterwhich a written complaint was sent by Buyer to the supplier.

In addition, aneventor process fromthepast still producedemotionswhen the person is talking about it. It makes themanager thinkwhat heandhis companymight havedone to prevent the event fromhappening.

Quote 2: Supplier's CEO: Our customer in UK used our productsmainly for testing. Following personnel changes, there was thisnew guy that had different ideas of how to do the testing. —. Andthey did send us specifications. — But, we did not reallyunderstand what they wanted. It clearly was a question ofmisunderstanding; the information did not quite travel.— So, theyended up switching the main supplier. —We clearly lost thatcustomer, if you think about it. I don't think that, or at least I don't… of course it is hard to say, when the distributor was in charge ofthe relationship, but I did go there once and tried to save it, but itdid not help at all.

Emotion script 2: Telling the story about ‘a lost customer’ (althoughthe customer still uses some of their products) makes the speaker sadand uncertain.

Anger (annoyance, bitterness, disgust, frustration, hostility, rage)was raised after counterparty's actions were perceived as eithertaking advantage of the actor's commitment to the relationship, or asevidence of counterparty's incompetence in performing a task. Angerresulted in withdrawal from the relationship; lowered levels ofcooperation; or, at least a loss of attraction and motivation to workwith the counterparty. Anger thus produces a vicious circle ofnegative emotions which can be used to justify the ending of therelationship and moreover, never to start it again.

Quote 3: Supplier's CEO: We built their web services and e-marketing for a couple of years. Then we again suggested newthings, and did not charge for the discussions and suggestions.Anyway, the client did not follow our suggestions claiming thatwe charge too much. We visited their web-pages a few monthslater, and saw that another service provider had implemented allour plans! I called him, and said that we have worked with you foryears and invested in you. So, I expected that you would at leastcall me to terminate our contract and tell me that you areswitching suppliers. — So, that is a situation where you do notwant to continue doing business. And we knew that the client hadunpaid bills also for other suppliers. So at this stage I told him thatit's not worth hiring a collection company so that I can get you topay. So, you can forget about the unpaid bill of some thousandEuros.

Emotion script 3: Annoyance and anger (combined with hurt anddisappointment) produced by customer taking advantage of thesupplier's commitment, followed by insulting the customer verballyand terminating the relationship.

Quote 4: Buyer's Manager3: Then it started to be like, that we donot, hey no (the interviewee leans backward in her chair). So at

912 J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

this point our relationships really started to flame out. It started tobe kind of negative, when you mentioned the supplier, everyonewas like yeah, right, we don't want to hear.

Emotion script 4: Hostility produced by continuing problems,attributed solely to the partner and their behavior. The outcomewas withdrawal from any non-essential cooperation.

Quote 5: Buyer's Manager4: Well, I did on many occasions thinkthat, damn, it's really nice to be in your first large project and thenit goes to hell, pardon my expression. But it was like, it was behindthe schedule, it did not work and all sorts of things happened, soyou started to feel like hopeless, damn you, this is not going towork at all! So you kind of lost all hope.

Emotion script 5: Anger and frustration that were produced byproblems, attributed to the supplier, lowering the work motivation ofthe buyer's project secretary.

Joy (and excitement, contentment, happiness, optimism, andrelief) was in this data expressed as being produced by a decisionbeingmade or by events which took place in a relationship, when theywere assessed as benefitting the goals of the company or themanager,in the short or long run. The outcome of the emotion seems toinfluence the future relationship or even theworld view of the person,as Quote 8 reveals.

Quote 6: Supplier's CEO: I do not feel displeased at all about the factthat we left that deal undone.We could have gotten revenue in theshort run, but that would have been a bad customer relationship.

Emotion script 6: Contentment produced by the actor's own decision.

Quote 7: Supplier's CEO: You should never say that a situation isdesperate. I will not simply accept it, that it would be desperate.There's always a solution if one wants one. That's what I learnedfrom this case.

Emotion script 7: Optimism produced by a problematic relationship,influencing actions in other relationships.

Surprise seems to be produced by unexpected behavior by thepartner company's managers or by them sending unexpectedemotional signals

Quote 8: Supplier's Manager: Customer's boundary spanners intechnology and in business, they may not discuss much with eachother, they do not know what the other is doing. And then it canhappen that the customer's business people are very unhappywith the way we do things, and on the other hand their technicalpeople are very happy. These situations happen very often. Or viceversa.

Emotion script 8: Surprise produced by incoherent behavior ofcustomer's boundary spanners

Quote 9: Supplier's CEO: [After a change of a purchasing manager]the first thing was that the new manager demanded benefits forhimself. He made suppliers buy him stuff, which had never[happened before] and was not in accordance with the values ofthe company. He let us know that ‘I want this and this kind of amobile phone before you have any business to come here’. — Atour end, we started to think that we need to be very careful. —Thus, we thought — that [if we do it], these things always comeout and put us in a certain kind of light. This could give their [thecustomer company] higher management a reason to end our

relationship, on the account that we have tried to bribe theperson. Because it may happen like that, since the rules seemed tobe very unsteady.

Emotion script 9: Surprise produced by a new boundary spanner'sbehavior which was different from what was expected (andunacceptable). As an outcome, the supplier's boundary spannersbecame very careful, unsure of what to do and suspicious.

Fear (anxiety, nervousness, tenseness, uncertainty) is evident inthe Quote 10, as the CEO became frightened about what theircustomer's boundary spanner was saying to him. He wanted to knowif this opinion was it shared by the customer's management, since itproduced uncertainty about the relationship's progress. A meetingwas arranged to try to put things right and clear-up any uncertaintyand fear of losing the customer. This is an example of how emotiondraws attention to important events and instead of running awayfrom the event that frightened the CEO, his approach was to lookahead and to resolve the issue and maintain the relationship.

Quote 10: Suppliers' CEO: I met Buyer's project manager who saidshe wanted to stop the project. I thought this was alarming andtold our staff and phoned the owner of the project in the Buyercompany who assured me that they had not discussed stoppingthe project. We also phoned project manager's superior. — Thenwe arranged a meeting with them and tried to find out what wasgoing on. — We wanted to know it the customer wanted tocontinue. We really wanted to continue, they were a largecustomer to us and an important reference.

Emotion script 10: Uncertainty and nervousness, as well as fear oflosing a customer were produced by one of Buyer's manager'scomments. The supplier started to gather more information, whichwas contradictory, and to arrange a joint meeting to sort out theconfusion about the relationships future.

Quote 11: Supplier's CEO: It was very, a very anxious situation,because the whole existence of us was on the line. It is a normalpsychological reaction, in a small-big or David-Goliath type ofsetting. And our personnel needed to understand where we are,so it, it, needs to be, you need the information to flow in thecompany.

Emotion script 11: The CEO felt and still feels anxious about an eventwhere a major client told them to move their production to Africa, orotherwise they would stop buying. He even explains that anxiety wasa normal reaction.

After the examples of basic emotions in business relationships, theanalysis turns to the socio-moral/social emotions (i.e. empathicconcern, pride, shame, attachment to dyad and envy). The basicfunction of these emotions is to keep the relationship ongoing, byattaching the actors to it emotionally and by self-regulating suchemotions that, if expressed, would threaten the continuance of thedyad.

Empathic concern in quotation 12 is triggered because the CEO isfriends with and appreciates the competences of the supplier'smanager. However, the supplier was producing low quality andmany efforts to improve it fail. Finally, the CEO decides to change thesupplier, although he knows that it will hit the supplier hard. Showingempathic concern he explains that they understood the supplier'sproblems, did everything they could to continue the relationship, andthat the manager is still a very competent fellow.

Quote 12: Buyer's CEO: Tom [using a Finnish expression, whichreveals that he knew Tom very well] that was their manager, he

913J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

was a very competent guy and we did all sorts of R&D worktogether as well. But, where we needed huge quantities, theirquality was really bad. — We did try all sorts of things and ourexperts helped them, it in the end ended up like that, that wecame to the conclusion that this looks like it is not going to work.That we must switch to another company. So, it just was notenough, the quality was not, although everything else would havebeen properly handled. In a way it is a necessary element, thequality of the service or product needs to be good enough, for thething to work. [Interviewer's question: But they were prepared toimprove their quality?] Yes, of course, we were their biggest clientby far. Yes, and it must have been a bitter bite to swallow, whenwe stopped using their product, but it, we just could not help it,nothing could.

Emotion script 12: Appreciation and a joint history triggersempathetic concern as a response to quality problems. So the CEOtried to save the relationship, and to avoid making a hard businessdecision. When recollecting the events, CEO stresses that he dideverything to avoid ending the relationship, because it hit his friendhard.

Empathic concern can also be triggered by an assessment of thecircumstances. For example, if a person fails, but the speakerattributes the failure to the person's superior for placing them in aposition beyond the person's knowledge and capabilities, it maytrigger empathetic concern for the person even though the failureswould cause problems to the speaker.

Quote 13: Supplier's Project Manager: And then there was Maria.Well, the main user in these development projects should bereally experienced and have knowledge on both technology andthe business side. And Maria had just graduated and started withthe client, so I really sometimes felt sorry for the girl.

Emotion script 13: Events where a member of customer's personnelfailed were attributed to her superior putting her in an unfairposition and triggered empathetic concern.

Pride is illustrated by Quote 14 where the CEO talks about arelationship that was nearly terminated, because of senior manage-ment decisions, but was being saved by more junior managers. Heattributes their behavior to his company's competence and quality ofwork and clearly takes pride in this. However, here pride does nothave an obvious function of self-regulating behavior, but it isproduced by memories of the CEO's own and his employees' work.Nevertheless, if you take pride in what you do, you have an incentive(pride) to do your best, and in doing that, you also produce good valuefor the customer, which strengthens the relationship.

Quote 14: Supplier's CEO: Our customer was a large company, andthey make decisions high up. We had two ongoing projects thereand they got terminated at very short notice, a week's notice. So,the things that we had done earlier, during the year and half, —had showed them that we have an excellent quality andcompetence, and sort of commitment to the relationship. Thecustomer had been very satisfied, and still is and because of that,when these terminations came [from high up], the customer dideverything they could to find something that would replace thosejobs. At first they were jobs that did not need to be done; theywere created so that we would still be present in their businessunit.— After that little by little, they started to find real projects toreplace the two terminated ones. — They managed to keep usonboard and continue the relationship and I believe that it wasonly because we had had time to show them that we were a verygood partner and they did not want to lose us.

Emotion script 14: Expressing pride about own actions whenrecalling a recovered business relationship.

The data shows that shame was produced when the actors lookedat their own behavior and felt that it was inappropriate in thatsituation, or that it created difficulties in the relationship. Thefollowing quotation reveals a situation where the supplier's actionsin a subcontractor relationship influenced their customer relation-ships, since the subcontractors worked with the customers. Thus,when the supplier realized that what had happened was partly itsown fault, i.e. they attributed the blame partly to their own behavior;they felt shame and took corrective actions at their own expense.

Quote 15: Supplier's CEO: [The supplier had been using thesubcontractor to install their systems at customers' premises. Thesubcontractor could not get the installation working and acustomer complained to the supplier.] So, we thought, that— they[the subcontractor] would understand that a yellow cable goes intoa yellow hole and a red on in red and so on.— Perhaps it was a caseof the subcontractor only doing what they are specifically told todo. It was a strange situation, but it was partially our fault also. —Wedid not understand that theywill only do exactlywhatwe trainthem to do, and that we need a feedback loop, so that we reallyknow what that level really is. We then realized that there is noother way than to train the people again.

Emotion script 15: Supplier's own actions and lack of actions wereattributed as inappropriate and triggered shame.

Attachment in the following quotation is something that thesupplier's CEO tries to signal to the customer, since he knows how itfeels when customers, if they have something negative to tell them, donot contact them. It has to be noted that the following story is notabout lived emotions, although it shows an emotion episode that thespeaker aims to follow when doing business.

Quote 16: Supplier's CEO: I am sure that customers feel exactly thesame if we bury our heads into the sand [pretend that nothinghappened] when something happens. — That is why it is importantthat we react immediately, when something happens, we react.— Itis the same in any project. Projects also have certain, clear phases,whenwe need to be active.When, after the initial excitement, whenwe remain doing our own things, doing the work, it comes thefeeling that is this going to work? At that point, we need to call [thecustomer] and say, hi how are you, it is going well, and how are youdoing and we are here, so that they… we should always try toremember to pay attention [to the customer] and catch up.—And allthe time, the customer feels, that we care about them and not onlyabout the invoice gettingpaid.Nomatter howwell thework is going.

Emotion script 16: Supplier describing behavior that will showattachment to the dyad to the customer.

To sum up, the analysis confirms that when managers tell storiesabout problematic business relationships, both basic and socio-moral/social emotions are being expressed. The data also revealed emotionscripts confirming that events trigger emotional responses thatinfluence the actors' subsequent behavior in that particular relation-ship, and potentially also in other relationships.

5. Interpretation

The discussion will first focus on the emotional scripts thatemerged from the data as sequences of the lived emotions and then onthe emotions that interviewees expressed while recollecting the pastevents, as expressions of how they now feel about the event. The

Table 3Examples of emotion scripts during a problematic business relationship.

Events and their attribution Emotions Consequences

Starting from Supplier's Quote 9UK buyer asks for personalbenefits. Supplier's KeyAccount Manager (KAM)regards this to beunacceptable behavior.

Supplier felt:surprise

Supplier's KAM becamecareful and reported theevent to their CEO. Nopersonal benefits weregranted to the buyer.Supplier's CEO decides tojoin the next meeting.

In the next meeting, UK buyersays to the supplier's KAM ‘Ifyou once again dare to lookstraight at me, I will wipethe table with you.’ Supplier'sCEO sees this as an insult.

Humiliation,Anger

The CEO of the supplierleaves the room takingtheir KAM with him andends the negotiation. CEOforbids KAM fromcontacting the buyer.

After a while, buyer asks for newnegotiations, which turn outto repeat the previous pattern.

Anger The supplier raises theprices (6%) and theminimum batch andshortens the period forpayment etc. with theintention of terminatingthe relationship.The relationship ends.

Referring to Quotes 1, 4 and 5(buyer) and 10 (supplier).a

After initial excitement, therelationship encountered aseries of problems (differentexpectations, the quality ofwork, missing schedules etc.).Buyer attributed this toSupplier's unprofessionalbehavior (and vice versa).

Buyer felt:annoyance,anger,frustrationhostility

Buyer's personnelwithdraw from realco-operation withthe supplier.

Supplier's CEO hears aboutproblems.

Supplier felt:fear uncertainty,and dislike,resentment.

Recovery efforts;Supplier's CEO starteddiscussion with the Buyer'shigher management,Supplier's Project Managerwas replaced.

Suppliers' personnel did not wantto meet the Buyer's personnel,they attributed blame to Buyer.

Both expressattachmentto the dyad

The problems continue inthe project, in spite of therecovery efforts.

Repeated recovery actions tookplace at the highermanagement level.

Buyer felt:Neglect;disappointment

The buyer terminatesthe relationship.

Buyer attributed the failure ofrecovery actions to Suppliernot taking them seriously.Supplier attributed thefailures to Buyer's bureaucraticorganization, high workloads,and hostility toward Supplier.

Supplier:disappointment

a Not all emotional expressions from this script are quoted in this study.Table 4Examples of basic emotions produced when remembering a problematic businessrelationship.

The story of the relationship Basic emotionsproduced byrecollection

Consequences

“Well, I cannot say I'm pleased that ourproject failed (laughs), but I feel thatit is a valuable experience that youget, to know how it can go. Like youlearn from the mistakes, so that innext projects you can perhaps try toavoid them.a

Joy(contentment)

Learning, actor aimsto behave differentlyin similar situations

Relationship ended because ofserious and frequent problems.

Quote 7:”There's always a solution ifone wants one. That's what I learnedfrom this case.”

Joy (optimism) The emotion confirmsthat the actions takenwere right.

A problematic relationship that wasrecovered.

Actor aims to behavealike in similarsituations.

Quote 2: “We lost a lot of business fromthis customer, because I think wesimply could not understand theirrequirements correctly.”

Sadness Actor hopes not torepeat the mistakein similar situations.

Uncertainty

a This quote has not been presented earlier. The partner had operated on a riskfunding, which ran out and the relationship ended.

914 J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

rationale for this separation relates to the event–emotion–behaviorpattern, which takes place in the narratives at different times, andthus may produce different emotions when recalling an eventcompared with when it occurred (Lawler & Thye, 2007). Byremembering the emotion scripts a person creates the possibility oflearning from it, and perhaps re-evaluating their original emotionalresponses. For example, one may have felt shame about a perceivedfailure, but recollection shows that there was nothing else anyonecould have done (Shephard & Cardon, 2009).

5.1. Emotion scripts during a problematic business relationship

The above analysis has confirmed that emotions are involved inbusiness relationships. In this section, by analyzing the emotionscripts within a relationship, the kinds of events that trigger certainemotional responses from managers, and what, if any, are theirconsequences for the relationship will be assessed. Table 3 presentsexamples of emotion scripts that shaped the future of the relationship.

The first emotion script shows that unacceptable behavior canproduce surprise, but if the manager cannot find an acceptable reason

to justify or explain a party's behavior (such as cultural differences)the actions that the surprise stimulate may intensify the situation to apoint where the emotional experiences change to anger, frustrationand sadness. Thus even a neutral emotional experience that cannot beexplained cognitively can push the relationship's atmosphere into anegative one with the possible outcome that the relationship ends.

Events producing fear of losing the customer/supplier can alert themanagers to try to look for explanations from their own and theircompany's actions. Thus, although the emotion seems to be quiteserious, the actions that it stimulates may actually help to restore andcontinue the relationship and therefore produce positive results.However, the second emotion script in Table 3 indicates that wheresenior management works toward easing the tensions and continuingthe relationship, if a hostile environment has developed at theboundary spanners' level, it may be impossible to erase the negativityand continue the relationship even if some of the actors are changed.Emotional expressions are witnessed by individuals within eachcompany, and they influence more or less the way all actors behave.

The analysis suggests that positive emotions experienced during aproblematic relationship enhance its recovery and negative emotionsencourage its ending. In addition, positive and negative cycles ofemotions and actions may be difficult to reverse. However, it has to benoted that it is evident that negative and positive emotions cancoexist and influence what takes place in a business relationship.

The data allowed us to analyze the self-regulation of emotiondirectly only in a few narratives. However, as the following scriptshows, self-regulation of negative emotions as well as the socio-moralemotion of shame seems to enhance relationship recovery.

In a meeting held in the Buyer's office, the Buyer is abusive to theSupplier's CEO and adds that he is displeased with everything theSupplier has ever supplied them. Driving home the CEO decidesthat ‘I will never set foot in the Buyer's firm again and will nevermake him another offer, and that is the end of it.”. After a 3.5 hourdrive he decided, because of the importance of the contract to hiscompany, that he should call the Buyer the next day. However, theBuyer phoned him first and apologized. They agreed to meet againto continue the negotiations. To the CEO's huge surprise, at thenext meeting, he was met by the Buyer's CEO and a photographerto witness the signing of the big contract.

Table 5Examples of socio-moral and social emotions produced when remembering aproblematic business relationship.

The story of the relationship Socio-moral/social emotionsproduced byrecollection

Consequences

Quote 14: Buyer's managersrecovered the relationshipin spite of their highermanagement's decision toend it. Supplier attributedthis to the Buyer'ssatisfaction with theSupplier.

Pride in ownwork

Confirms Supplier's strategy.Supplier aims to follow thestrategy in every relationship.The interviewer attributed thisto Supplier being competent.

Quote 12: Buyer ended therelationship, after severalfailed attempts by bothSupplier and Buyer toimprove the quality ofthe products.

Empatheticconcern

Buyer almost apologizes aboutthe business decision, becauseof its negative influence onSupplier's revenue.The interviewer attributed thisto Buyer being ‘a sympatheticcharacter’.

Quote 16: The narrative is anormative story of howa supplier should always actin a business relationship.

Attachmentto dyad

Maintaining the relationship.The interviewer attributed thisto Supplier being competent.

915J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

5.2. Emotions arising from recollection of a troubled businessrelationship

Table 4 focuses on the basic emotional expressions that themanagers felt when recalling a story of a relationship. As alreadymentioned, these emotions may be quite different from the ones thatwere felt and expressed at the time. However, these are important,since they guide the managers' future actions if similar events ariseand thus they provide a form of learning.

It is noteworthy that the positive emotional expressions are to befound, not so much during the problematic relationships, but morewhen recalling the events. Thus, even stressful situations, whenlooking back, can be turned into an event that the speaker can beproud of and would do again or show that even the most problematicrelationships can be turned into a source of value or of learning.However, especially where the events have not been fully explained,the data also provides examples of sadness and uncertainty andtherefore the speaker has still doubts about what could have beenlearnt from that relationship.

When looking at the social and socio-moral emotions expressed bythe informants while recalling the relationships during the interviews,the dual nature of an emotion script is shown. The first two scripts inTable 5, describe the emotion that the story triggered andwhat is likelyto be the consequences of the interviewer expressing this emotion. Thelast script is not descriptive but normative, showing that the interviewerthinks that in a business relationship, a supplier should expressattachment to the relationship, since the consequences (i.e.maintainingthe relationship) are good. This also shows that the manager is awarethat actions trigger emotions and that they use this in businessrelationships.

Table 5 also shows that the interview situation is also arelationship where emotions are involved. The informants' emotionalexpressions influence how the interviewer views both the informantand their company. For example, the interviewer was convinced thatthe speaker is a very competent CEO, when he told a story of hiscustomer being so satisfied that its managers ignored their seniormanagement's decision to end the relationship. Also given that mostof the informants were males, older or a similar age as the femaleresearcher, who has no work experience in their field of business, it ispossible that the informants also tried to impress the interviewer.Nevertheless, this confirms the importance of studying emotions,

since it gives an example where an actor can deliberately try toproduce certain emotions in a social situation, to communicate to thecounterpart. As Gergen (1997) has put it, emotions are features of thesocial relationship where they are both produced and expressed.

6. Theoretical implications

This study extends our understanding of the personal interactionswhich occur within B2B exchanges by focusing on two researchquestions: what emotions are involved in problematic business re-lationships; and, how emotions influence the future events in suchrelationships? Thus as a whole, the results advance the research inbusiness to business marketing closer to where consumer andmanagement research currently are in elaborations of emotions andhuman action. More specifically, the first contribution of this studyrelates to the multifaceted nature of emotions. The results show that allbasic emotions but love, are expressed in problematic businessrelationships and have consequences in the actions of the individualsinvolved and therefore also in these business relationships' future. Thus,in spite of the problems in the relationship, the actors may feel not onlynegative but also positive emotions. Earlier empirical research hasfocused on the associations of positive emotions only to positive eventsand/or negative emotions only to negative events. Secondly, this studyshows that emotions have a longitudinal nature as they are alsoexpressed retrospectively, when reflecting on a problematic relation-ship, whether or not is has ended. Memories incorporate emotions butexisting research has not focused on the time dimension of emotionalexpressions. Thirdly, this studydemonstrates that social and socio-moralemotions are involved in problematic business relationships but theirinfluence in keeping the relationship alive seems to be limited. Fourthly,the study identifies influence mechanisms of emotions especially in aproblematic relationship: they communicate the counterparty's feelingsand alert the individuals to respond to protect from further problemsthat may lead to its end. Methodologically, this study provides evidencethat managers freely describe their emotions when discussing prob-lematic B2B relationships, however, one needs to separate the emotionsfelt at the time and when recalling the relationship.

This study suggests that negative basic emotions are produced byunwanted events which do not fulfill themanager's goals or the goals ofthe company.Negative basic emotions also seemto result in problems ina relationship, instead of their resolution. Thus, negative basic emotionsmay be associated with reasons to end a business relationship. Thisresult supports the propositions of Andersen and Kumar (2006) thatnegative affective states decrease trust and increase the likelihood ofrelationship ending. This paper also supports the results of Selnes andGrønhaug (2000) who found that emotive responses strongly affectbehavioral intentions to be loyal to a supplier, and Wang and Huff(2007) who found that intense negative emotions resulted in a greaterlikelihood of spreading negative word-of-mouth and a lower intentionto repurchase intentions to continue the relationship.

The positive basic emotions arose either during the very early, non-problematic establishment stages of business relationships, or afterthem, during the interview situation. Thus, these recollections of therelationship sometimes triggered positive emotions even in such casesthat had ended badly. Such emotions are as important as the emotionsthatwere felt during the relationships, for they relate to learning— evenfrom unsuccessful business relationships. This study echoes theconceptual discussion of Shephard and Cardon (2009) which empha-sizes individuals' ability to learn from negative emotions and to adopt apositive perspective to a negative event. Weick, Sutcliffe, and Obstfeld(2005) also present sense making as infused with emotions.

The socio-moral/social emotions (e.g. empathic concern) seem tofunction in the way that the previous studies on emotions in othersettings (Frijda, 1988; Lawler & Thye, 2007) have suggested. Theyguide the subsequent actions toward continuing the relationship, inspite of the trouble it was in. However, it must be noted that to save a

Time Duration

The buyer high-tech company informantsSystem Manager Ada 2 interviews Dec 18, 1997,

Jan 8,199830 min30 min

Business Controller Adrian 1 interview Oct 2, 1998 1 h20 min

Project Manager Audrey 1 interview Dec 18, 1997 2 hMarket Analyst Jack 1 interview Jan 9,1998 40 minIT-Manager Lucy 2 interviews Feb 3,1998,

Aug 26, 19981 h2 h

Project Secretary Mabel 1 interview Dec 18, 1997 1 hIT-Manager Miriam 2 interviews Jan 8, 1998,

Aug 26, 19981 h1 h

The software (projects) supplier informantsConsultant Jacob 1 interview Feb 4,1998 1 hSales Manager Joseph 1 interview Feb 27,1998 1 h

15 minConsulting Manager Julian 1 interview Feb 5,1998 1 h

30 minSenior ManagementConsultant Laura

1 interview Feb 4,1998 2 h

Sales Director Martin 1 interview Feb 4,1998 1 hManaging Director Wallace 2 interviews Feb 4,1998,

Aug 26, 19981 h1 h

Network actors' informantsManager Amos 1 telephone

interviewJan 23, 1998 b30 min

Consultant Angus 1 interview Feb 3,1998 30 minSenior Consultant Cyril 1 interview Sep 21,1999 1 h

45 minProject Manager Fanny 1 interview Jan 8, 1998 45 minTechnical SupportEmployee James

1 interview Dec 18, 1997 45 min

916 J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

relationship from dissolution, both actors need to be involved (seeSalo et al., 2009). Moreover, this study shows that there are alsosituations, where, no matter how much empathic concern you feeltoward a person or a company; you will exercise self-control and notact on the basis of that emotion, since it would conflict with your ownorganization's business philosophy and/or success.

7. Managerial implications

The management of troubled or ending relationships has receivedrelatively little attention from researchers and the managerial implica-tions set out here are a contribution to building amore substantial bodyof recommendations for managers. Although exploratory, this researchconfirms that when a relationship becomes troubled, whatever theoutcome, the managers involved will experience a variety of emotions.Furthermore, that when at some future point in time they think aboutsuch an event, managers again express emotions. Managers should notunderestimate the power of emotions to influence their own and theirpartners' actions and therefore the future of business relationships.Strong emotions can overrule rationality.

The valence of the emotions experienced both at the time andwhen recalling the event will vary but where, for whatever reasonnegative emotions are intense, managers will benefit from anopportunity to debrief. Debriefs do two things. First, they enable themanagers to discuss their emotional reaction to the situation, whichreleases some of the tensions they feel. Second, debriefs provide anopportunity for the organization to learn from the totality of theexperience and, where gaps in the established procedures or in theirimplementation are identified, appropriate remedial actions can beinstigated.

Organizations which deal with emotionally demanding situations,such as the emergency services, have two types of debriefs afterdifficult incidents. A ‘hot’ debrief, held as soon as is possible after theincident has occurred, is centered on recording information whichmight be latter forgotten and also the release of immediate emotionaltension. A ‘cold’ debrief, which is held at a later date and in a lessemotional atmosphere, is designed to elicit evidence of the need forchanged procedures and training. Except where the impact of thetroubled relationship on a firm's success is likely to be very significant,such formality might be excessive for most firms. Yet our researchwould suggest that some form of debriefing (or at least the creation ofa culture which expects open discussion of the emotional issuesassociated with problematic relationships) can benefit both theindividual managers and the firm. Indeed when collecting the dataused in this study, it became obvious that people find it helpful toexpress strong emotions and that it helps if these can be vented in asafe environment. It seems to help managers' understanding of whathappened and why and to prevent past emotional experiences frominfluencing their future behavior negatively.

The evidence gathered in cold debriefs could be used toconstructing preferred emotion scripts of similar situations. Manage-ment should use such scripts, although at a general level, as a tool intraining sales personnel, buyers, and other boundary spanners thatmay face similar situations. Scripts can offer normative guidance onhow the company wishes their personnel to behave in most commonemotional situations and why (Gioia & Poole, 1984). This would helpnewmembers of the company to acculturate and learn the company'sbasic emotional rules and where to engage in emotional self-control,especially in international business, where the emotional rules maydiffer according to the partner.

8. Limitations and future research directions

The major limitation of this study relates to the appropriateness ofthe data for revealing the phenomenon being investigated. Retro-spective narratives have obvious limitations such as the risk of post

hoc rationalization. Nevertheless, narratives which accept expressionsof emotions, which were not asked for or even probed for, as a naturalpart of the stories can be considered as a reliable data.

Moreover, it is difficult to conceive of a more appropriate methodof data collection. Studies in real time would be ideal; howevermanagers cannot always predict when troubles are likely to arise intheir firm's relationships. Therefore, apart fromwaiting in amanager'soffice hoping that an appropriate emotional event will arise; there is aneed to rely on some form of managerial recollection of the events.Even if by chance an investigator is present in amanager's office whena B2B relationship difficulty arises, the manager is unlikely at such atime to provide the investigator with information. In addition,especially situations perceived to be negative (and thus triggeringnegative emotions) are usually considered sensitive and thus seldomallowed to be studied at the time of their occurrence.

Controlled experiments are used in emotions studies, however,their use when studying B2B relationships is a challenge because ofthe difficulty of creating life-like histories and contexts for use in anexperiment. Other suggestions on how to collect data on emotions arediaries and interviews applying critical incident technique (Flanagan,1954). Fineman (2004) advocates the use of ‘memory work’,developed by Crawford, Kippax, Onyx, Gault, and Benton (1992) asa method for gathering emotional narratives. Thus, in future work onemotions in business relationships, care needs to be taken whendesigning the empirical part of the study.

Acknowledgments

This study is part of EmoCha research project funded by theAcademy of Finland.

Appendix 1. Details of the narrative interviews form Project 1

Appendix 1 (continued)

Time Duration

Network actors' informantsTechnical Support EmployeeKatherine

1 interview Dec 17, 1997 2 h40 min

Development Manager Lewis 1 interview Jan 8, 1998 1 hInformation TechnologyDirector Paul

2 telephoneinterviews

Jan 22, 1998, Feb 24,1998

b30 minb30 min

Managing Director Wilfred 1 interview Sep 21,1999 30 min

917J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

Appendix 2. Details of the narrative interviews form Project 2

Interviewee Company information Time Duration

Peter, former CEO(Board member ofseven companies)

Contract manufacturer foundedin 1992, 540 employees

Jan 17,07

1 h40 min

Sam, CEO Software (product) supplierfounded in 1999, 40 employees

Feb 13,07

1 h

Mark, CEO; Jerry, ProductManager

Software (solution) supplierfounded in 1999, 14 employees

Feb 13,07

1 h

Thomas, CEO Software (solution) supplierfounded in 1992, 90 employees

Feb 14,07

1 h15 min

Harry, CEO Software (solution) supplierfounded in 1996, 15 employees,solution provider

Feb 14,07

1 h15 min

John, OperationsManager

Software (project) supplierfounded in 1999, 10 employees

Feb 15,07

1 h15 min

Homer, CEO Software (project) supplierfounded in 1995, 100 employees

Feb 20,07

1 h

Timothy, CEO Software (solution) supplierfounded in 1991, 450 employees

Feb 26,07

35 min

Paul, CEO Software (projects) supplierfounded in 1996, 13 employees

Apr 3,07

1 h15 min

References

Abelson, R. P. (1981). Psychological status of the script concept. American Psychologist,36, 715–729.

Alajoutsijärvi, K., Mannermaa, K., & Tikkanen, H. (2000). Customer relationships andthe small software firm. A framework for understanding challenges faced inmarketing. Information Management, 37(3), 153–159.

Andersen, P. H., & Kumar, R. (2006). Emotions, trust, and relationship development inbusiness relationships: A conceptual model for buyer–seller dyads. IndustrialMarketing Management, 35, 522–535.

Anderson, E., &Weitz, B. (1992). The use of pledges to build and sustain commitment indistribution channels. Journal of Marketing Research, 29, 18–34.

Ashkanasy, N.M. (2003). Emotions in organisations: Amultilevel perspective. In F. Danserau& F.J. Yammarino (Eds.), Research in multi-level issues, Volume 2: Multi-level issues inOrganizational Behavior & Strategy (pp. 9–54). Oxford: Elsevier Science.

Bagozzi, R. P. (2006). The role of social & self-conscious emotions in the regulation ofbusiness-to-business relationships in salesperson–customer interactions. TheJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 21(7), 453–457.

Bagozzi, R. P., Belschak, F., & Verbeke, W. (2010). The role of emotional wisdom insalespersons' relationships with colleagues and customers. Psychology andMarketing, 27(11), 1001–1031.

Barbalet, J. M. (1998). Emotion, social theory & social structure: A macrosociologicalapproach. Port Chester, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Barger, P. B., & Grandey, A. A. (2006). Service with a smile and encounter satisfaction:Emotional contagion and appraisal mechanisms. Academy of Management Journal,49(6), 1220–1238.

Barsade, S. G., Brief, A. P., & Spataro, S. E. (2003). The affective revolution in organizationalbehaviour: The emergence of a paradigm. In J. Greenberg (Ed.),Organizational behavior;the state of science (pp. 3–51). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bauer, M. (1996). The narrative interview: Comments on a technique of qualitative datacollection. Papers in social research methods. Qualitative series no 1. London: LSEMethodology Institute.

Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohns, K. D. (2001). Bad is strongerthan good. Review of General Psychology, 5(4), 323–370.

Ben-Zeev, A. (1996). Typical emotions. In W. O. Donohue & R. Kitchener (Eds.), Thephilosophy of psychology (pp. 227–243). London: Sage.

Blois, K. J. (1972). Vertical quasi-integration. The Journal of Industrial Economics, 20(3),253–272.

Bodtker, A. M., & Jameson Katz, J. (2001). Emotion in conflict formation and itstransformation: Application to organizational conflict management. InternationalJournal of Conflict Management, 12(3), 259–275.

Cohen, J. B., & Areni, C. S. (1991). Affect and consumer behavior. In T. S. Robertson &H.H.Kassarjian (Eds.), Handbook of consumer behavior (pp. 188–240). Englewood Cliffs,NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Crawford, J., Kippax, S., Onyx, J., Gault, U., & Benton, P. (1992). Emotion and gender:Constructing meaning from memory. London: Sage.

Dallimore, K. S., Sparks, B. A., & Butcher, K. (2007). The influence of angry customeroutbursts on service providers' facial displays and affective states. Journal of ServiceResearch, 10(1), 78–82.

Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder: Westview Press.Dembkowski, S., & Hanmer-Lloyd, S. (1995). Computer applications — A new road to

qualitative data analysis? European Journal of Marketing, 29(11), 50–62.Dwyer, F. R., Schurr, P. H., & Oh, S. (1987). Developing buyer–seller relationships.

Journal of Marketing, 51, 11–27.Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of

Management Review, 14(4), 532–550.Ekman, P. (1984). Expression and the nature of emotion. In K. S. Scherer & P. Ekman

(Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 319–343). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression of emotion. American Psychologist, 48, 384–392.Epstein, S. (1984). Controversial issues in emotion theory. In P. Shaver (Ed.), Review of

personality and social psychology, Vol. 5. (pp. 64–88)Beverly Hills: Sage.Fehr, B., & Russel, J. A. (1984). Concept of emotion viewed from a prototype perspective.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 113, 464–486.Fineman, S. (2000). Emotion in organizations. London: Sage.Fineman, S. (2004). Getting the measure of emotion — And the cautionary tale of

emotional intelligence. Human Relations, 57(6), 719–740.Fisher, C. D. (2002). Antecedents and consequences of real time affective reactions at

work. Motivation and Emotion, 26, 1–30.Fiske, A. P. (2002). Socio-moral emotions motivate action to sustain relationships. Self

and Identity, 1, 160–175.Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The critical incident technique.Psychological Bulletin, 51(4), 327–358.Ford, D., Gadde, L. -E., Håkansson, H., Snehota, I., & Waluszewski, A. (2008). Analysing

business interaction. Proceedings of the 24th IMP Conference. www.impgroup.orgFrijda, N. H. (1988). The laws of emotion. American Psychologist, 43, 349–358.Gergen, K. J. (1997). Realities and relationships. (2nd printing). Cambridge: Harvard

University Press.Gibson, D. (2008). Emotion scripts in organisations: A multi-level model. In N. M.

Ashkanasy & C.L. Cooper (Eds.), Research companion to emotion in organisations(pp. 263–300). Bodmin: Edward Elgar.

Gioia, D. A., & Poole, P. P. (1984). Scripts in organizational behavior. Academy ofManagement Review, 9, 449–459.

Goffman, E. (1969). Strategic interaction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Grace, B. (2008). An examination of consumer embarrassment and repatronage

intentions in the context of emotional service encounters. Journal of Retailing andConsumer Services, 16, 1–9.

Halinen, A. (1997). Relationship marketing in professional services. A study of agency-client dynamics in the advertising sector. London: Routledge.

Halinen, A., & Tähtinen, J. (2002). A process theory of relationship ending. InternationalJournal of Service Industry Management, 13(2), 163–180.

Hansen, F., & Christensen, S. R. (2007). Emotions, advertising, and consumer choice.Denmark: Copenhagen Business School Press.

Huang, M. -H. (2001). The theory of emotions in marketing. Journal of Business andPsychology, 16(2), 239–247.

Izard, C. E. (1977). Human emotions. New York: Plenum Press.Keltner, D., & Heidt, J. (1999). Social functions of emotions at four levels of analysis.

Cognition and Emotion, 13, 505–521.Kemper, T. D. (1978). A social interactional theory of emotions. New York: John Wiley.Knutson, B. (1996). Facial expressions of emotion influence interpersonal trait

inferences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 20, 165–182.Kumar, R. (2008). Contestedmeanings and emotional dynamics in strategic alliances. In

N. M. Ashkanasy & C.L. Cooper (Eds.), Research companion to emotion inorganizations (pp. 561–574). Bodmin: Edward Elgar.

Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. London:Sage Publications.

Lawler, E. J., & Thye, S. R. (2007). Social exchange theory of emotions. In J. E. Stets & J.H.Turner (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of emotions (pp. 295–320). New York:Springer Science+Business Media.

Lucero, C. (2008). A relationship model between key problems of internationalpurchasing and the post-purchase behavior of industrial firms. The Journal ofBusiness and Industrial Marketing, 23(5), 332–341.

Marchington, M., & Vincent, S. (2004). Analysing the influence of institutional,organisational & interpersonal forces in shaping inter-organizational relations.Journal of Management Studies, 41(6), 1030–1056.

Moorman, C., Zalthman, G., & Deshpandé, R. (1992). Relationships between providersand users of market research: The dynamics of trust within and betweenorganisations. Journal of Marketing Research, 29, 314–329.

Parrot, W. (2001). Emotions in social psychology. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.Russell, J. A., & Barrett, L. F. (1999). Core affect, prototypical emotional episodes, and

other things called emotion: Dissecting the elephant. Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology, 76, 805–819.

Ryan, M., & Blois, K. J. (2010). The emotional dimension of organisational work whencultural sponsorship relationships are dissolved. Journal of Marketing Management,26(7), 612–634.

918 J. Tähtinen, K. Blois / Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 907–918

Salo, A., Tähtinen, J., & Ulkuniemi, P. (2009). Twists and turns of triadic relationshiprecovery. Industrial Marketing Management, 38(6), 618–632.

Sayer, A. (1992). Method in social science; a realist approach. London: Routledge.Schuetze, F. (1977). Die Technik des narrativen interviews in Interaktionsfeld-

studien - dargestellt an einem Projekt zur Erforschung von kommunalenMachtstrukturen. Unpublished manuscript, University of Bielefeld, Depart-ment of Sociology, August.

Selnes, F., & Grønhaug, K. (2000). Effects of supplier reliability & benevolence inbusiness marketing. Journal of Business Research, 49, 259–271.

Shaver, P., Schwartz, J., Kirson, D., & O'Connor, C. (1987). Emotion knowledge: Furtherexploration of a prototype approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52,1061–1086.

Shephard, Dean A., & Cardon, M. S. (2009). Negative emotional reactions to projectfailure and the self-compassion to learn from the experience. Journal ofManagement Studies, 46(6), 923–949.

Slovic, P., Finucane, M. L., Peters, E., & MacGregor, D. G. (2002). The affect heuristic. In T.Gilovich, D. Griffin, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology ofIntuitive Judgement. Reprinted by European Journal of Operational Research, 177 (3).(pp. 1333–1352) Cambridge: University Press.

Stanley, R. O., & Burrows, G. D. (2001). Varieties and functions of human emotions. In R.Payne & C. Cooper (Eds.), Emotions at work: Theory, research and applications formanagement (pp. 3–19). Padstow: John Wiley & Sons.

Thibaut, J. F., & Kelley, H. H. (1959). The social psychology of groups. New York: Wiley.Thompson, P. (2000). Re-using qualitative research data: A personal account [50

paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research,1(3) Art. 27. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0003277

Van Kleef, G. A., De Dreu, C. K. W., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2004). The interpersonal effectsof anger and happiness in negotiations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,86, 57–76.

Wang, S., & Huff, L. (2007). Explaining buyers' responses to sellers' violation of trust.European Journal of Marketing, 41(9/10), 1033–1052.

Weber, R. (1990). Basic content analysis (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Obstfeld, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of

sensemaking. Organization Science, 16(4), 409–421.

Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective events theory: a theoretical discussionof the structure, causes & consequences of affective experiences at work. In B. M.Shaw & L.L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, Vol. 18. (pp.1–74)Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Winkielman, P., & Berridge, K. C. (2004). Unconscious emotion. Current Directions inPsychological Science, 13(3), 120–123.

Wolfe, R., Gephart, R., & Johnson, T. (1993). Computer-facilitated qualitative dataanalysis: Potential contributions to management research. Journal of Management,19, 637–660.

Zang, C., Griffith, D. A., & Cavusgil, S. T. (2006). The litigated dissolution of internationaldistribution relationships: A process framework and propositions. Journal ofInternational Marketing, 14(2), 85–115.

Jaana Tähtinen is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Oulu, Finland. Her mainresearch interests relate to management and value creation in business nets anddynamics of business relationships in service context. She is one of the founders ofbiannual Nordic Workshop on Relationship Dynamics (NoRD) and a founding memberof Business Relationship Dynamics Group (BuRD). She has published e.g. in theEuropean Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of ServiceManagement, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, and Marketing Theory.

Keith Blois is an Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxfordand a Visiting Professor at Lancaster University. His research interests includebusiness-to-business marketing, marketing of services, and industrial economics. Hehas an extensive list of publications, including papers in: Strategic ManagementJournal, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Management Studies, IndustrialMarketing Management, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Business Research.He is the editor of The Oxford Textbook of Marketing. A Fellow and an ex President ofthe European Academy of Marketing, he has held visiting faculty positions at: MIT;Penn State; Curtin University; Thammasat University; Helsinki School of Economics;and, University of Canterbury (New Zealand).