Filipe J. Sousa

Business Relationships and Corporate Nature and Scope: a Critical Realist Analysis Filipe J. Sousa

The significance of business relationships (i.e., the impact of buyer-seller relationships on corporate survival and growth) is a notorious feature of the business world. Whenever that significance is touched upon by scholars and researchers, analytical and empirical emphasis is normally put on the rewarding functions performed by business relationships and the largely positive outcomes appropriated by the firm. Yet one often fails to recognise that business relationships often have a strong impact on the resources and competences residing within corporate boundaries and consequently on activities that the firm performs and is capable of performing (i.e., corporate nature and scope respectively).