While buyer-supplier relationships have received ample research attention, their interaction is usually simplified by considering only one overall relationship, neglecting function-level heterogeneities in interaction and satisfaction. Adopting an empirics-first approach and utilizing panel data of matched buyer-supplier dyads, our results reveal that on average, buyer and supplier functions “mirror” the interaction intensity of their counterpart. The following analyses however suggest that mirroring is not always beneficial, for relationships with a low geographical distance, suppliers perform better when there is an interaction gap, that is one side of the dyad is in the “lead.”
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