The Impacts of Business Relational Characteristics on the Performance of Innovation Diffusion

This study integrates relationship marketing and innovation diffusion theories to investigate how Business-to-Business relational characteristics influence the diffusion performance of innovative products through the mediation of relationship quality. An empirical study was conducted among 138 purchasing employees. The results show that relational characteristics including supplier relationship orientation, relationship investments and relationship benefits have positive impacts on customer perception for relationship quality. In turn, relationship quality (serves as a significant mediator) leads to suppliers´ new product diffusion performance.