An Exploratory Examination Of Influences Of Perceived Fairness And Relationship Quality On Relationship Value In R&D Cooperation

The research and development R&D cooperation between enterprises can shorten the new product innovation time and reduce the investment risk, so establishing R&D cooperation relationship has gradually become a kind of trend. How to adjust the relevant factors to improve relationship value is the primary thing that enterprises are concerned with. On the basis of fairness theory, relationship marketing theory and social exchange theory, this manuscript develops a conceptual model to confirm three perceived fairness (distributive fairness, procedural fairness and interactional fairness), as well as three kinds of relationship quality (satisfaction, trust and commitment) which can help to study the relationship value of corporate cooperation. Questionnaire of198B2B companies from the automotive industry indicate that procedural fairness and interactional fairness affect the relationship value through satisfaction, while distributive fairness affects the relationship value through commitment. The results also indicate that in the long-term cooperation, satisfaction is positively related to trust, and trust is positively related to commitment. But only commitment has a direct impact on the relationship value, and relationship value’s improvement mainly depends on distributive justice. What’s more, in short-term cooperation relations, satisfaction is positively related to trust, while satisfaction and trust will have a direct impact on relationship value and relationship value’s improvement mainly depends on procedural justice and interaction justice.