Business Relations in an International Perspective - A Comparison of Communication and Trust in Buyer-Supplier Relationships

Abstract: Communication is a prerequisite for companies to engage in different relations. Communication represents an important factor in building trust between actors, which in turn will determine the possibility to develop and maintain favourable business relationships. We believe that there are differences in how the communication is carried out depending on if the relations are domestic or foreign. The purpose of this dissertation was to find empirical signs of differences and similarities in the communication and in the level of trust between the buyer and its domestic and foreign supplier respectively. We also wanted to see if there were any connections between the differences and similarities in the elements of communication and the level of trust in the buyer’s relationship with the suppliers. We developed six hypotheses and chose to test them on Swedish companies within the pharmaceutical industry. The result of the first research question showed some differences in the elements of communication but in all there were more similarities. Regarding the level of trust, there were no differences. After evaluating our second research question we concluded that even if there were some differences in the elements of communication it did not seem to affect the level of trust, regardless whether the supplier was Swedish or foreign. We draw the conclusion that there is a possibility that different communication elements have the ability to compensate each other. That is, communication does not exist of several elements working in isolation; instead it is a gathering of elements working as an entirety.