Interorganizational Relationships And Bidding Behavior In Industrial Online Reverse Auctions

The authors model (i) the impact of the supplier's relationship propensity prior to the auction on the supplier's bidding aggressiveness in the and (ii) the impact of bidding behaviors in the auction on the buyer-supplier relationship post-auction via longitudinal survey data from twelve online reverse auctions across a variety of product categories. Results suggest that incumbency, many bidders, and a willingness to make specific investments lead to less aggressive bidding, while the total number of bids from competing suppliers increases aggressiveness. Finally, auctions that are longer in duration can improve the relationship, but may risk bidding competition.