Relationship substance framework


The relationship substance framework is a conceptual model for understanding business-to-business relationships, developed and championed by the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group and adopted particularly in Scandinavian studies of industrial practice. The IMP Group have proposed that all business relationships are made up of three layers - actor bonds, resource ties and activity links.
These may be defined as follows:
The interaction between these three layers is described by Håkansson and Snehota:
Gadde and Snehota presented the model in 2000 in terms of intensity across the three dimensions:
Myhal et al. suggested in 2001 that this framework required further development: "hile the relationship substance framework appears to provide a suitable basis of classification for the various relationship quality components in business relationships... further work was needed in order to assess the full nature of relationship quality".
The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply refers to the framework in the material to be studied for its Diploma in Procurement and Supply qualification.