ارتباطات B2B ارتباطی از طریق مشارکت کنندگان: پروژه های بین المللی کره شمالی و نروژ Building B2B relationships via initiation contributors: Three cases from the Norwegian-South Korean international project business

1. Introduction Business relationship initiation has increasingly interested B2B marketing researchers (Edvardsson, Holmlund, & Strandvik, 2008; Valtakoski, 2015). Yet, even though business globalization requires knowing how to initiate new business relationships in international contexts, this particular aspect has remained under researched. Indeed, the very action of beginning the relationship—as per the definition of initiation—is not well documented in B2B marketing and related research streams. In B2B relationship–oriented research, initiation is conventionally depicted as the simple first phase or stage of the relationship (Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987; Ford, 1980). Building on the long tradition of using the matrimonial metaphor to account for B2B relationships (de Monthoux, 1975), we see initiation in light of Knapp’s (1978) stage model of romantic relationships. This model assumes that the relationships escalate in five distinct stages: initiating, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, and bonding. Initiating is defined as the first interaction between two individuals. It occurs immediately upon meeting someone and involves making a first impression. In the B2B context, building on the research developed thus far, we argue that initiation can be defined as the period of first contact before any business development. This period starts when two business actors interact for the first time even if only in an ephemeral and/or superficial way and lasts until the actors seek more in-depth information as a means of determining whether they could fit together (Fox, Warber, & Makstaller, 2013). The unpredictable and processual nature of the initiation phase in the business context has been pointed out (Aarikka-Stenroos, 2011; Mandják, Szalkai, Neumann-Bódi, Magyar, & Simon, 2015). A relationship may start from the point of first contact, or it may require a long warm-up period (Edvardsson et al., 2008; Halinen, 1997). Parties may be aware of one another for some time before the actual initiation; informal social events and episodes may occur before transactions, and third parties may contribute to the “opening” of more direct interactions between the two parties (Aarikka-Stenroos, 2011; Ritter, 2000). Consequently, initiation is an unclear and indefinite period that tends to involve many contributing actors across different episodes. However, thus far, researchers have not clearly examined the role of these actors in the process. Initiation of relationships and the related contributing actors is also a concern of international business (IB) research, which has studied how firms enter international markets (Aaboen & Löfsten, 2015; Coviello & Munro, 1995; Ellis, 2007), and that networks and social contacts play an important role in that entrance (Chetty & Blankenburg Holm, 2000; Mainela, 2007). Yet this research falls short, when it comes to providing insights into how such facilitative social relationships and business networks contribute to the initiation process by advancing it in international contexts.