PARTNERING RELATIONSHIP ACTIVITIES - BUILDING THEORY FROM CASE-STUDY RESEARCH

Both qualitative and quantitative techniques are used to gain an under standing of partnering activities in manufacturer-distributor relation ships. This article is a meta-analytic summary of data gained from sem i-structured interviews conducted by multiple teams of researchers. Th e process of building theory from case study research is illustrated i n the context of business marketing relationships using guidelines dev eloped by Eisenhardt (1989). Based on the results of our analyses, par tnering activities are generally geared move toward marketing, plannin g, and communication between firms. Surprisingly, there were few repor ted incidences of partnering activities in logistics and information e xchange (i.e., electronic access to information between firms). (C) 19 97 Elsevier Science Inc.