Is a Long‐term Business Relationship an Implied Contract? Two Views of Relationship Disengagement*

Debbie Harrison

Journal of Management Studies, 2004, vol. 41, issue 1, 107-125

Abstract: ABSTRACT Current knowledge of business‐to‐business relationship dissolution centres upon definitions of relationship dissolution, models of dissolution, antecedents for dissolution, and dissolution strategies. In this paper an empirical case example of a terminated business relationship in the aftermath stage of the dissolution process is presented. William Baird sued Marks and Spencer for £53.6 m for breach of contract. The relationship between the actors was long‐term, exclusive, and involved substantial investment in specific assets. There was no written contract in place, yet one actor considered that the relationship was equal to an implied contract. The contribution of the paper is to discuss the possibility for legal redress using the transaction cost economics, relational contracting, and industrial networks literatures.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2004.00423.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:41:y:2004:i:1:p:107-125

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... s.asp?ref=00022-2380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management Studies is currently edited by Timothy Clark, Steven W. Floyd and Mike Wright

More articles in Journal of Management Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().