Trusting relationships and personal acquaintance : implications for business friendships

Friendship is very often a component of business relationships. Organisations frequently have relationships with their suppliers, customers and collaborators that could be described as 'friendly'. However, there is little comparative evidence concerning the extent to which business friendships resemble true social friendships. This article illustrates some differences that may exist between social and business friendships, with particular reference to the extent that interpersonal relationships are trusting, and are based on the nature of personal acquaintance. This means that managers need to understand the differences between business and personal friendships and adjust the type of interactions they, and those who report to them. have with customers, suppliers, collaborators, and the like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal acquaintance measure : distinguishing among friends and good and bad customers

Evidence from social psychology confirms that strong relationships are founded on deep knowledge of others gained over long periods after sharing personal information. The existence, benefit, and management of relationships are also topics of increasing interest in Marketing. This paper reports on the results of a study of sales persons’ assessments of their personal acquaintance with friends and customers. The results indicate that personal acquaintance as a construct and measure can be successfully employed in a business context and used to distinguish among friends and good and bad customers. The findings open the way for the use of the construct in a commercial context as well as in the development of marketing theory. Limitations and avenues for future research are given.

Michael Polanyi and Karl Popper : the fraying of a long-standing acquaintance

Based upon archival correspondence and their publications, this essay analyzes the interaction of Karl Popper and Michael Polanyi. Popper sent Polanyi for review in 1932 an early draft of The Logic of Discovery. Friedrich Hayek helped both Polanyi and Popper publish some of their writings in the forties. Polanyi renewed his acquaintance with Popper in the late forties when Popper took a position at the London School of Economics and they met to discuss common interests. In the early fifties, as Polanyi prepared and presented his Gifford Lectures and published The Logic of Liberty, Polanyi became increasingly clear and articulate in distinguishing his social philosophy and philosophy of science from Popper’s ideas. Polanyi’s 1952 paper “The Stability of Belief” forthrightly presented Polanyi’s post-critical ideas that Popper overtly rejected in an important letter. After this, they had little to do with each other.

Personal acquaintances and salespeople in financial services: Differences between customers and friends

The existence, benefit and management of customer–salesperson relationships in the marketing of financial services are topics of increasing interest. Much of the sales and marketing literature implies that because of time spent together, salespeople and some of their customers develop close relationships that are akin to friendships. Evidence from social psychology confirms that strong relationships are founded in deep knowledge of others gained over long periods after sharing personal information. This paper reports on the results of a study of salespeople's assessments of their personal acquaintance with customers and friends in a financial services setting. The results indicate that salespeople do not classify customers as friends on all the dimensions of personal acquaintance. Furthermore, the nature of personal acquaintance differs between ‘good’ customers (those salespeople enjoy serving), and ‘bad’ (those they do not), with the exception of the personal acquaintance dimensions of interaction frequency and personal disclosure. We discuss the implications for practice and make recommendations for future research.

Regional differences in business start-up rates in Australia : implications for future research and public policy

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project in Australia provided both data and theoretical framework for this investigation of regional differences in entrepreneurial activity within Australia and the factors that might underlie such differences.

This study found that entrepreneurial activity as measured by participation in business start-ups varied significantly between 11 defined regions of Australia. Factors found to be associated with high start-up activity were personal acquaintance with someone who had recently started a business (strong and statistically significant) and the perception of good opportunities for starting a business locally (indicative only). Participation rate by age range across region varied widely. Sample size precluded more in-depth analysis.

The study indicates a need for a research program designed to produce data and analysis that might be constructively shared by those who wish to foster entrepreneurship in Australia.