Power, Dependence, and Satisfaction in a Marketing System

The effects of customers' higher dependence on a supplier as in a partnership on the customers' satisfaction was investigated. Data were collected from 409 intermediary customers in a marketing system. A regression model was used to quantify the relationship between the customers' dependence on the manufacturer and the customers' satisfaction. As hypothesized, the results suggest an inverse relationship between dependence on a supplier and customers' satisfaction; however, only 1% of the variance in customers' satisfaction is explained by their dependence on the supplier.