A value perspective on relationship portfolio

As portfolio models have evolved, scholars have turned their attention from traditional customer/supplier portfolios, mainly product-oriented, to relationship portfolios based on business relationships’ attributes. In a parallel stream of research, the literature has increasingly deeply explored the concept of relationship value and suggested variables to measure it. Notwithstanding the two frameworks share the common aim of understanding how to evaluate business relationships, surprisingly, they remained quite separated. The purpose of this paper is to recognize which are the critical attributes of the relationship value concept that have important consequences for relationship portfolio analysis. The paper provides a discussion on the need to integrate the two fields in a more grounded conceptual framework. This paper contributes both to enrich the theoretical debate on relationship value and relationship portfolio and also provides some suggestions on how to deal with five relationship value’s attributes that should be carefully managed in order to increase the effectiveness of relationship portfolio analysis.