MKTG 556 | Session 6 | Boundary spanner corruption: a potential dark side of multi-level trust in marketing relationships - 2022
Sebastian Forkmann & Jonathan Webb & Stephan C. Henneberg & Lisa K. Scheer
Introduction
Boundary spanner corruption—voluntary collaborative behavior between individuals from different organizations that breaches their organizations' norms—is a serious issue in business-to-business (B2B) marketing relationships. Drawing on insights from literature on the dark side of business relationships and deviance in sales and service organizations, the authors identify boundary spanner corruption as a potential dark side problem inherent in close B2B marketing ties. The same factors that bring benefits in interorganizational relationships, such as those between customer and seller firms, can also enable the formation of boundary-spanning social cocoons that may foster corrupt activities under certain conditions. A conceptual framework shows how trust at the interpersonal, intraorganizational, and interorganizational levels allows corrupt behaviors to occur by enabling deviance-inducing factors from the task environment or boundary spanners themselves to emerge. Interpersonal trust between representatives of different organizations, trust between these organizations, and intraorganizational trust of management in their representatives help develop a boundary-spanning social cocoon—a microculture that can foster deviant norms leading to corrupt actions. Boundary spanner corruption causes direct and opportunity costs for the involved organizations, along with the hidden financial risks of potential exposure. The authors support their multi-level framework and propositions with insights from field-based qualitative interviews with senior executives. This framework of boundary spanner corruption goes beyond current marketing literature, offers exciting directions for future research, and provides new managerial insights.
