An exploration of the 'dark side' associations of conflict, power and dependence in customer-supplier relationships

The contribution of the paper lies in its critique of this focused body of literature and in the development of a better understanding for future IMP researchers on the derivations, foundations and findings concomitant to the 'dark side' of conflict, power and dependence in customer-supplier relationships. The paper proposes themes and future avenues of research related to the dark side of conflict, power and dependence, placing emphasis on the 'bi-polarity' of each relationship characteristic, the dynamics of relational benefits, the consequences of their evolution on inter-organizational trust and its impact on the dark side of relationships. Hence, the paper contributes through the identification of potential research areas and propositions to guide future conceptual developments in the field.