Interaction episodes as engines of relationship change

We discuss a framework for analyzing interaction episode patterns that culminate in business relationship changes. A nomenclature for mapping and characterizing patterns of episodes that take place over time and within social space provides a new approach to relationship analysis. We introduce and define interacts as the building blocks of episodes and discuss the meaning and implications of episode valences. Building on ideas from Flanagan's [Flanagan, John C. The critical incident technique. Psychol Bull 1954; 51 (4): 327–358] critical incident technique, the new nomenclature includes critical events in which customers and suppliers make changes to resource ties and activity links that redefine a business relationship's structure. We employ network theory to evoke endogenous and exogenous influences on episodes. Also, we identify other influences on interactions and relationship change, including asymmetries in actor perceptions and information, tolerance zones for interpreting outcomes of episodes, difficulties perceiving patterns, and relationship entropy.