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Most firms have a number of unprofitable customer relationships that drain the firms' resources. However, firms in general and sales representatives in particular hesitate to address this problem and, ultimately, to terminate business relationships. This paper therefore aims to investigate the antecedents and consequences of sales representatives' relationship termination competence.

A model of antecedents of sales representatives' relationship termination competence is developed and tested using a cross-sectional survey of more than 800 sales representatives. The impact of the constructs “termination acceptance”, “definition of non-customer”, “termination routines” and “termination incentives” on termination competence are analyzed using PLS.

A sales representative's termination competence is positively influenced by greater clarity and wider dissemination of the definition of a “non-customer”, higher prevalence of termination routines, and increasing degrees of termination incentives. Acceptance of relationship termination at the firm level does not appear to have a significant impact on sales representatives' relationship termination competence. In addition, termination competence significantly affects the value of customer portfolios.

The findings suggest that managers should more actively consider relationship termination as a legitimate option in customer relationship management. In order to increase the value of a firm's customer portfolio, managers must not only provide a clear definition of the types of customers the organization does not want to serve, but must also implement termination routines within the organization. Managers also need to establish incentives for sales representatives to terminate relationships with unprofitable customers.

This paper contributes to the currently scarce research on relationship termination by documenting results from a large-scale analysis of relationship termination.

This paper aims to discuss the concepts of uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict in business networks in relation to firm performance. The paper aims to argue that uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict are useful concepts for understanding firm performance and the way companies cope with external barriers to their performance.

The paper is a conceptual contribution based on a literature study and empirical observations by the authors.

The model of external performance barriers indicates four different barriers, each based on a different logic, thus demanding different tools for addressing them.

The model establishes a better developed basis for further analysis of external performance barriers. The model is based on theoretical argumentation, and thus without empirical testing.

Managers are encouraged to analyze the different external barriers and the impact of those on firm performance. Furthermore, potential ways of reducing barriers are presented to inspire managers to potential action.

The paper contributes by developing a systematic view of external barriers of firm performance and potential managerial solutions to these barriers.

Value appropriation is a central, yet neglected aspect in business exchange research. The purpose of the paper is to generate an overview of research on active value appropriation in business exchange and provide the foundation for further research into value appropriation, as well as some initial guidance for managers.

Literatures investigating value appropriation were identified by the means of a systematic review of the overall management literature.

The authors provide an overview and comparison of the literatures and find that they apply diverse understandings of the value appropriation process and emphasize different mechanisms and outcomes of value appropriation.

Based on the literature comparison and discussion, in combination with inspiration from alternative business exchange literature, the authors propose four areas with high potential for future research into value appropriation: network position effects, appropriation acts and behaviors, buyer-seller relationship effects, and appropriation over time.

Boundary spanning managers acting in industrial markets must master the difficult balance between value creation and appropriation. This review has provided an overview of the many managerial options for value appropriation and created knowledge on the effects of the various appropriation mechanisms enabling managers to secure company rents while not jeopardizing value creation.

To the authors' knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt at reviewing the management literature on value appropriation in business exchange. The authors provide overview, details, comparisons, and frame a research agenda as a first step towards establishing value appropriation as a key phenomenon in business exchange research.