Background: The need to cut costs, save money, become profitable, be innovative, improve product quality and be responsive to customers’ demands is encouraging some organizations to form strategic relationships with suppliers. In achieving this, certain joint investments, called structural bonds, are developed within the relationship life-cycle. Although the bonds tend to tie down the partners and also create impediments for the termination of the relationship, they inevitably contribute to the achievement of mutual goals and sustaining competitive advantage. Past researches failed to relate the structural bonds’ development to any of the stages of the relationship life-cycle, which this study investigated. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate why and in which stages of a strategic buyer-supplier relationship are structural bonds initiated. Method: A multiple case study approach, involving four companies, was undertaken to achieve the purpose of this study. The method used in collecting the empirical data is in-depth interviews with purchasing employees of these companies: Lagermetall AB, Atlas Copco AB, SAAB Tech AB and Husqvarna AB. Results: Most of the structural bonds, based on this study, were introduced at the beginning of the relationships. Some of the reasons for introducing these bonds are: improved product quality, joint product development, knowledge transfer, innovation and communication. Though the bonds may be introduced by the more powerful organization in the relationship, there is interdependency in the relationship. The bonds influenced the following in the relationship: trust, commitment and cooperation, information sharing, and performance but also generated lock-in effects.

There has been lots of research done on customer retention in electronic commerce by using different theories and Model. But there is very less or no work done based on MODE (Motivation and Opportunity as Determinants) model by Fazio 1990. This thesis used MODEL to predict the factors that determine customer in retention in EC. Motivation and opportunity are the most important determinants for consumers choosing an online store. To study motivation and opportunity mechanisms underlying consumer-e-retailer exchange relationship, this research takes a new perspective, a perspective directed toward customer intention to repurchase or customer retention. By integrating MODE model of Fazio 1990 with ¡V process feasibility, switching cost, and relational bond. This study develops an integrated model of consumer retention in an e-retailer. Data for the study was collected using an online survey distributed via email, posting link on the social networking sites linkedin, facebook, and discussion boards¡¦ bbs, NSYSU website. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling of SmartPls. Findings of the study imply that consumer retention in an online store is the affect of consumer motivation towards same online store. Specifically, a consumer¡¦s attitudes toward the key components of his/her entire online purchase experience (i.e., financial bond, social bond, structural bond, time and money saving, and switching cost) constitute the key drivers of consumer retention. Findings also indicate that motivation is intrinsically beneficial. If a consumer motivated by an online store, consumer will come back in the future to repurchase from the same e-retailer. Further, findings suggest that though motivation has a direct effect on future intentions and repurchase. Additionally, findings of the study imply that the effects of motivation on repurchase intention, but the opportunities available from another online store doesn¡¦t affect consumer attitude towards repurchase intention. Moreover search and experience type product moderately affect consumer attitude towards repurchase intention.