Relationship Portfolio in a Value perspective in Business Markets

During the last three decades, different models of portfolio analysis have been proposed in the business-to-business marketing literature, each of which promotes its own level of aggregation, perspective of analysis, and context of application. Nevertheless, portfolio analyses have not experienced much diffusion in business practice, mainly due to their excessive simplicity (which could make them meaningless) or their high level of complexity (which could make them useless). Analysing literature on both portfolio and relationship value, we discuss the conceptual basis underlying the creation of a portfolio in relationship value perspective as well as the consequences on portfolio, theorising about the possibilities that arise from the situational, interdependent, and dynamic nature of the value of business relationships. These features may explain why the portfolio concern has had a relatively small following in managerial practices.