Relevance of individual characteristics in business partnerships

The characteristics of the partners involved in the partnership process have been explored in the literature, although attention has mostly been directed toward partner characteristics in so far as these affect the success of the partnership.

One of the earlier references to partner attributes in relation to business partnerships was made by Johannison (1987) whose social network theory emphasised the importance of personal relationships and presented personal attributes such as trust, friendship, commitment and shared values and beliefs as key elements of entrepreneurial networking.

Borys and Jemison (1989) observed that partnerships exhibit certain behavioural characteristics that distinguish these more intimate relationships from more traditional, conventional business relationships. In addition, Spekman and Mohr (1994) posited that successful busiess partnerships tend to exhibit these characteristics with more intensity than less successful partnerships.

PROPAT identifies 17 characteristics affecting the propensity to form business partnerships.