Antecedentes de continuidade em redes de cooperação: um estudo das Farmácias Associadas

Abstract

Several aspects related to inter-organizational relationships are explored in this research, with emphasis on constructs satisfaction, performance, learning, motivation, legitimacy, promotional tools and continuity. The objective of this research is to investigate the factors that most influence the intention of continuity of participating members of a cooperation network in the retail segment. Therefore, we use a preliminary exploratory qualitative research as a way to support a major quantitative research, from a survey. A sample of 150 owners of pharmacies, which belong to the network, answered an electronic questionnaire, which was used as the basis for a descriptive analysis, hypothesis testing and linear regression. The idea that the association promotes benefits to independent pharmacies, offering better conditions to compete in a dynamic scene, dominated by large networks, and the search for understanding the factors that precede the continuity in the network, permeate the conduct of research. The main results show that the continuity is more strongly associated with greater satisfaction, higher learning, and increased network member performance. Furthermore, it was observed that business with a longer network and orientation with an emphasis on quality strategy intended to have greater continuity.