Vol.:(0123456789) Service Business https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-022-00494-9 1 3 THEORETICAL ARTICLE Buyer–supplier interactions in business services: variety in relational interfaces Cristina Sales Baptista 1  · João Mota 1  · Jose Novais Santos 1 Received: 25 May 2021 / Accepted: 6 May 2022 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022 Abstract Business services have become a considerable share of many frms’ external resources. Several service typologies have been proposed. This study explores the underlying dynamic of interaction patterns in business services through the lens of relational interfaces. Five exploratory case studies show the presence of variety in the buyer–supplier interfaces. Thus, the relevance of the interaction patterns to increasing a frm’s productivity or innovativeness may require an assessment of this variety in relational interfaces. Keywords Business services · Patterns of interaction · Relational interfaces · Customization · Innovation 1 Introduction Business-to-business services are the main driver of the service sector and have become increasingly important in developed economies (Baines et al. 2017; Gallouj et al. 2015; Lee and Rha 2018; Mota and Santos 2021; Van der Valk and Wynstra 2012). Services are processes in which the resources of both buyers and suppliers interact to create value. Buyers and suppliers are often involved in the production process of the services that aim to improve the overall efectiveness or efciency of the buyer (Madhavaram and Hunt 2017; Heinis et al. 2021; Mota and Santos 2021). While the research on business services is limited (Madhavaram and Hunt 2017; Van der Walk and Axelsson 2015), business services have a growing importance * Cristina Sales Baptista cristinabaptista@iseg.ulisboa.pt João Mota joaomota@iseg.ulisboa.pt Jose Novais Santos jnsantos@iseg.ulisboa.pt 1 Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Management Department, ADVANCE/CSG, Lisboa University – ISEG, Rua do Quelhas, no. 6, 1200-781 Lisboa, Portugal