Friendship Versus Business in Marketing Relationships

Although combining friendship and business in the same relationship can be beneficial, it can also create conflict.
A source of this conflict is incompatible relational expectations. True friends are expected to be unmotivated by
benefits that can be used beyond the relationship (e.g., money, status), whereas business partners are, by
definition, at least partly motivated by these more “instrumental” concerns. Using a role theory framework and data
collected from a survey of 685 direct-selling agents, this article reports evidence that a conflict between friendship
and instrumentality can undermine some of the business outcomes that friendship might otherwise foster. It also
suggests that this conflict is more severe for friendships that become business relationships than for business
relationships that become friendships. Study conclusions do not suggest that friendship is entirely “bad” for
business and, instead, propose that friendship’s influence can be both positive and negative.

Social Roles and Role Conflict
This article uses a role theory perspective to analyze and
understand the conflicting orientations of friendships and
business relationships. Several previous studies in marketing
have also applied this framework (Arnett, German, and
Hunt 2003; Atuahene-Gima and Li 2002; Schewe 1973;
Singh 2000; Smith and Barclay 1997; Solomon et al. 1985;
Walker, Churchill, and Ford 1977), including Heide and
Wathne’s (2006) recent analysis of friendships and business
relationships. Role theory is based on the premise that
effective social interaction depends on a shared understanding
of relationship rules—that is, the behaviors that are
(in)appropriate for different people in different social situations
(Biddle 1986; Heide and Wathne 2006; Michaels, Day,
and Joachimsthaler 1987; Sarbin and Allen 1968).

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