Knowledge transfer in the context of buyer-supplier relationship exchange: an analysis on supplier’s customers portfolio

Abstract In a context of buyer-supplier relationship exchange, the paper analyzes the role of formal and informal mechanisms to transfer knowledge and the direct and moderating effect of trustworthiness, as relational dimensions, to understand how customer acquires knowledge from its supplier. Results, related to a sample of 105 customers belonging to an Italian medium-sized manufacturer’s customer portfolio, show that both formal and informal transfer mechanisms positively impact on knowledge acquisition.Trustworthiness moderates positively the effect of informal transfer mechanisms and negatively the effect of formal transfer mechanisms on knowledge transfer.