Antecedents and consequences of business-to-business relationships in the fruit and vegetable distribution sector

Purpose Considering the importance of distributing natural foods to society, this study investigates whether the quality of the logistics service and the quality of the products offered by a fruit and vegetable (FV) distribution company influence the company’s business-to-business (B2B) relationship with its customers. It also examines whether this relationship influences customers’ willingness to pay a premium price for FV products and their perception of the company’s corporate reputation. It also assesses whether the company’s commercial capacity moderates the relationship between the quality of the product and the logistics service and the company’s relationship with its customers. Design/methodology/approach A structural model was proposed based on constructs already established in the literature. For the analysis, data were collected through a questionnaire applied in 2023 to 164 B2B FV buyers operating in Brazil and analysed using structural equation modelling with partial least squares estimation. Findings The results indicated that both the quality of the product and the logistics service have a positive and significant influence on the B2B relationship. In addition, a good B2B relationship is positively related to customers’ willingness to pay a premium price and the distributor’s corporate reputation. The analysis revealed a negative moderating effect of commercial capacity on the relationship between product quality and the B2B relationship, suggesting that high commercial capacity reduces the impact of product quality on this B2B relationship. On the other hand, commercial capacity had a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the quality of the logistics service and the B2B relationship, indicating that high commercial capacity enhances the impact of the quality of the logistics service on the B2B relationship. Practical implications These findings offer valuable insights for FV distributors on improving their customer relationship strategies, highlighting the importance of product quality and logistics service and managing commercial capacity to strengthen B2B ties and improve customers’ willingness to pay premium prices and the perception of corporate reputation. These unprecedented findings contribute to the important activity of distributing natural foods to society. Originality/value Being a novelty in literature, the study evaluates the antecedents and consequences of the relationship between suppliers and customers in a B2B relationship in the FV distribution sector. The aspects that influence customer relationship management still need to be explored in this segment, being a gap in the literature, and there is a scarcity of research that addresses antecedent and consequence factors for improving the B2B relationship between distributors and their FV resale customers. This is an important implication of this study. This knowledge contributes to improving the distribution of natural foods, which are important for society.