Building blocks of social relationships in business: verification and measurement validation

Many works in the literature have investigated social relationships and their role in business, thus it would seem that everything is already known about them. Surprisingly, however, as our two-stage research proved, if we consider social relationships to be a complex, multi-dimensional construct created by a set of different elements, we actually conclude that very little is known about how to operationalize and measure them comprehensively. Our paper focuses on the building blocks of social relationships and aims to verify the structural components assigned to them in extant knowledge, and then to offer their sharp operationalization and ensure their sound measurement. A scale for measuring social relationships was developed based on a two-stage, cumulative mixed process combining qualitative (in-depth individual semi-structured interviews) and quantitative research (via a survey). As a contribution, the paper offers valid measurement scales for six social relationship building blocks: emotional intensity, community of interest, shared identity, private contacts, repeatability of relations, and meetings in the professional community.