Signals: Not to be misunderstood

Abstract

Predicting the ending of a business partnership by analysing the signals between all boundary
spanners, has not been attempted yet to the researcher’s knowledge.
Studies on strategic alliances, how to end a relationship, business communication, and signalling have provided this research with the opportunity to combine this knowledge in search of laying groundwork for a predictive tool.
This study provides information on the creation and reason of existence of a signal, the underlying setting from which they are sent and in which they will be interpreted and discovers a style of communication which influences the signalling.
Prediction based on the signals certainly seems possible, on the condition the signals are met with a context or setting. This context is the underlying influencer for the type of signal, style in communicating and trigger for action.
The aim of this paper is to offer guidance through difficult times of a partnership, making it able to recognise signals as a foreboding warning of a possible ending.

Date of Award	29 Aug 2023
Original language	English
Supervisor	Pieter Kamminga (Examiner) & Ben Roelens (Co-assessor)