Customer relationship and traders' performance: An empirical evidence from 50 agricultural wholesale markets in China

Using data collected from questionnaire survey on traders, applying quantitative analysis method, the study develops a model for determinants of traders' performance and explores the effect customer relationship has on traders' performance. It's found that customer relationship has large positive effects on traders' performance. The main effect comes from regular selling relationship, while regular buying relationship has no significant effect. This paper also measures the average effect customer relationship and regular selling relationship each has on traders' performance. Based on the findings, it's recommended that traders extend and stabilize selling channels, and demand information be supplied to traders.