Definition (1):
Structural bonds are the bonds created when firms add value by making structural changes that facilitate the relationship with customers and suppliers.
Definition (2):
Structural bonds refer to-“The union of two or more masonry units so that the combination acts as a single unit and provides the same structural strength as a single unit of the same material.”
Definition (3):
Structural bonds in customer-supplier exchange relationships can come with and from those relationships’ economic effects. These effects are because of improved efficiency and effectiveness in functions and creations of value shared by both or all partners. It applies to prosumer-supplier relationships chiefly and not or to a lesser level to consumer-supplier relationships. The typical nature of the bonded prosumer-supplier relationships is creating value with the mutual contribution, mutual dependency, and sharing of gains.
Generating joint gains in a prosumer-supplier relationship is capable of outweighing the loss, customers face with bonding. It is the freedom’s loss for switching opportunistically to competing suppliers’ better offers. In the case of consumers, they may accept the bonding only if the suppliers compensate them for giving up the freedom of continuously examining the market and of opportunistically changing or switching suppliers.