as an arm's length relationship has relatively low-switching costs compared to the more strategic partnership, both parties expressed an indifference towards the the other party when considering the outcome of the negotiation. that is, should the counterpart in the negotiator would simply exit the negotiation and contact other suppliers/buyers. this was also evident in fact that both parties considered an arm's length relationship as a more one-off relationship, in which one factor was more dominant than any other, namely the price. Negotiators would, therefore, claim that a distributive negotiation strategy was expedient, as it all came down to the price and how far the parties could argue the price either up for the supplier or down for the buyer.