A lot of study emphasis on long term buyer seller relationships have been carried out. According to (Dyer & Singh, 1998), relationships can be the most valuable resources in developing sustainable competitive advantage. Competitive advantage can be developed through these factors such as high-quality goods, access to highly trained and skilled personnel, high technology, customer service, and efficient distribution systems, but most firms ignored the sustainable competitive advantage that be able to be created through long-term relationships with their buyers (Ganesan, 1994). Strategy based on long-term relationships is considered as one of the most effective option for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be sustainable and competitive in the market (Carson et al., 2004). Therefore SMEs have to keep and enhance the relationship with their customer in order to overcome their resources constraint (Carson et al., 2004). Commitments of the SMEs are arise to compete and fulfill the demand of the buying firm or customers according to the increase of the customer's preferences and senses especially in the agro-based industry. The buyer and seller is interdependence in the market so in order to increase the efficiency and probability to success, it is necessary to identify the factors that affect the development of this relationship. The contexts of SMEs are significantly different from larger firms, so it is very crucial to identify similarities and differences among these factors in detail (Cambra-Fierro & Polo-Redondo, 2008). The SMEs entrepreneurs in Malaysian agro-based industry play a vital role in terms of economic growth (gross domestic product) and providing employment (skills and non-skills worker)(Aman & Tahir, 2011). Besides that, agro-based industries are key to adding value to the products marketed, to increase the farmers' income and also to making the sector sustainable (World Report, 2010) Therefore, contribution of SMEs in this industry are so important to the Malaysian economy and also essential to driving the country from a medium-income economy to a high-income economy.
LITERATURE REVIEW
There are a list of factors that can affect relationships such as trust (Ganesan, 1994; Ploetner & Ehret, 2006; Wilson, 1995), satisfaction on performance (Wilson, 1995), reputation (Powers & Reagan, 2007), power/interdependence (Meehan & Wright, 2011; Powers & Reagan, 2007), cooperation (Ploetner & Ehret, 2006), commitment (Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Stanko et al., 2007), effective communication (Mohr & Nevin, 1990; Ndubisi et al., 2007), Relationship-specific investment (Claycomb & Frankwick, 2010), technology (Powers & Reagan, 2007) and quality (Batt, 2003; Smith, 1998). In China, the crucial factor in sustaining the complex business network and contributing to the success of a firm in business communities is a trust (Kriz & Fang, 2000). When the parties have trust in one another, then there will be ways by which the two parties can work out difficulties such as power conflict, low profitability and so forth (Sullivan & Peterson, 1982). Business relationship also have thing to do with the effective communication. Effective communication in channel relationships can enhance levels of channel member coordination, satisfaction, commitment levels and performance (Goodman & Dion, 2001; Mohr & Nevin, 1990). Power is closely associated with the nature of dependency in business relationships. The roles of power and dependence in channels of distribution by noting that "channel member dependence and source of power in marketing channels are conceptually inseparable", and "dependence is a component of these power source rather than a separate phenomenon" (Gaski, 1984). Cooperation is similar to communication exchange. It is directly linked to satisfaction and trust. It is complementary coordination of actions taken by firms in interdependent relationships to achieve mutual outcomes that are reciprocal (Wilson, 1995). Based on past literatures, generally there is an evidence that buyers and seller stress on the importance of close relationships, where both side can achieve benefits in the form of lowered costs and improved profits.
JUSTIFICATION
Many programs and effort have been done to increase the development of SMEs entrepreneurs by the government agencies since First Malaysia Plan (RMK1) (Aman & Tahir, 2011). That is to reduce the country import on food and realize the goals of National Agriculture Policy. So, in order to increase the Malaysian economy, the stronger long-term buyer-seller relationship among Malaysian agro-based industry must be develop to make sure this industry sustainable and can compete with the larger firms in the market. SMEs confront with many limitation compare to larger company (Zabkar et al., 2002). "Such limitations can be summarized as : limited resources such as finance, time, marketing knowledge, lack of specialist expertise which is owner-managers tend to be generalists rather than specialists and limited impact in the marketplace" (Gilmore et al., 2001). There is an evidence that SMEs build a relationship structure to a higher degree compare to larger firms (Zabkar et al., 2002) because their understand, to serve existing and loyal customer is cheaper than attract one new customer due to their limitations (Ndubisi et al., 2007). In order to overcome their resource constraint, this study will help to identify the factors affecting the development of long-term buyer-seller relationships among SMEs entrepreneur in Malaysian agro-based industry, so it can be used by small companies to concentrate and invest more on the areas that are most important. The specific objectives of this research are to :
Identify the factors of developing long-term buyer-seller relationship among the SMEs entrepreneur in Malaysian Agro-based industry.
Analyze the correlation between demographic factors and the development of long-term buyer-seller relationship among SMEs entrepreneur in Malaysian agro-based industry.
Determine the most important factors that affecting the development of long-term buyer-seller relationship among SMEs entrepreneur in Malaysian agro-based industry
METHODOLOGY
Pilot test was conducted with 26 entrepreneur completed the initial survey and provided feedback on the research concept, specific survey questions, and demographic information requested. Using face to face interview, it shows that pretest respondents understood and were able to answer the questions. The pretest group suggested only minor modifications to the survey format to eliminate potentially leading questions. Analysis of the data from the pretest indicated that the measures displayed preliminary reliability and validity. Data collection integrating information from both buyers and sellers has not often been attempted because of prohibitive research costs and low response rates associated with matched respondent pairs. Therefore, we decided to investigate the relationship development aspects from the sellers' perspective. The relationship between a sellers and one of its key buyers provides the unit of analysis in this study. Descriptive and factor analysis has been used in this study to analyse the data.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Out of 226 entrepreneur who participate in this study, majority of them (75%) have been in the relationship with their preferred buyers less than 5 years. While 25% of them have been in relationship for 6 to 10 years and only 6 % of the entrepreneurs had more than 10 years of relationship with their preferred buyer. Referred to the definition of SMEs, 120 (53%) of the entrepreneur in this study can be classified under micro enterprises which have not more than 5 full time staff, while the rest (57%) is classified as small enterprises with sales turnover is not more than RM 10 million per year. A principal component analysis was conducted on 29 items with varimax rotation. Seven component had eigenvalues over Kaiser's criterion of 1 and in combination explained 72.94% of the variance. The item that cluster on the same component suggested that Component 1 represent trust; Component 2 represent reputation; Component 3 represent quality; Component 4 represent satisfaction; Component 5 represent power/dependence; Component 6 represent relationship specific investment and Component 7 represent communication.
