The objective of my dissertation is to view referrals from the perspective of the supplier firm. Referrals influence potential customers to purchase (or not) from a specific supplier firm (e.g., Apple Inc.). Thus, referrals affect the supplier firms cash flow; and, in the first essay I argue that suppliers should view referrals as assets and liabilities. I develop the concept of referral equity to capture the net effect of all referrals on a suppliers cash flow. Further, I recognize and define three types of referrals for a supplier - customer-to-potential customer referrals, horizontal referrals, and supplier-initiated referrals - that play a critical role in a potential customers purchase decision by influencing the potential customer in favor of, or against, the supplier.In the second essay, I focus on the least studied referral type: supplier-initiated referrals. In business-to-business markets, suppliers aim to influence potential customers in the suppliers favor with a positive recommendation from a specific referrer. Using a mixed-design experiment with purchasing managers as respondents I find that if the supplier has previous experience, versus no experience, with the potential customer, homophily between the referrer and potential customer significantly increases the referrals influence on the potential customer. I also find that if the referrer gives an unqualified positive referral, the referrals positive influence on the potential customer decreases by only 5%; because potential customers perceive a bias in all-positive supplier-initiated referral, which reduces the supplier-initiated referrals influence on the potential customer.In the third essay, I take a deeper look at the effect of referrer characteristics on the referrals influence on the potential customer in supplier-initiated referrals. I study the relative influence of a supplier-initiated referral for a startup compared with an established firm, contingent on the referrers societal status. With two experimental studies, I find that the effect of referrer status on the extent to which the referral influences the potential customer is greater for a startup versus an established firm. This result indicates that while established firms can likely trade-off referrer status for other referrer and referral message characteristics, to influence potential customers startups should focus on selecting a high status referrer in supplier-initiated referrals. I also find that the potential customers expectation disconfirmation concerning referrer status reduces the benefit of referrer status for an established firm more than for a startup. Therefore, to positively influence the potential customer with a supplier-initiated referral, an established firm needs to manage the potential customers expectations concerning referrer selection.