Buyer‐supplier partnerships: flip sides of the same coin?

Abstract

Increasingly managers speak in terms of partnerships when they refer to their buyer‐supplier relationships. While both suppliers and customers can achieve better performance in close co‐ordinated relationships, not all relationships result in mutual benefit. Explores what buyers and sellers expect and contribute to their partnerships. Examines three categories of bahavior in relationships generally associated with norms conducive to co‐operation (joint problem‐solving, communication and relationship‐specific investment) for both suppliers and buyers. The results suggest that buyers and suppliers do not always agree about the behavior which occurs in “partnerships.” One reason for this is that each side may bring different expectations to the relationship. For both the buyer and the supplier samples, there was a wide diversity of opinion about what a “partnership” entails. Support was found for the reliability of four different partnership definitions: self‐centred; personal loyalty; mutual investment; and political control.