Beyond Adversarialism: The Advent of New Supply Practices?

Abstract

The 1980s have witnessed the development of a number of innovations in industrial organization, characterized by some new and different forms of supplier relationships, including long term contracts, joint ventures, high technology cooperative agreements, and dedicated supplier arrangements. It is also apparent that, in response to heightened levels of global competition, companies are being forced to reappraise interlocked systems of quality and process control, stocking, delivery, and related inter-industry transactions. In particular, British and European producers are now much more aware of the potential cost savings and control to be gained from developing obligational-style buyer-supplier relations, although there is evidence that many producers are a long way off from developing the requisite systems, even in our four case study firms.