Authors: Fahad Awaleh; Gøran Persson
This paper emphasizes business relationships, and how a firm establishes, develops, and manages its business relationships for different purposes, and when several different objectives are considered and pursued. A distinction is made in the paper between the development of a business relationship and in business relationships. The development of business relationships is understood as firms developing solutions for improving the interaction processes between themselves and their counterparts. The purpose of developing a business relationship is to capture some of the economies involved in the interaction process as well as in the value stream as a whole. The development in business relationships is understood as other types of collaborations that are not directly related to the interaction processes or a business transaction, and have other objectives such as resource development arrangements. The aim of the paper is to describe and analyse the development of and in business relationships. The analysis is based on a case study, and will focus on two major issues:How the development of relationships can enable a company to capture the economies connected to specialization and process integration.How the development in relationships can add a resource development and/or be a stimulus for innovation for a focal organization.The paper is structured into the following parts: first, we give some background to the case, followed by a description of the value stream in which the focal organisation is involved. We then describe and discuss major drivers or forces for specialisation in this particular value stream and how the actors involved in the process exploit the economies of scale and scope. This is followed by a discussion concerning the need for standardisation and coordination and a presentation of how relationships have been developed to capture the economies of integration and the content of these relationships. Next, we address the issue on how relationships have been developed and modified to enhance development and innovation. Finally, we discuss some of the implications of the case study.
Journal: ( – )
Web Address:
Publish Year: 2003
Conference: Lugano, Switzerland (2003)