Authors: Kajsa Hulthén; Lars-Erik Gadde; Viktoria Sundquist
Cooperative relationships between buyers and suppliershave shown to be beneficial for both parties. The advantages that can be obtained from such conditions have initiated investments in high-involvement relationships between many firms. Relationships with these features are considered a means to overcome performance problems in the construction industry, where contractor-supplier relationships normally are characterized by ‘arm’s-length’ conditions. The actions to affect this business order are identified as ‘partnering’ with suppliers. However, despite promising prospects, partnering has not yet lived up to expectations.This paper explores prerequisites and consequences related to implementation of partnering agreements between contractors and suppliers in the construction industry. The aims of the study are threefold: (i) to analyse the reasons for the reluctance of construction firms to implement partnering, (ii) through an empirical study illustrate how partnering has been applied by a contractor that actively transformed its operations on the supply side: and (iii) to provide some recommendations concerning the further role of partnering in construction.
Journal: n.a. (n.a. – n.a.)
Web Address: n.a.
Publish Year: 2012
Conference: Rome, Italy (2012)