Managing Industrial Buyer-supplier Relations - the Case for Attractiveness

This article is about managing industrial buyer‐supplier relations as seen from the customer perspective. Two successful examples of supplier network management are described, and the limits to broader applicability of these supply management principles discussed. Next the focus is on managing the dyadic relation. Contributions from four of the most influential groups of researchers on the subject are overviewed. Empirical findings from a case study from industry are presented, leading to a short conceptual presentation of an alternative supply management approach. The empirical contribution comes from two case studies carried out at the Danish industrial company Danfoss Drives, which produces frequency converters and is a division of the Danfoss industrial corporation. One case study is about the characteristics of a supplier network supplying aluminum components to Danfoss Drives. The other is about the evolution of one of the industrial buyer‐supplier relations in the aluminum network – between Danfoss Drives and a supplier of extruded aluminum components.