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Using a baseline model of buyer‐supplier relationships, the study aims to identify the types of relationships in the Turkish automotive industry, and to test predictions as to how these relations would differ across contextual, managerial, and social climate variables.

Questionnaire data from 51 buyers in automaker firms and 72 supplier firms were subjected to K‐means cluster analyses to establish relationship groups in the two samples. Differences across the groups were tested using ANOVA and Scheffé tests.

Three relationship types (captive supplier, market exchange, and strategic partnership) were identified both in the buyer and supplier data. Significant differences were observed in terms of contextual (product and supplier characteristics), managerial (information exchange and cooperation), and social climate variables (mutual understanding, payoff equity, and satisfaction). Turkish buyers were found to strategically segment their suppliers based on product and supplier characteristics, whereas supplier groups were differentiated along social climate variables.

The Turkish results differ somewhat from the ones for developed countries, which suggests that more work should be conducted in emerging economies. Future research that uses matched pairs of buyers and suppliers may provide in‐depth insights.

The results demonstrated a perception (hence, communication) gap between buyers and suppliers in how they differentiated relationship types. Strategic partnership led to cooperation in both samples, and to satisfaction, mutual understanding, and equity in the supplier sample.

This study used data from both parties, contrasted buyer‐supplier relationships in an emerging market with those in developed markets, and highlighted the effects of the industry's historical evolution on the present state of buyer‐supplier relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents of close supply chain collaboration and to develop a multi‐variable conceptual model of factors that drive the need for close supply chain collaboration.

A multi‐variable conceptual model is developed based on literature and on a series of dyadic mini‐cases in the electronics, fashion and consumer‐packaged goods industry.

This paper confirms that close supply chain collaboration is influenced by a multitude of factors. It reveals a need to integrate findings from analytical and empirical disciplines that study supply chain collaboration. The results suggest that collaborative initiatives are predominantly initiated with suppliers and not with customers, and that close supply chain collaboration may lead to inertia in business relations.

This paper is based on dyadic case studies in three different make‐to‐stock industries; future research may include a large‐scale survey in more industries, including both make‐to‐order and make‐to‐stock environments.

Based on the findings, firms can make better choices in their collaborative initiatives; based on the conceptual model, firms can identify potential areas of close supply chain collaboration.

Findings from analytical and empirical literature are combined and such a combined perspective is deployed for the first time into a conceptual model of drivers of close supply chain collaboration.