Maria de Lurdes Veludo, Douglas Macbeth and Sharon Purchase
The paper seeks to provide a framework for analyzing business relationships and networks within organizational, spatial, relational and network contexts.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to provide a framework for analyzing business relationships and networks within organizational, spatial, relational and network contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study method is applied to highlight the applicability of the relationship/network framework applying. The case was a large multinational organization, with this research focusing on its European subsidiaries. Business relationships and the industrial network into which the case firm is embedded provided many different types of relationships to analyze.
Findings
The results highlight how the different types of relationships can be analyzed using the framework. The framework proved useful for all types of relationships raised in the case study.
Research limitations/implications
The method used a single case study, and further testing with other cases would highlight the generalizability of the framework.
Practical implications
The framework is a useful tool to assist managers when analyzing the variety of relationships and industrial networks in which they currently operate.
Originality/value
The paper fills a need to develop approaches to analyze business relationships and the networks in which they are embedded.
Details
Keywords
Maria de Lurdes Veludo, Douglas K. Macbeth and Sharon Purchase
This paper uses an empirical study of the collaborative business relationships between Opel Portugal as a subsidiary the American automotive manufacturer General Motors and its…
Abstract
This paper uses an empirical study of the collaborative business relationships between Opel Portugal as a subsidiary the American automotive manufacturer General Motors and its Portuguese‐based direct suppliers (PBDS) as a means of exploring the contributions of the three research traditions of supply chain management, multinational theory and, crucially, the role of the IMP approach. Within this research, the supply chain management concept of partnering is used to provide a bridge between the dyadic and network perspectives. Also, due to its potential in describing complex business networks and in capturing the nature of dyadic business relationships, the analytical tool related to the IMP work, the ARA (activities‐resources‐actors) model, by Häkansson and Snehota, is a major influence on the development of the conceptual framework presented in this study. The case results indicate the possibility of mapping the constructs of the partnering approach onto the ARA model to understand the dyad within a network context where the MNC's structure and operation exerts an often constraining role on the possible dyadic interactions.