This study analyses the shift in the relationship between large and smaller firms from confrontation and conflict, to cooperation and mutual assistance. It charts the pace of the adaption of Japanese style buyer-supplier relations in North American and Western European organizations.
Buyer-supplier relations and changes in industrial organization - some
preliminary comments; economic change, vertical disintegration and
buyer-supplier relations - some theoretical considerations; vertical
disintegration and new forms of work organization - a review of empirical
evidence; Nissan motor maufacturing UK - best practice under pressure; Lucas
Girling - new practices, old constraints; Sony UK - supplier development and
co-operative ethos; IBM UK - from control to collaboration?; beyond
adversarialism - the advent of new practices?
