Supplier‐customer relationships: do partnerships perform better?

Abstract

This paper details a preliminary study into the impact of different supplier‐customer relationships on the performance of manufacturing companies in the clothing industry. This study produces three generic models for supplier‐customer relationships and their corresponding practices, which in essence represent three different levels of supply chain integration. It also develops a set of financial and non‐financial performance measures in order to determine the effectiveness of different types of relationship. A detailed survey was carried out in order to test the theoretical models and compare the performance of companies under the different types of relationship. Results are presented which compare the effect of various forms of supplier‐customer relationships on company performance, using data collected from 38 UK clothing manufacturers.