Most construction companies operate in a decentralised network
of suppliers and customers in which they acquire production capacity
from external suppliers. Construction projects can be viewed as
temporary organisations among firms. The development and management
of long-term buyer-supplier relationships at the crossproject-
level is therefore difficult, as project teams and product
designs change from project to project. Many researchers have
expressed dissatisfaction with the temporary nature of these buyersupplier
relationships (Briscoe and Dainty 2005; Egan 1998;
Voordijk et al. 2000; Vrijhoef and Koskela 2000). Although contractors
spent up to 90% of the project turnover on buying goods
or services (Hinze and Tracey 1994; Nobbs 1993; Vrijhoef and
Koskela 2000), they do not take full advantage of opportunities to
make use of external resources through buyer-supplier cooperation
(Dubois and Gadde 2000).
Various types of buyer-