4.1 Long Term Relationship
The key signs of long term relationship in supply chain management are trust and
communication (Heidi and John, 1990). Long term relationships have been identified
as a very important dimension of SCM in various literatures (Min and Mentzer,
2004). The main idea behind maintaining a long term relationship in a supply chain
is to complement each other’s strengths and to develop synergies to improve the total
gains (Carr and Pearson, 1999). Organisations should be all the time aware of the
long term relationships between them and other firms. Long term relationship really
helps an organisation by sharing their knowledge with others and learning from
others experience and knowledge (Griffith, Harvey, and Lusch, 2006).