attention should be given to activities related to managing a buying
company’s portfolio of suppliers. Third, buying companies need
to decide to what extent suppliers have to be integrated into their
own processes. This integration aspect can be split into two distinct
parts: operational processes and value creation. Finally, effective
buyer-supplier relationship management requires attention to be
given to developing suppliers, on the basis of an ongoing monitoring
of their performance.
In this section, a literature review on these five aspects of
managing buyer-supplier relationships is presented and for each
a construct is defined. Following this, attention is paid to the
effect of a distinctive feature of the construction industry—
project-based working—on the management of buyer-supplier relationships.
Optimize Supply