Managing interfaces with suppliers

In recent years, both the academic and practitioner-based literatures have witnessed a spate of interest in the management of supplier relationships. In particular the movement from transaction to relational modes of buyer-supplier interaction has been highlighted as a dramatic shift. This article reexamines the nature of management of supplier relationships from the perspective of resource interfaces. We propose a categorization of four different interfaces based on how a focal customer can access its suppliers' resources. The four different interfaces serve different purposes and have various implications for static (productivity) and dynamic (innovativity) efficiency. We conclude by highlighting the costs and benefits of establishing and maintaining different supplier interfaces. The main implication stemming from our analysis is that buying firms need a variety of supplier interfaces to pursue productivity and innovativity objectives. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.