A Way Forward for Managers

We hope that theoretical discussion and empirical case evidence provided in this volume has explained why it is that many business relationships fail to deliver what was expected. The problem for mangers who engage in buyer—supplier exchange relationships is that there are many variables that must be in place before a relationship can be successfully aligned. Indeed, the discussion in previous chapters has emphasised that misalignment of business relationships is a common occurrence. This is true whether misalignment occurs because of unavoidable conflict over the commercial goals of the two parties to the exchange, or because there is a ‘remediable’ misalignment occasioned by misperception on the part of one or both parties to the transaction. In this final chapter we provide further evidence of the complexity that must be managed internally by both the buyer and the supplier if alignment is to occur in any relationship. Following that, we provide a simple decision-tree checklist for managers to use when they try to align relationships whether acting as buyers or suppliers. In the final section of the chapter we discuss the problem of opportunism in relationship management and indicate what some of the predictable outcomes of opportunism by buyers and suppliers are likely to be under different power and leverage scenarios.