Price, Quality and Trust: Inter-firm Relations in Britain and Japan: 18 (Cambridge Studies in Management, Series Number 18)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: First Edition, 10/8/1992
EAN 9780521413862, ISBN10: 0521413869
Hardcover, 288 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
The management of buyer-supplier relations has come to be regarded as a key to achieving manufacturing competitiveness, particularly in sectors facing global competition based on both price and quality. This book is a theoretical and empirical exploration of the link between the type of buyer-supplier relations and corporate performance. Dr Sako examines how British and Japanese companies in the electronics industry manage their relationships with buyers and suppliers, the empirical study comprising a three-way comparison of a Japanese customer company, a British customer company, and a Japanese company in Britain, and an analysis of 36 supplier companies in Britain and Japan. Variations of the companies' business practices are assessed in terms of technology, the nature of market competition, the national legal framework, financial structures, employment systems, and the mode of entrepreneurship. The author identifies two distinct approaches in the two countries - the arm's-length contractual relation (ACR) in Britain, and the obligational contractual relation (OCR) in Japan - and argues that the trust and interdependence present in the latter can be a powerful springboard from which to achieve corporate success.
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Theory and Concepts
1. A spectrum of transactional patterns
from ACR to OCR
2. Trust and organisational efficiency
Part II. Case Studies and Survey
3. Setting the scene
4. JJ Electric, GB Electronics and TCP (UK)
5. The analysis of supplier companies
Part III. Explanations of Variations
6. Economic and technological factors
7. The legal framework
8. Banks and financial links
9. Employment system links
10. Entrepreneurship, and the dynamics of small firm creation
Part IV. Outcomes and Implications
11. How ACR-P OCR patterns relate to competitiveness
12. Conclusions
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography.