Inter-Firm Relationships in Supply Chain Collaboration Initiatives

The literature on supply chain collaborations typically discusses collaboration issues and challenges from an operational perspective. However, there is another breed of studies who contend that there exist misperceptions regarding the implementation and expected benefits associated with strategic supply chain collaborations; where researchers have underscored that close buyer-supplier relationships may offer operational, financial, and strategic improvements. In spite of this, empirical evidence that denote the tacit implications of strategic supply chain collaboration is relatively scarce. The proposed research aims to address practical and managerial knowledge gaps in terms of inter-firm relationships and their impacts to supply chain collaborations.