Sudden Death: Dissolution of Relationships in the Russian Transition Economy

A case study of a printing house in Russia is used to analyse relationship dissolution after the Russian transition to market economy in 1992, when many customer-supplier relationships inherited from the plan-governed economy were dissolved. The thin networks around the relationships, together with mutual lack of knowledge and weak interdependence between firms, made the relationships fragile and easily dissolved when exposed to shifts in demand and supply and to the new rights of the firms to choose their customers and suppliers.     

Customer portfolio planning in a business network context

In an increasingly globalised business environment, it is no longer adequate to analyse and develop supplier-customer relationship portfolios without consideration of a firm's network relationships. While research in business relationships has examined resource allocation and strategy development in the context of a dyadic relationship, portfolios and network relationships, little is known about the network effects of a focal firm's relationships on its performance particularly from both supplier and customer evaluations. The present study attempts to fill this gap by developing a customer portfolio framework that includes four levels of business relationships, and integrates a resource-based view and industry determinants of competitive advantage. The proposed framework is applied and analysed using data of UK-based food service companies. The main results show that a focal relationship performance is influenced by both industry and resource-based advantages in a business network context. The results also suggest that a focal firm can better enhance its competitive position with the knowledge of network effects and interdependence of strategic actions in a business network context.