A cross cultural comparison of long-term supply relationships

This paper challenges the received view that long-term supply relationships are a
typically Japanese feature, embedded and developed in a typically Japanese society
characterized by high levels of trust and cooperation, and for that reason cannot be
established in the typically a-cooperative, competitive and low trust Western world of
the United States and Europe. Our results from the automobile industry show that (i)
suppliers in all three continents are involved in durable relationships, and (ii) that the
governance of these business relationships is by and large the same. The few
differences that remain are interesting. In our interpretation they suggest that perhaps
in the US a ‘third way’ of relationship management has been found. This ‘third way’
combines the advantages of sufficiently durable relations with the advantages of an open
system with a variety of relations that benefits innovation. If our interpretation is correct
the historical situation may have reversed: for the governance of durable relationships
Japanese firms may now learn from U.S. firms.

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