Buyer–Supplier Relationships and Customer Firm Costs
研究供应商行为如何影响客户企业的直接产品、采购和运营成本，并发现沟通频率、供应商适应、产品质量和地理接近性可降低成本，进而增加客户购买意愿。
Academic literature and business practice are directing increased attention to the importance of creating value in buyer–supplier relationships. One method for creating value is to reduce costs in commercial exchange. The authors develop a model that explains how supplier behaviors and the management of suppliers affect a customer firm's direct product, acquisition, and operations costs. The model proposes that these costs mediate the relationship between buyer–supplier relationship behaviors and the customer firm's intentions to expand future purchases from the supplier. The model is tested on data collected from almost 500 buying organizations in the United States and Germany. The results indicate that increased communication frequency, different forms of supplier accommodation, product quality, and the geographic closeness of the supplier's facilities to the customer's buying location lower customer firm costs. In addition, customer firms intend to increase purchases from suppliers that provide value by lowering each of these costs.