The ‘close but adversarial’ model of supplier relations in the U.S. auto industry

While cooperative buyer–supplier relations are an important source of sustainable competitive advantage, noncooperative behavior persists widely. This paper tests a model incorporating noncooperative behavior within a context of formal commitment, using data from the U.S. auto industry. This ‘close, but adversarial’ model appears to be reasonably well supported by the data, suggesting that even within professed cooperative buyer–supplier relationships adversarial behavior persists. In contrast, a small but significant minority of the relationships were found to be characterized by high levels of trust as well as informal commitment. The results suggest specific strategies for developing cooperative supplier relations.