Descriptive Models of Customer–Supplier Relationships in the Electronics Manufacturing Industry

This paper is about customer–supplier relationships between original equipment manufacturers, contract electronics manufacturers, and component suppliers in the electronics manufacturing industry. This research provides descriptive models indicating when customers and suppliers chose closer collaboration, how they designed their information exchange and decision-making processes to achieve closer collaboration, and what issues prevented them from achieving closer collaboration. Specifically, 3 descriptive models are presented that illustrate the determinants that encouraged transactional versus collaborative relationships and the processes used to manage both types of relationships.