A framework to model power imbalance in supply chains: Situational analysis

The potentiality of collaboration is always to some extend related to power balance and imbalance. However, even if companies are protected by their power and position in the supply chain, they could be put under pressure by one or several members of the network. The situational analysis discussed in this paper, is designed to support the analysis of the collaborative situations and the relative forces of actors. It allows companies to browse possible collaboration situations in which the two parties would be involved, and help to structure their plausible strategies and acts. The main added value of the method is to help to clarify situations which would be blurry and unclear to decision-makers. After an extended description of the concepts and the analysis, a study case illustrates the usage of the situational analysis. Some conclusions and perspectives discusses the obtained results and show further research works.