Stronger supply chain relationships: learning from research on strong families

Purpose - The need for long-term relationships between customer and supplier has been suggested for some time. The literature of supply chain management often compares customer-supplier relationships to a marriage. The purpose of this paper is to apply results of research on successful families to supply chain management in order to improve these critical business relationships.Design methodology approach - The family strengths research is based on surveys and interviews of more than 6,000 successful families over a period exceeding 20 years, and has been summarized in six characteristics of successful families, which are used as the basis of a model of a successful supply chain relationship. The proposed model for successful supply chain relationships is then compared with the existing literature that addresses relationship success and failure.Findings - Support for the characteristics in the supply chain relationships model was found in the literature. One weakness of the model was the failure to explicitly emphasize supplier performance.Originality value - The characteristics of principles-centered relationships and the need for appreciation were new contributions. Generally, this aspect is not emphasized in the supply chain management literature. The supply chain relationships model provides a conceptual framework that should be useful in communicating the desired final state.