Network pictures and supplier management: An empirical study

It has been suggested that “network pictures” are a major factor in the development of companies' strategies and in their interactions with others. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how variations in companies' network pictures relate to their strategies and to their interactions with suppliers and with those suppliers' other counterparts. Four issues are particularly relevant in this context: the limits to the network pictures held by companies of their supplier networks; the consensus between individual and corporate network pictures; the positioning of companies and their expectations of suppliers; and the pattern of interaction between companies and their suppliers' counterparts. Drawing on a comparative analysis between two supplier network cases, the paper shows how companies' different network pictures drive their approaches to supplier networks. These approaches reflect the way that knowledge of suppliers' counterparts is gathered and distributed within companies, and also on the companies' interactions with suppliers' counterparts. The paper suggests that scanning supplier networks strictly on the basis of current pictures may limit the exploration of supplier networks' potential. We also propose the concept of an ‘interaction net’ as a key tool to enhance the understanding and management of networks.

► Companies’ monitoring of supplier networks is an intentional process anchored in their network pictures and supplier goals.
► The connections between interaction and cognition may explain the relative ossification or dynamism of network pictures.
► No signs were found of sharing information among individuals to build consensual pictures of suppliers and their networks.
► The interaction with and relevance of suppliers’ counterparts to a customer firm seem dissociated or even contradictory.