Power-based supplier selection in product development projects

As stronger supplier might exert their power to influence a product development project for their own benefit, business negotiations will be more efficient if the customer has a clear understanding of its power with regards to each of its potential suppliers. This article takes the customer perspective in dealing with supplier selection and proposes a method to estimate the power of a customer versus potential suppliers. Based on an evaluation of their power, potential suppliers are then ranked. This selection procedure is illustrated with an example and evaluated against a case study taken from academic literature.