Managing Business Relationships enables students and managers to understand the reality of business networks and how to manage them. The third edition is updated with the IMP Grouprs"s latest thinking from research, consulting and teaching experience over the past five years.

David Ford is Affiliate Professor at Euromed-Management, Marseille. Lars-Erik Gadde is Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. Hkan Hkansson is Professor at the Nordic School of Management, BI, Oslo. Ivan Snehota is Professor at the University of Lugano.

About the Authors	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
The Importance of Business Relationships	p. 1
The reality of business relationships	p. 1
Markets, marketing and purchasing management	p. 6
The substance of business relationships	p. 10
Managing business relationships for customers and suppliers	p. 10
References	p. 12
What are Business Relationships All About?	p. 14
Introduction	p. 14
Interaction and relationships	p. 15
Time and the business relationship	p. 17
The substance of a relationship	p. 18
The first facet of a relationship: the relationship as a device	p. 21
The second facet of relationships: relationships as assets	p. 29
The third facet of relationships: relationships as problems	p. 38
Conclusions	p. 40
References	p. 41
Relationships with Customers	p. 42
Introduction: the complexity of customer relationships	p. 42
The characteristics of customer relationships	p. 45
Managing continuing customer relationships	p. 51
Developing customer relationships	p. 53
Managing a relationship with a single customer	p. 56
Managing a portfolio of customer relationships	p. 64
Conclusions: managing relationships with customers	p. 69
Relationships with Suppliers	p. 73
The significance of suppliers	p. 73
What suppliers can do for a company	p. 75
Key features of supplier relationships	p. 78
Managing the supplier base: a networking issue	p. 86
Managerial issues in networking with suppliers	p. 90
Conclusions: making the most of supplier relationships	p. 96
References	p. 97
The Economics of Business Relationships	p. 99
Introduction: the economic problems of business relationships	p. 99
The idea of relationship value	p. 102
The elements of relationship value	p. 103
Costs of business relationships	p. 105
Benefits from business relationships	p. 109
Analysing relationship benefits	p. 112
Relationship value and price	p. 113
Pricing approaches in business relationships	p. 117
Conclusion	p. 124
References	p. 125
Intermediation in Business Relationships	p. 126
Introduction	p. 126
The role of intermediation	p. 127
Intermediation from a network perspective	p. 129
Intermediation and distribution	p. 132
Intermediation from the perspective of the end-user	p. 134
Intermediation from the perspective of the supplier	p. 139
Conclusions	p. 151
References	p. 153
Technology and Business Networks	p. 155
Introduction	p. 155
The range of technologies	p. 157
Assessing the potential value of technology in business networks	p. 160
A network view of technological development	p. 162
Embedded and technological development	p. 165
Relationships and technological development	p. 168
Creating economic value from technology	p. 174
Conclusions	p. 176
References	p. 177
Managing in Networks	p. 178
Introduction: managing business relationships in the network economy	p. 178
What is a network?	p. 182
Managerial questions about operating in networks	p. 184
Analysing network choices	p. 193
Conclusions: strategy in networks	p. 205
References	p. 206
Developing the Practice of Business Networking	p. 209
Introduction	p. 209
The process of business networking	p. 211
Implementing networking	p. 217
Conclusions: networking and the management of business relationships	p. 226
References	p. 228
Index	p. 229
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