Managing interdependency: a taxonomy for business‐to‐business relationships

Market leaders are constantly being forced to evaluate and modify their relationships and interactions with suppliers, buyers, and even competitors, in order to remain competitively viable in response to marketplace, technology, and competitive changes. Presents the Interdependency Cube framework which allows businesses to identify their current positions relative to their partners, and develop an understanding of what needs to be done in order to change their interdependency relationships. Real‐world examples illustrate different cells within the framework and demonstrate how a company can simultaneously, and successfully, have different types of strategic interdependencies with a number of partners, depending on the environment in each case. Managers can learn how vigilance and flexibility are vital to a company’s ability to change as its situation and circumstances change.