Negotiation strategies in supply chain management

Purpose - This paper seeks to explore the impact of different negotiation strategies on the negotiation setting in different buyer-supplier relationships. So far, the extant supply chain management (SCM) literature has only briefly touched this subject, though such a study has been advocated on previous notes in the SCM literature. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative research methodology was chosen in order to investigate a focal firm's negotiations with five of its suppliers. A total of 25 hours of interviews and 15 hours of observations were carried out at the focal firm and with a number of the firms' tier one suppliers in order to investigate the subject at hand. Findings - Explanation is given of when the use of different negotiation strategies can be considered expedient in different relational settings, pairing a distributive negotiation strategy with arm's length relationships, while integrative negotiation strategies remain a more ambiguous exercise. Valuable insight concerning the impact of different negotiation strategies on the negotiation setting are advanced, which, in turn, leads to a questioning of previous research conclusions regarding the application of distributive negotiation strategies in strategic partnerships. The reason for such questioning is due to a limited focal perspective applied in previous research on negotiations in SCM. Research limitations/implications - Future research should statistically and analytically validate the research in order to reject or confirm the reached conclusions. Originality/value - The paper is the first to specifically investigate the role of negotiation strategies in the academic discipline of SCM from a qualitative angle using participant observations and interviews.