Identifying Influence of Supplier Benefits on Collaboration Between Partners

Collaboration between company and its suppliers is important in providing value to customers, especially in the age when companies are dominantly trying to focus on lowering costs to be more effective. But not just cost-effectiveness is a driving principle for all companies. Some companies are oriented towards establishing relationships with suppliers in order to provide value to customers. Hence, purpose of this paper is to explore relationships between companies and their key suppliers and to identify what influences their collaboration activities. Primary research was conducted on 182 Croatian companies, applying scales identified in previous research. Factor analysis and multivariate linear regression analysis were applied in analyzing research results. Results indicate that there are several benefits that companies perceive key suppliers are providing to them. Market and scout function, quality function, social support function, rescue function and innovation development function are some of them. These functions (supplier benefits), influence company future collaboration with key suppliers and consequently influences co-creation. Research results identified that quality, social support and innovation development function influence company’s future collaboration activities. Based on these results implications for marketing managers are offered and ideas for co-creation provided.