The purpose of this paper is to provide a simple model to explain buyer–supplier relationships and identify factors … that determine the chosen number of trading partners. We show that the optimal number of partners for a supplier is small … model by incorporating the supplier's quality investment and show that the investment level can be higher when the number of …

and OBA using dynamic prices. The authors identify how these differences influence various aspects of customer–supplier … (unpredictability) is shifted from the supplier to the customer. Also, the customer frequently focuses on the supplier’s costs, both … parties often aim for a long-term relationship and the customer becomes more dependent on the supplier, causing high …