When do firms use different types of supplier evaluation techniques?

Sammanfattning: The aim of this paper is to investigate what supplier evaluation techniques that are used in different types of supplier relationships. In the study we have found eight supplier evaluation techniques that are used either before establishing a supplier relationship, during the relationship or after. We conclude that different supplier evaluation techniques are used differently dependent on whether the relationships are transactional, facilitative, integrative or connective. Although, there are differences in the use of supplier evaluation techniques among the four relationship types, the empirical data shows that there are variances also within them. Factors as the purchased items’ features and its strategic importance, the internal and external power relationships, the acknowledgment and assigned resources to the purchasing department, preferred sourcing strategy, supplier’s heritage, track-record and structural embeddedness and especially technical and organizational resource interface towards them, all impact the features of the relationship. In an attempt to explain the variances within the supplier relationships we introduce a model that reveals 16 different archetypes of buyer-supplier relationships that proves successful in explaining the discovered variances also within each relationship type.