Buyer-supplier relationships and their strategic importance during pandemic-like disruptions

Since the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted many supply chains there has been a growing interest in improving the resilience of supply chains. There is however a lack of knowledge on how buyer-supplier relationships were, and ought to be, managed during such a disruption. By means of a multiple case study design of ten buyer-supplier relationships this paper provides insights into how the strategic importance of suppliers to buyers influenced the relationship during Covid-19. The findings show several new insights into the dynamics of buyer-supplier relationships during pandemic-like disruptions. Firstly, relational aspects such as communication, collaboration, commitment, price pushing from the buyer, and acceptance of difficulties are identified as noteworthy relational aspects during pandemic-like disruptions, and the dynamics of these aspects are discussed. Secondly, several influences unique to pandemic-like disruptions became apparent through the cases and are discussed in relation to the changed relational aspects. Most noteworthy, this contains the high understandability of the effects of a pandemic-like disruption which affects purchasing and supply management practices.