About NoW

NoW – Nordic Workshop on Supplier Relationships 

 

The NoW workshop is an informal gathering of junior and senior researchers from the Nordic countries who share an interest in studying supplier relationships, supplier relationship management, and supplier networks. The workshop aims to discuss ongoing research and develop research manuscripts at various stages of completion.   

The NoW workshop is interactive, and all participants are expected to engage actively as contributors and reviewers, and sufficient time is allocated for presentations as well as for in-depth discussions of the individual papers. Moreover, the workshop aims at facilitating network building and the development of new research ideas in the area of supplier relationships. We encourage doctoral students in the field to participate in the workshop.  

 

Nordic research on supplier relationships  

The workshop reflects the interests of a group of researchers with a “Nordic approach” to supplier networks and business relationships, which includes interactive as well as more institutional and governance-based approaches – predominantly based on qualitative research (Johnsen et al., 2016). This community of researchers:  

  • Understands and explores the initiation, development, organization, and management of supplier relationships and networks as seen from the perspective of a buying company.  
  • Applies an inter-organizational perspective, where core units of analysis are buyer-supplier relationships, interdependencies, interactions, network structures, connectedness, activities, actors, and resources, as well as positions and roles.   
  • Is strongly inspired by, but not limited to, the IMP approach.  
  • Tends to take a process view to empirical research, favoring in-depth (single) case studies.  
  • Are inclined to use explorative theory development over theory testing.  
  • Conceptualizes and develops from a priori theoretical viewpoint, in which cases are used to reflect and further ground theoretically derived vantage points.  

The research from this group has been quite successful in generating impact, as measured in terms of citations in journals within the fields of purchasing and supply management, industrial marketing, innovation management, operations management, and other related fields.   

 

Group initiating the workshop  

Denmark  

  • Poul Houman Andersen, Aalborg University (AAU), poa@business.aau.dk  
  • Chris Ellegaard, Aarhus University (AU), chrel@mgmt.au.dk  
  • Hanne Kragh, Aarhus University (AU), hak@mgmt, au.dk  

Finland 

  • Anne-Maria Holma, University of Vaasa, anne.holma@uwasa.fi  
  • Asta Salmi, University of Oulu, asta.salmi@oulu.fi  

Norway 

  • Ann-Charlott Pedersen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), ann.pedersen@ntnu.no  
  • Tim Torvatn, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), tim.torvatn@ntnu.no  

Sweden 

  • Anna Dubois, Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers), anna.dubois@chalmers.se  
  • Kajsa Hulthén, Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers), kajsa.hulthen@chalmers.se