Making collaborative supply chain relationships happen

Collaborative relationships are claimed to yield significant benefits. However, supply chain collaboration has proved difficult to achieve (Sabath and Fontanella, 2002; Barratt, 2004). One of the reasons is a lack of understanding of the elements that make up supply chain collaboration (Barratt, 2004; Busi and Bititci, 2006). The main objective of this study is to develop a framework for supply chain collaboration that includes managerial, behavioural and technical issues. To achieve it, an exploratory multiple case study in the Spanish laundry detergents sector has been conducted (considering retailers and manufacturers). Although we present some work in progress the main conclusions that can be derived are: firstly, there is still a log way to go in terms of collaboration, and secondly, the behavioural issues play a key role in a collaborative relationship.