من مرد شما هستم: چگونه عرضه کنندگان در خرید شرکت ها وضعیت استراتژیک کسب می کنند  I’m your man: How suppliers gain strategic status in buying companies

1. Introduction Selecting and classifying suppliers in order to adequately manage supplier relationships is seen as increasingly critical (Van Echtelt et al., 2008). Partnerships with strategically important suppliers can reduce the buying organisation’s supply channel coordination costs, increase exchange effectiveness and provide exclusive access to supplier resources (Kauffman and Popkowski, 2005; Liesch and Buckley, 2012). While at the same time, the number of critical supplier relationships that a buying organisation can commit to is limited, making the choice and development of supplier relationships critical (Kauffman and Popkowski, 2005). Much of the purchasing and supply management literature has focused on policies for organising the supply base and on the development of supplier management policies for various groups of suppliers (Day et al., 2010; Gelderman and Van Weele, 2005; Olsen and Ellram, 1997). However, while research has been done on selection criteria and several frameworks for supplier selection and classification have been provided, the individual and collective processes through which suppliers become recognised in buying organisations are not well-known. Research into these processes and into the role of suppliers in influencing and shaping these processes is called for (Bakker and Kamann, 2007). 0A recent stream of supply management research seeks to understand how cognition and sensemaking processes unfold in supply-related activities (Bakker and Kamann, 2007; Leek and Mason, 2010; Mota and de Castro, 2005). This literature offers insights into the processes of organisational commitment and alignment with critical suppliers. The paper seeks to investigate the process through which a supplier gains status in a buyer’s organisation. We conduct a detailed and explorative case study of categorisation processes among actors in the buying organisation. Labelling certain qualities and ascribing them to phenomena, as well as communicating these to others are important categorisation processes in organisations (Weick, 1995). The social process of categorising and evaluating supplier inputs has been referred to as status creation (Merton, 1968; Podolny and Phillips 1996). We draw on this steam of literature and ask how the perceived status of suppliers develops in buyer organisations. The interplay between critical events in the buyer–supplier relationship and how these are translated in the buying organisation are analysed, and we discuss how these events affect the development of the supplier’s social status, as perceived by members of the buying organisation (as a shorthand we use supplier status). The paper proceeds as follows: First, we provide a critical review of the supplier selection literature, discussing supplier status and sensemaking as possible perspectives that may address some of the drawbacks in the current research. This is followed by a presentation of the research design and the data that informs the presented case study. Then, we analyse and discuss the findings and conclude with a discussion of implications for research and management.