Creating and Managing Supplier Relationships Relational Supplier Payoffs Some distributors continuously search out new suppliers to find better pricing and margins for their firm; whereas others believe they will add value to their firm by developing a more integrative relationship with certain key suppliers. The graph below shows the results of a comprehensive study where the integrative relational approach to treating suppliers significantly increases key performance metrics as compared to when the relationship is more transactional (i.e., less integrative) in nature. Select any two of the outcomes (e.g., supplier quality and customer satisfaction) and explain why you believe the integrative approach has produced such significant differences in performance relative to the transactional approach. In doing so, use the information discussed in the chapter and the notes to support your answer. FIGURE 2. Differences in Performance Outcomes between Purchasing Configurations 3.8 3.6 3.4 La 3.2 3 Supplier lead time Supplier quality Sales growth Market share Profitability Customer retention Customer attraction Supplier on-time delivery Customer satisfaction Supplier delivery reliability Transactional Interpersonal network Interpersonal dyadic Integrative relational Notes: The labels a, b, and c at the tops of the bars indicate a lower performance for the marked configuration, compared with the integrative relational configuration; a: the difference is significant at Pita