In order to compete effectively in the world market, a company must have a network of competent suppliers. A supplier development program is designed to create and maintain such a network and to improve various supplier capabilities that are necessary for the buying organization to meet its increasing competitive challenges.
Until now, however, most of previous researches have focused on supplier development activity from buyer's perspective and have not considered the possibility of conflict between suppliers and buyers.
Therefore, we applied stakeholder approach to the problem, that is, a company must meet their stakeholders' requirements to ensure their continued cooperation. From this perspective, suppliers are very important because they help the company achieve its primary objective of long- term profit.
This paper is organized in two phases. First, we analyze the perceptual differences between suppliers and buyers through case study, and second, we organize the practical implications on supplier development program from the findings of case study.
In this research, we found that there are gaps in the perceptions of parties in the relationships and continuous supplier development activities can reduce supplier dissatisfaction.
