【正文】 y to contribute to costrationalisations.The first part of the paper focuses on purchasing strategiesand how they are assumed to contribute to the efficiency ofthe firm. Thereafter, cost rationalisation through supplierrelationships is discussed and Maintenance Repair andOperations (MRO) supplies are introduced as a particularlyplicated purchasing area where there are typically largerationalisation potentials. A case dealing with MRO purchasing is presented in Section 3 and analysed in Section 4.Thereafter, the concluding discussion focuses on how andwhy strategies focused on high involvement with fewsuppliers can and should be successfully pursued. Finally,some managerial implications are addressed focusing on the‘‘total cost concept’’ and the problems and potentials of itsapplication.2. Purchasing strategiesThere are different dimensions in which purchasingstrategies are described. There are also different suggestionsas when to apply different strategies, ., how to distinguishamong situations where they can contribute to the efficiencyof the firm. We focus on two such dimensions: the degree ofinvolvement in individual supplier relationships and thenumber of suppliers (Gadde amp。 MRO。 Total cost1. IntroductionThe supply side of panies has bee increasinglyimportant over the last few decades. One reason is that thecosts of purchased goods and services represent the majorityof total costs for most panies. This high share isattributable to the ambition of panies to concentratemore of their efforts on a limited part of the total activitystructure of the business networks in which they areinvolved. By outsourcing activities to suppliers, firms areable to specialise their own operations.It is not only the increasing financial impact that makesthe supply side significant. Another more important reason isthe changing nature of the content of buyer – supplierexchange. Over time, outsourcing of manufacturing activities has been followed by outsourcing of design anddevelopment work. To an increasing extent, suppliers arecontributing to the technical development of a pany.This change has been accentuated because of increases in thenumber of different technologies a pany now needs inorder to be able to operate and because of the higher cost ofdeveloping each subsequent generation of technology. Companies today are dependent on knowledge developed andsupplied by other firms.* Tel.: +46317721196。 Ha?kansson, 2001。Ha?kansson, 2001, p. 139). These gains, however, cannot beattained without substantial coordination, adaptation, and interaction, entailing costs. Hence, purchasing strategies basedon low and high involvement, respectively, are assumed tocontribute in different ways to the efficiency of the buyingfirm.Most current purchasing management literature suggests amixture of low and high involvement strategies in relation tosuppliers. Various purchasing portfolio models (., Bensaou, 1999。 Pedersen,2002). There are typically two dimensions that determine thechoice of strategy for each product or purchasing situation:(1) ‘‘the importance of purchasing’’ and (2) ‘‘the plexityof the supply market’’ (Kraljic, 1983).If the buyer cannot avoid dependence on a particularsupplier, the portfolio models typically advise partnership,where the buyer and supplier bee mutually dependent.Hence, high involvement relationships or ‘‘partnerships’’with suppliers are suggested as means of dealing with aplex purchasing situation. However, as it entails reciprocal dependence between the buyer and the supplier,‘‘partnerships’’ are mainly seen as problematic and thussituations that should be avoided if possible.The number of suppliers is of importance in bothpurchasing strategies but for different reasons and in different ways. High involvement is monly associated with asingle sourcing policy and low involvement with dual ormultiple sourcing (Gadde amp。Bechtel amp。Patterson, 1997). A further improvement of internal purchasing routines was made when purchasing cards wereintroduced. Using these cards meant significant administrative processing savings, since purchasing requisitions andpurchase orders could be eliminated.However, internal efforts to reduce cost while maintaininga large number of suppliers can only take the firm to a certainpoint after which there are no additional cost rationalisationsto be obtained inhouse. Therefore, panies seem to beabandoning this philosophy, favouring consolidation tofewer suppliers (Gadde amp。 Le Sueur amp。Kim, 1986), the number of suppliers used, or tendersrequired, has to be balanced against the potential gains inobtaining a low price.When a high involvement strategy is pursued, the numberof suppliers is of importance simply because it is not possiblefor a firm to cooperate closely with too many suppliers.Therefore, single sourcing is often suggested as a means ofreducing the supplier base and thereby of enabling closercooperation with the remaining suppliers (Gadde amp。 Olsen amp。 Snehota, 2000). Gadde and Snehota propose involvementas a concept to describe the extent of integration in relationships. As such, it is useful to distinguish three dimensions ofinvolvement that affect outes in supplier relationships:coordination of activities, adaptations of resources, andinteraction among individuals.Remendations for applying a strategy based on lowinvolvement with suppliers are based on the assumption thatinternal or indirect purchasing costs can be kept low whenthere are limited coordination, adaptation, and interactionwith individual suppliers. Furthermore, the price, or thedirect purchasing cost, is assumed to be low when severalsuppliers are played off against one another (Gadde amp。 Gadde, 1999). Interfaceswith suppliers are crucial not only