Dissertation: Communication is Crucial in a Business Relationship 

The dissertation indicates that although so-called soft factors such as communication are important in buyer-supplier relationships, financial, technical and quality-related factors continue to receive greater emphasis. This research reveals that communication of strategically important topics largely depends on individuals and their communication skills and behaviour. It also underlines the importance to successful strategy communication of personal ties and long-term buyer-supplier relationships involving trust.

Stenström-Iivarinen's dissertation shows that buyer-supplier communication in large amounts is rarely considered a problem: it is better to communicate too much rather than too little. Formal and informal communication play their own roles and mean different things to persons performing different tasks. The criteria of informal communication also vary. Satisfying communication is therefore a sum of many parts. Communication's multiple dimensions should be taken into account when analysing the characteristics of buyer-supplier relationships and managing such relationships.

The dissertation is a case study of the electronics manufacturing industry, focusing on nine buyer-supplier relationships. Interviews of key persons, both in buyer and supplier organisations, formed by basis for the material.

The dissertation sheds further light on how buyers and suppliers intercommunicate on key strategic topics which affect long-term development. It also offers practical information to company managements on the development of their organisation's communication processes and the related decision-making, particularly concerning external interest groups such as major suppliers of goods and services.