Clustering of Suppliers´ Quality-based Strategies in Italy: The Case of the Automotive, Telecommunication, and Electromechanical Industries

This paper presents a study aimed at investigating how supplier firms translate the vision of quality as a strategic tool that their entrepreneurial/management groups develop over time into a set of actions which define the firm´s quality-based strategy in the customer-supplier relationship. A survey was carried on collecting data from a sample of 139 suppliers selling goods to the automotive, telecommunication, and electromechanical industries. All the firms of the sample are located in the South of Italy. Results show that: the typology of industry affects the way quality is perceived as a strategic leverage in customer-supplier relationships, while quality perceived as a strategic means affects the way small supplier firms attempt to implement a quality-based strategy and interact with the customer.