Business relationship portfolios and subcontractors' capabilities

While research on vertical relationships has demonstrated that suppliers’ capabilities can be developed via partnerships, we lack studies that relate the development of such capabilities to the management of differentiated business relationship portfolios. This paper partially fills this research gap by investigating how small to medium subcontractors (SMSs) align their customer relationship portfolios with their design and marketing capabilities. Applying one-way ANOVA to a sample of 62 subcontractors located in the mechanical industrial district of Pordenone (North East Italy), we show that the development of marketing and design capabilities affects subcontractors’ business relationship portfolios. Our study suggests that SMSs strategically manage their customer relationships, moving from traditional subcontracting to a more articulated portfolio characterized by a stronger presence of partnership and market relationships. Marketing and design capabilities shape SMSs’ autonomy and strategic options in choosing the appropriate combinations of different relationship types.