BUYER-SUPPLIER PARTNERING IN UK DEFENCE PROCUREMENT: LOOKING BEYOND THE POLICY RHETORIC

This article looks beyond the rhetoric in recent UK defence procurement policy to discuss factors that might impact on the practical implementation of buyer-supplier partnering. Various explanations of the difficulty of creating a partnership are identified. The principal explanation explored is that the likelihood of successful partnering is a function of the power relation between a buyer and a supplier. It is argued that partnering is most likely to occur under circumstances of interdependence when each party is highly dependent upon and vulnerable to the other. A case study from naval shipbuilding is used to examine the plausibility of this power explanation. None of the power relations in the supply network discussed is primarily characterized by interdependence and there is no evidence of partnering. This suggests that while the MoD and its suppliers may use the language of partnering, they often find it difficult to translate this into meaningful action.     

RECONCILING TRANSPORT AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY OBJECTIVES: THE WAY AHEAD AT THE END OF THE ROAD

Transport is a major sector of the UK economy. The significant place it holds reflects the fact that cars are generally seen as the most attractive means of travelling comfortably, quickly, privately and safely; that lorries enable the speedy transfer of goods on a door-to-door basis and with the minimum of double handling; and that air travel is an obvious way of saving time over long distances. Indeed, car use has been described as a barometer of personal independence and living standards, road freight as vital to the economic functioning of business, and air travel as an essential component of international communications.
However, a wide range of conflicts can be identified in the process of enabling the demand for fossil fuel-based transport - road, rail and air - to continue increasing whilst at the same time improving environmental quality. Accordingly, in the last two decades, successive governments have been attempting to strike the right balance between a strategy of investment to meet that demand and a strategy on minimizing the wide-ranging adverse consequences of doing so.