Managing Digital Bonds in the Buyer-Supplier Relationships

Among the multiple forms of bonding which can help companies to build and maintain buyer-supplier
relationships, digital bonds, i.e. ties between an industrial buyers and suppliers formed when the IT
systems of the parties are shared and integrated, are increasingly recognized as a strategic mean of
customer retention. Despite several studies have unveiled which factors enable and constrain the companies’
adoption of IT systems, we still have limited knowledge of how different types of digital bonds can
be strategically managed. In this chapter we first provide a digital bond matrix in which four different
types of digital bonds are identified. Then the proposed matrix is empirically validated by analyzing
four different case studies representative of each digital bond identified. Finally, the matrix is applied
as a device to inform strategic actions and decisions that can/should be undertaken to improve firms’
digital bonds portfolio.