Building social capital in client-PSF relationships: the role of service complexity and Procurement involvement

The issue of social capital development in buyer-supplier relationships is increasingly of interest to supply chain management scholars. Most of our understanding, however, has been developed from the manufacturing context, where the Procurement function plays an active role. In contrast, Procurement’s role in the procurement and management of services remains unexplored. This is interesting because in case of professional services, unlike goods procurement, the client is dependent on the service-provider for its specialised expertise. We address this gap by exploring the role of Procurement in developing social capital in client-PSF relationship through a multiple, embedded-case study design.