Book excerpt: Long-term, close trading relations based on trust have come to be regarded as a key to the management of buyer-supplier relations in industry, while the arm's length and adversarial commercial bargain has fallen out of favor. This book examines these contrasting approaches, and the link between them and corporate performance, through a study of the electronics industry in Britain and Japan, and offers a unique integration of multi-disciplinary theorizing and original comparative empirical work. It will be of use to those interested in the nature of the firm, and students of comparative economic performance in Japan and Britain.