Concluding discussion
How can this case study advance our understanding of supplier categorisation and supplier status building in buying firms? What this study can provide in terms of transferrable insight into the conceptualisation of these phenomena in more general matters is that supplier categorisation involves both formal and informal sensegiving processes co-constructed by various actors in the buying organisation. Moreover, the process gives rise to the assessment and reassessment of a supplier's qualities – both formally and informally. These assessments occur from day to day through personal interaction between buyer and supplier staff, but there are also “critical events” – defining moments that contribute to the social construction of supplier status among those involved. Regarding existing theory on supplier assessment, this suggests that the current focus in the purchasing and supply management literature on selection criteria and on the ensuing processes of weighing multiple criteria against each other probably does not reflect what really goes on in buying organisations when suppliers gain and lose status.
