Buyer seller interaction has been recognized as a potential area to generate both innovations and quality improvements (Axelsson et al, 2005) and one way to gain such advantages is to engage in supplier development activities (Krause, 1999; Krause & Scanell, 2002). Drawing upon interaction theory value can be created through activity links (e.g. JIT, concurrent engineering etc.), resource ties (i.e. optimal use of other parties resources), and actor bonds (i.e. the social bonds between actors) (Håkansson, 1982; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995) the potential to increase the value for both involved parties in a buyer seller relationship is evident. Studies of supplier development has often been focused on the manufacturing industry, this case investigates buyer seller interaction in the service industry (Wynstra et al, 2006). Further supplier development has focused on the why and what questions (Krause, 1999; Larsson, 2005), the how questions however, has not been addressed in the same extent.

A theoretical field focusing a lot on the how question is strategy as practice (Jarzabkovski & Spee, 2009). When examining how actors create strategy in other research workshops has been proven to be a valuable tool for strategy development processes (Hodgkinson, Whittington, Johnson & Schwarz, 2005). In the case studied here a service provider has invited their customer to a series of three workshops aiming at increasing interaction in the relationship to get a better understanding of each other, create learning and to ultimately increase innovation in the relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how workshops can be used as a tool for supplier development activities aiming at increasing development in the buyer seller relationship.