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The Relationship Regulator: a buyer-supplier collaborative performance measurement system 1. Introduction Over the years there has been a generalized tendency to increase management vision and control, with companies seeking to control over inter-firm processes and relationships. Several authors have therefore suggested that traditional intra-organizational performance measurement systems (PMSs) need to be broadened, with the development of external supply chain PMSs (SCPMSs), crossing company boundaries (Gunasekaran et al. 2004; Chae et al. 2009; Gunasekaran and Kobu, 2007). Easier said than done. Three factors need to be considered in nowadays business environment. First, supply chains (SCs) are becoming more and more fuzzy: rather than being mutually exclusive chains, they appear as interconnected and overlapping networks, where companies are immersed and linked through diverse types of relationship (Lambert and Pohlen, 2001; Rice and Hoppe, 2001). Focus and choice is essential when extending the measurement process beyond company boundaries, yet often complex. Always bear in mind the following question: "which are the key performance that matters for this specific SC partner?" Second, organizational skills are critical to design and take full advantage of a SCPMS. Although purchasing, supply chain and customer service functions have increased their managerial capabilities in recent times (Luzzini and Ronchi, 2016), they still rarely display and follow formal strategies (Hesping and Shiele, 2015). Third, a reliable and robust information system infrastructure is critical for a successful implementation of an external SCPMSs (Nudurupati et al., 2011). This requires technological knowledge, resources and investments in order to tailor the ICT systems to the company specificities. In the last fifteen years, internal PMS literature has progressively moved from measurement system design to its implementation (

a b s t r a c tBuyer-supplier relationships in purchasing and supply chain management practice are instrumental and often "messy". Indeed, the buyer and the supplier generally interact while pursuing their own interest, which are often subject to change over time. The action research method can help address the complexity of buyer-supplier relationships, generating important theoretical insights and relevant managerial implications. First, action research helps the researcher to better understand the problem by integrating diverse perspectives. Second, it allows the researcher to influence the buyer-supplier relationship directly, providing mutually beneficial solutions. This study proposes action research as a suitable interactive method that could complement other methodologies in the field of purchasing and supply chain management, as well as in other fields. An expanded action research framework -the "action research cycle reloaded" -is proposed and the role of the action researcher in the buyer-supplier context is discussed. The framework is applied to study the design and implementation of a supplier performance measurement system in the banking industry.