This research focuses on the construct of perceived vulnerability, which is based on the gap between perceived trust and perceived dependence in business relationships with suppliers and customers. The outcome of this study is generated from the empirical findings of a survey in the Swedish vehicle industry. These empirical findings indicate that there is to a large extent a significant association between companies' perceived trust and dependence in business relationships towards their suppliers and customers, i.e. that trust is important in lean business relationships. The contributions of this research are a generic conceptualisation of the vulnerability construct, a see-saw model of perceived vulnerability and a typology of perceived vulnerability scenarios in business relationships.