A scenario-based experimental study of buyer supplier relationship commitment in the context of a psychological contract breach: Implications for supply chain management

Abstract

Mutually beneficial long-term relationships between supply chain partners are the key to supply chain performance. However, these relationships may sometimes be undermined due to unforeseen events (e.g., supply chain disruptions). This study aims to originally examine the buyer-supplier relationship (BSR) commitment if the buyer's psychological contract is breached by the supplier. The study originally examines the effect of supplier-induced disruptions over a new product development project on the buyer's relationship commitment. It also evaluates the impact of the repair strategies employed by the supplier on the commitment to repair. These relationships are examined on two levels. First is the case where the buyer's focal manager has a cooperative or confrontational relationship with the supplier's focal manager. Second is the case where a prior (i.e., pre-disruption) relationship between the buyer and the supplier was collaborative or adversarial. We studied the research model using experimental methods on a sample of 204 supply chain managers from Pakistani industries. The results of this study show that the initial interpersonal and interorganizational relationships affected the response of the buyer when its psychological contract with the supplier was breached. The repair strategy of financial compensation is shown to have a considerable influence on repairing the commitment level of the buyer.