Analytical evaluation of relation between alignment and performance in service triads – three differing contexts

Abstract

Supply chain (SC) agility depends on organisational structure; customer satisfaction, and collaboration among SC actors. To understand these dimensions and their impact on supply chain performance, we have analysed three 'triadic' relationships. Examples in this research paper involve: 1) hospital buyers managing high-cost supplies with outside vendors, but influenced by its physicians; 2) specialised hospital outpatient units that need to coordinate patient flow with medical staff and attending physicians; 3) logistics service providers with assets managing its demand with external customer through an internal brokerage service. Specifically, we have analytically evaluated organisational – 'pressures' (hierarchical versus bureaucratic), 'practices' (scheduling, time-blocks) and 'structures' (captive versus autonomous) and how they influence alignment between interactions in the respective triads to ultimately affect performance, namely, lower supply expenses, balancing customer satisfaction and asset utilisation, and profitability.