The Effects of Buyers' Attitudes Toward Supplier Diversity on Their Spending with Ethnic Minority Businesses

Abstract

This study examines characteristics that may influence buyers' desire to obtain goods and services from ethnic minority enterprises using data from 277 buyers employed at large buying organizations (LPOs) in the United States and the United Kingdom (EMBs). The literature on social capital is utilized to construct hypotheses about the cognitive, structural, and relational factors that may influence decisions to purchase from minority enterprises. Following that, current discrimination theory is used to deduce how buyers' views about supplier diversity affect the effects of social capital on their buying operations with EMBs. Multiple regression research indicates that in both the United States and the United Kingdom, buyers' perceived positive social capital has a direct, substantial association with their spending with EMBs. Additionally, the findings indicate that in both nations, purchasers' attitudes toward supplier diversity act as a moderator of the connection. Interestingly, despite the fact that the United States pioneered the concept of supplier variety, our study reveals that UK LPO buyers spend more with their EMBs. This research demonstrates how LPOs' strategic corporate social responsibility initiatives may be influenced by their buyers' social relationships with EMBs and their views about supplier diversity, based on these findings.