Buyer-supplier Collaboration Research Articles

Buyer–supplier collaboration during emerging technology development

The purpose of this paper is to understand how buyers-suppliers collaborate during the development of emerging technologies. Using the relational view, the paper examines a high technology aerospace firm as it develops additive manufacturing technology with two suppliers. It is found that the radical novelty and high degree of technological uncertainty associated with emerging technologies lead to a small pool of capable suppliers, limited machine capacity and constrained raw material supply. Companies, therefore, turn to University Technology Centres (UTCs) to incubate new ideas and test prototypes before involving suppliers in development efforts. Companies also seek out government-funded catapult centres where buyers, suppliers and customers are co-located in a single facility, allowing them to interact and share knowledge on a regular basis. The study contributes to the relational view by identifying that regular interaction within collaborative relationships does not necessarily lead to knowledge spill-overs between buyers and suppliers during the development of emerging technologies. Instead, the study finds that knowledge exchange is facilitated when suppliers have the freedom to use intellectual property in non-competing industries and have guarantees of future business that allow them to invest in machine capacity and raw material supply.

Influence of Buyer-Supplier Collaboration on Supply Chain Efficiency in Manufacturing Firms in Nakuru County, Kenya

Influence of Buyer-Supplier Collaboration on Supply Chain Efficiency in Manufacturing Firms in Nakuru County, Kenya

Exploring tacit knowledge transfer and innovation capabilities within the buyer–supplier collaboration: a literature review

The study seeks to identify the main facilitators and barriers of tacit knowledge transfer that influence innovation capabilities of the supplier within the buyer–supplier collaboration.The concept...

Responsible sourcing by improving workplace safety through buyer–supplier collaboration

In this paper, we study a problem where a buyer and a supplier collaborate to improve safety at the supplier’s facility. We analyze and compare three policies; for the first policy, the buyer and the supplier jointly collaborate to improve safety at the supplier’s manufacturing facility (this policy is known as Accord in the industry). For the second policy, the buyer supports the supplier by providing external funding (this policy is named Alliance). The third policy is the Base policy, which is used as a benchmark. Under Base policy, the buyer does not provide any support to the supplier on the safety front. Using analytical frameworks, we determine and characterize optimal policies from buyer’s, supplier’s and system safety perspectives. We find that a low capability supplier prefers Accord when the buyer’s capability is high and Alliance, otherwise. However, from safety perspective, for low capability supplier, Alliance should never be preferred.

Buyer–supplier collaboration in green practices: The driving effects from stakeholders

AbstractGreen and environmental practices are considered critical to enhancing firm innovation and performance. Previous research has not fully explained how and why buyers collaborate with suppliers in green practices. This study aimed to verify the driving effects of stakeholders and the underlying mechanism in buyer–supplier collaboration. Questionnaires were used to collect empirical data from selected purchasing managers in listed Taiwanese electronics firms. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data and proposed model. Customer pressure and top management commitment are found to have a positive influence on buyer–supplier collaboration. Competitor pressure and regulatory pressure indirectly affect buyer–supplier collaboration through the mediating effects of customer pressure and top management commitment. However, green investment pressure does not significantly influence top management commitment and buyer–supplier collaboration. The results suggest that customers can leverage the pressure exerted by competing suppliers by bargaining with their current suppliers to improve collaboration with second‐tier suppliers.

A supply chain perspective on innovativeness

Suppliers represent a substantial source of innovation for OEMs. However, scholars agree that antecedents of supplier innovativeness are still less intensively researched. Drawing on resource dependence and the paradigm of collaborative advantage, this study tests how supply chain collaboration between first-tier suppliers and their second-tier suppliers impacts supplier innovativeness for OEMs. The analysis of a multinational OEM and its global supply base reveals that characteristics of first-tier suppliers fully mediate the effect of supply chain integration on supply innovativeness in buyer-supplier collaborations. The positive effect of sub-supplier integration is depending on the technical capabilities of the first-tier supplier. Moreover, findings imply as relationship characteristics and more specifically preferred customer treatment of the supplier-OEM relation positively moderates this relationship. This study contributes new insights how buying firms can identify suppliers embodying highest innovation potential in buyer-supplier collaborations.

The impact of buyer-supplier relationship quality and information management on industrial vending machine benefits in the healthcare industry

Despite the calls for a deeper understanding of SCM in the healthcare industry, theoretical research focused on healthcare buyer-supplier collaboration, specifically inventory management issues, remains nascent and fragmented. Although slow to change, healthcare organizations have begun to consider alternative inventory management systems to improve inventory control and patient care. Industrial vending machines (IVM) can help healthcare organizations address inventory management issues. Grounded in transaction cost economics and contingency theory, this research develops and empirically tests a model that highlights the critical role of information management in the link between buyer-supplier relationship quality and performance outcomes within the context of IVM implementation and use in the healthcare industry. Based on survey data from healthcare managers, results indicate that both information management and relationship quality are tied to a series of benefits in the context of collaborative buyer-supplier IVM agreements.

Collaboration in humanitarian supply chains: an organisational culture framework

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact that institutional logics and, more specifically, organisational culture can have on humanitarian supply chain (HSC) collaboration. A framework was developed that explicates buyer–supplier collaboration in a humanitarian setting. Twenty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with buyers and suppliers. The data indicated that in a HSC, collaborative outcomes, such as new product development, inventory management, and product/service delivery, are influenced by the buyers’ and suppliers’ organisational cultures. Based on suppliers’ characteristics, they can be classified as humanitarian suppliers, commercial suppliers, and humanitarian and commercial suppliers. These groups have distinct organisational cultures. An unexpected finding is that suppliers that serve commercial buyers primarily claim to have encountered no issues in supply chain collaboration with humanitarian buyers, although they have different types of organisational cultures. The factors that lead to successful collaboration are identified as trust, commitment, information sharing and mutual respect. Simultaneously, dominant institutional logics are observed in the dyadic relationship.

From project partnering towards strategic supplier partnering

PurposePartnering has been at the top of the management agenda in the construction industry for many years as a means of improving performance. Previous research shows that partnering has not reached the desired level of strategic partnering, but stopped at project partnering. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical framing for transformation from project partnering towards strategic partnering with suppliers.Design/methodology/approachThe framework is based on two building blocks: a case study of a contractor involved in implementing strategic partnering with four of its suppliers and a literature review dealing with partnering in construction; and models for close and long-term buyer-supplier collaboration in other contexts.FindingsTransformation towards strategic partnering should preferably be based on extension of project partnering in two dimensions: extension in time through relationship development with suppliers and extension in space through increasing network orientation across projects.Practical implicationsSucceeding with relationship development and network orientation requires contractors to abandon two significant aspects of established construction logic that serve as significant implementation barriers. Competitive bidding in single projects needs to be replaced by collaboration over series of projects. The decentralisation of authority to the project level needs to be supplemented with increasing centralised decision making.Originality/valuePrevious research showed that despite the considerable interest in partnering there is a lack of systematic theorizing of the phenomenon. This paper contributes to theoretical anchoring through the combining of the case study and the literature review in the abductive approach applied.

The mediation role of social capital in relationship between buyer-supplier relationship with green supply chain collaboration

The main aim of this study is to understand how buyer-supplier relationship and social capital influence green supply chain collaboration in manufacturing companies. Also, the mediating role of social capital between buyer-supplier relationship and green supply chain collaboration was examined. Because of that, a sample of 70 from logistic and middle levels' managers were chosen for distributing questionnaires. Collected data were analysed by partial least square method of structural equation modelling. The results indicated that there are positive relationships among buyer-supplier relationship (asset specificity, transaction frequency and competitive environment), social capital and green supply chain collaboration. Also, the mediating role of social capital are confirmed. But two hypotheses which are related to volume uncertainty are rejected. These findings provide considerable insights to managers and marketers of green supply chains that seek to respond to a growing interest of environmental performance of supply chain.

Urban community empowerment: context on supply chain collaboration in the SMEs

The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of EB application to operational performance through buyer-supplier collaboration, as well as the influence of buyer-supplier collaboration on operational performance. The context of small industries that ultimately by empowering the community will increase business competitiveness. Community empowerment is a process of creating a community and control over its environment. One concept that is considered as a new paradigm today is e-business (EB), which continues to grow. Data analysis method used is Structural Equation Model (SEM) by the use of PLS program. Based on the analysis from various industries such small garment manufacture, furniture and food, showed that all companies have a supply chain patterns are almost the same. Each company has associated premises supplier, manufacturing and enterprise users of the product. One way to empower the environment is to improve business competitiveness. The development of information and communication technology has been developing very fast and it has brought a significant impact for many aspects of life, including in the business world. EB existence of a significant impact on business practices, at least in terms of the improvement of direct marketing, and organizational transformation.

Pre-requisites of successful strategic electronic coordination: the moderation effect of the ownership mechanism of inter-organisational information systems

Abstract In this paper, we attempt to explain how the ownership mechanism of an interorganisational information system (IOS) may impact strategic information exchange (electronic coordination) induced by specific investments in the IOS. Recent research and practice show that heavy investments in IOSs demonstrate mixed results with respect to their impact on the electronic coordination. Consequently, the search of additional factors is needed to help and explain under what circumstances the IOS investments for strategic purposes become beneficial for the companies in a buyersupplier dyad. Transaction cost economics (TCE) and the hostage model are used as a framework for the research. 198 observations of Norwegian companies in different branches of industry constitute the base of the empirical study. A buyer-supplier dyad is the unit of the analysis. A regression model of the relation between the IOS ownership mechanism and the strategic information sharing is used to test two hypotheses about the buyer-supplier collaboration via an IOS. The results demonstrate that the risk of unilateral specific investments in an IOS made by the buyer or the seller is attenuated by the ownership mechanism of the IOS. The willingness of a buyer to share their strategic information with the supplier via the IOS increases if the supplier invests in the IOS which is owned and controlled by the buyer. Conversely, the supplier becomes motivated to share certain sensitive strategic information with the buying company if the latter invests in the IOS which is owned and controlled by the supplier.

BUYER-SUPPLIER COLLABORATION AND SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE: A CASE STUDY IN THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

The purpose of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanisms through which buyer-supplier collaboration enables resilience. A single case study method was adopted, examining a critical case within the petrochemical industry. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The rationale for undertaking buyer-supplier collaboration in the focal firm is grounded in Kraljic’s procurement matrix, accounting for underlying risks of supply disruptions that are inherent in the resilience discourse. The findings suggested that collaboration between buyers and suppliers does not directly lead to supply chain resilience, but rather enables the antecedents to supply chain resilience. The study developed an understanding of the specific mechanisms through which the antecedents of resilience are enabled in the petrochemical industry.

Chain reactions of a collaborative buyer–supplier relationship: the mediating role of relationship quality on innovation performance

This paper explores a collaborative buyer–supplier relationship (BSR) at multiple echelons of a supply chain by considering contractual fairness and power imbalance at the final stage as enablers and relationship quality as a mediating factor. A research model investigates the effects of contractual fairness, power sources, and relationship quality in terms of normative and instrumental relationship quality on chain reactions of a collaborative BSR and supplier innovation performance. The research results based on the data from 209 first-tier supplying firms in South Korea find that collaborative BSR with the buyer facilitates collaborative BSR with the supplier. Contractual fairness and referent power source enhance collaborative BSR by increasing the supplier’s normative relationship quality to the buyer. Diffusion of collaborative BSR along the supply chain leads to higher innovation performance of the supplier. The findings of this study provide useful insights about how to enhance innovation capabilities through building a collaborative BSR and relationship quality along the entire supply chain.

Building manufacturing flexibility with strategic suppliers and contingent effect of product dynamism on customer satisfaction

A critical capability sought by an increasing number of firms is manufacturing flexibility, because it allows to effectively respond to dynamic markets. Grounded upon a supply chain perspective, this paper aims to assess antecedents of manufacturing flexibility that stem from the upstream relationships with strategic suppliers. Additionally, it is one of the first to analyze the contingent effect of product dynamism on the impact of manufacturing flexibility on downstream customer satisfaction. We apply structural equation modeling to a sample of 155 companies in order to analyze our hypotheses. Results strongly indicate that buyer-supplier collaboration facilitates inter-organizational learning that in turn allows organizations to develop manufacturing flexibility and increase customer satisfaction. Approaching manufacturing flexibility from a broader supply chain view thus pays off. Moreover, we apply multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to explore the contingent effect of product dynamism on the relationship between manufacturing flexibility and customer satisfaction. Results suggest a stronger impact of manufacturing flexibility on performance in the context of higher product dynamism in companies’ customer markets, confirming the importance of a contingency view to flexibility.

Wage Stagnation and the Rise of Merchant Capitalism

This paper examines the link between stagnant wages and the increasingly concentrated power of large corporate buyers. With the rise of big-box retailers and other large intermediary purchasers, suppliers in industries like manufacturing and transportation, former bastions of middle-income employment, face pressure from buyers to reduce wages. Economic sociology predicts that buyer power can either decrease suppliers’ wages by destroying rents or increase wages by raising productivity through buyer-supplier collaboration. Panel analysis of data on publicly traded suppliers shows that supplier reliance on large buyers decreases suppliers’ wages. Instrumental variables analysis of mergers among buyers shows that these wage decreases result from increased buyer power. Increasing reliance on key buyers accounts for 10% to 15% of the decline in wage growth since 1978. These results show that the social structure of production markets can restrain wage growth.

The effects of buyer-supplier's collaboration on knowledge and product innovation

Drawing on marketing and management literature, this study investigates integration mechanisms between channel members. Specifically, the research framework is built upon the buyer-supplier gray-box integration approach, knowledge-based view, and agency theory. This study identifies and compares the effects of two gray-box integration mechanisms, namely supplier task involvement and joint planning, on two kinds of knowledge acquisition. I find that both supplier task involvement and joint planning positively influence manufacturers' product knowledge acquisition and end customer knowledge acquisition. Supplier task involvement has a stronger effect on knowledge acquisition than joint planning. The relationships between integration mechanisms and knowledge acquisition are contingent upon supplier incentives. Furthermore, this study also extends the literature by comparing the effects of two different kinds of knowledge on product innovation performance. Even though both product and end customer knowledge lead to better product innovation performance, end customer knowledge has a stronger effect than product knowledge on product innovation performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed at the end.

Product co-development in an emerging market: The role of buyer-supplier compatibility and institutional environment

In emerging markets, supply chains increasingly serve as critical value chains through which ideas, practices and knowledge flow to and from suppliers and buyers. Drawing on buyer-supplier collaboration literature and organizational learning theory, we examine the antecedents and underlying mechanisms of product co-development. Due to emerging markets' unique institutional environments, we further investigate how government intervention and guanxi importance moderate supplier-buyer collaborative outcomes. Dyadic data from 323 supplier-buyer pairs in China largely support our theoretical framework. Partners' knowledge commonality has a curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship to product co-development, whereas goal compatibility has a positive impact on product co-development. Mutual learning partially mediates the main effect. Furthermore, government intervention weakens the positive effect of mutual learning on product co-development whereas guanxi importance strengthens this relationship. This research provides fresh theoretical and managerial implications to supply chain collaboration in emerging markets.

Cross-level effects of buyer-supplier collaboration and competition on individual gains and individual skill utilization

Organizations increasingly engage in interorganizational projects. Individuals working on such projects are likely to be influenced by this context. This study investigates the effects of the team processes of collaboration and competition on individuals' gains and skill utilization. Drawing on social identity theory, we proposed that collaboration would positively affect individual-level outcomes, while competition would result in negative individual-level outcomes. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the cross-level hypotheses were tested on multiple informants' data pertaining to 55 projects. Surprisingly, positive effects were found for both contextual variables, indicating that collaboration and competition result in greater skill utilization and individual gains.

A Transaction Cost Framework in Supply Chain Relationships: A Social Capital Perspective

ABSTRACTFostering strong and collaborative buyer–supplier relationships is essential for enhancing supply chain performance. Therefore, buyers and suppliers both attempt to develop collaborative relationships. Sometimes these collaborative activities do not result in a happy ending, and consequently, are harmful in the form of opportunism on the part of the buyer or supplier. Opportunism has remained significant in buyer–supplier studies. However, there is a lack of research on opportunism, behavioral uncertainty, and relationship-specific investments from the perspective of social capital factors in an industrial marketing setting. The primary aim of the current study is to identify the role of social capital and transaction cost theory variables. This study integrates different research on transaction cost theory variables and also reviews the relationship of these variables to social capital factors. The current study includes 83 studies from various journal article databases such as Wiley-Blackwell, Emerald, SpringerLink, Taylor & Francis, JSTOR, and ScienceDirect. This review focuses on the most recent studies. This study identifies various perspectives regarding the effect of social capital on transaction cost variables. Conclusions and implications for managers are also discussed.