How do knowledge spillover and access in supply chain network enhance SMEs’ credit quality?
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 17 August 2018
Issue publication date: 21 February 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how knowledge spillover and access in a supply chain network enhance the credit quality in supply chain finance (SCF) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on network theory and a knowledge-based view (KBV) of SCF, this paper proposes a theoretical model and tests it using survey data from a sample of 248 SMEs in China.
Findings
The main finding is that both strong ties and dense ties within a supply chain network have positive effects on SMEs’ credit quality, and these effects are mediated by knowledge spillover and knowledge access. Interestingly, knowledge spillover is found to have a positive effect on knowledge access.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to investigate the relationship between supply chain network and supply chain financing from a KBV. The proposed model captures the complexity in the interaction among different attributes of supply chain networks (i.e. strong ties and dense ties), different aspects of knowledge transfer (i.e. knowledge spillover and knowledge access) and SMEs’ credit quality in SCF. The results not only show the importance of SMEs’ supply chain networks to SMEs’ credit quality but also contribute to the understanding of the KBV in SCF.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The research underlying this paper was presented at the 11th International Conference of Operations and Supply Chain Management (ICOSCM 2017), Kaifeng, China, July 17–19, 2015, and was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71672189, 71272155).
Citation
Song, H., Lu, Q., Yu, K. and Qian, C. (2019), "How do knowledge spillover and access in supply chain network enhance SMEs’ credit quality?", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 119 No. 2, pp. 274-291. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2018-0049
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited