Influence of dependence on social capital and operational performance: a study of the textile and clothing industry
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
ISSN: 0885-8624
Article publication date: 27 December 2021
Issue publication date: 22 July 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically whether the presence of dependence influences the strength and direction of the relationship between social capital and operational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors tested two effects, moderator and mediator, of the dependence between social capital and operational performance in the buyer–supplier relationship in the supply chain. The authors use dependence as a dichotomous variable and empirically test the hypotheses using hierarchical linear regression from data collected from 117 industrial companies in Brazil.
Findings
The results show that although dependence does not have a mediating effect on social capital shares in operational performance, it moderates the strength of trust actions in relation to cost, delivery, flexibility and innovativeness of the buyer.
Practical implications
As for the practical implications, in a buyer–supplier relationship, managers may not be fully capable of decreasing dependence and thus increasing the effect of trust actions on operational performance.
Originality/value
For management practices in the textile and clothing industry, social capital actions contribute to strategic objectives, increasing collaboration between supply chain partners, and for operations, offering more options in managing social ties.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for supporting this research – Processes 88882.314673/2019–01 (Celestini, J.) and 88887.342073/2019–00 (Goecks, L. S.). CNPq: the Brazilian Agency for Scientific Research supported partially this study under the grant numbers [303574/2016–0; 302570/2019–5] (Sellitto, M. A.).
Citation
Celestini, J., Goecks, L.S., Lolli, F. and Sellitto, M.A. (2022), "Influence of dependence on social capital and operational performance: a study of the textile and clothing industry", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 9, pp. 1933-1947. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-04-2021-0215
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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