Search results

The purpose of this study was to establish the cause-effect relationship between determinants of trust in the buyer–supplier integration and the procurement performance of large manufacturing firms in Tanzania.

The study surveyed 52 firms from Temeke Municipality, Tanzania using questionnaire subjected to one procurement manager and one stores manager tallying a sample size of 104 respondents. Explanatory design was employed due to the presence of cause–effect relationship and the null hypotheses were tested using binary logistic regression technique at p values < 0.05 and ExpB > 1.

Mutual goals, geographical vicinity among partners, and supplier reliability are significant for the procurement performance of the manufacturing firms in Tanzania, whereas interpersonal and inter-organizational trusts and perceived buyers’ confidence are of no significant impact.

Buyer–supplier integration is a recently embraced and paramount practice for the manufacturing firms in Tanzania. Therefore, longitudinal study would further add value. The presence of the causality from the tested hypothesis appeals for the necessity of progress tracking.

Causality has been established, and a framework has been developed for the performance of large manufacturing firms using trust of buyer–supplier integration.

There shall be creation of more employment opportunities and timely availability of materials from large manufacturing firms in Tanzania.

Anchored on transaction cost economics and resource dependency theories, the study disclosed the root cause of procurement performance in the context of manufacturing firms in Tanzania whilst considering trust as a resource advantage of buyer–supplier integration.

Supplier–supplier coopetition is vital to buyer innovation in reality. However, it has not received enough attention in prior research. Integrating the ability-motivation-opportunity framework of organizational learning perspective and the awareness-motivation-capability framework of competitive dynamics theory, this paper investigates the effect of supplier–supplier coopetition within supplier network on buyer innovation, as well as the contingent role of the relational attributes -- duration and tie strength dispersion of buyer–suppliers relationship at the supplier network level.

Testing this model on the secondary data of supply networks formed by 204 US listed buyer firms in SIC code 28, 35, 36 during 2008–2019, the authors utilize a fixed-effect regression model to investigate the relationship between supplier–supplier coopetition and the focal buyer's innovation.

The authors provide support for the positive influence of supplier–supplier cooperation on buyer innovation and an inverted U-shaped relationship between supplier–supplier competition and the focal buyer's innovation. The buyer–suppliers tie strength dispersion amplified the above two effects, and supplier–supplier cooperation mitigates the effect of supplier–supplier competition on the focal buyer's innovation.

Extending the traditional dyadic view to a network-level view via linking the supplier–supplier dyad and the buyer–suppliers dyad, this paper contributes to a better understanding of supplier–supplier coopetition and its impact on buyer innovation with learning and competitive tension as the underlying explanations, and validates the contingent role of buyer–suppliers relational attributes.

This study was steered to establish how buyer–supplier collaboration's commitment attributes serve as an antecedent for procurement performance in large manufacturing entities in Tanzania.

A parallel, concurrent, mixed method was used in the study. Quantitatively, 52 firms were surveyed from Temeke Municipality, Tanzania, using questionnaire that specified 1 procurement manager and 1 store manager from those firms, totaling a sample size of 104 respondents. Qualitatively, expressive opinions to supplement the numeric data were gathered from supply chain managers using the saturation principle. Explanatory design analyzed the existing cause–effect relationship, and the null hypotheses were tested using binary logistic regression at p values < 0.05 and ExpB > 1.

Fidelity and enthusiasm to suggest improvements to suppliers and the duration of the collaboration antecede the procurement performance of the manufacturing firms in Tanzania, while devotion to invest resources and initiatives on joint problem solving have no significant impact.

The causality between buyer–supplier collaboration and procurement performance has been revealed. Since there might be third party logistics in collaborations, future research should center on their moderating effect.

A framework has been developed for liberating procurement performance in the context of large manufacturing firms in Tanzania.

Based on Transaction Cost Economics and Resource Dependency Theories, the study revealed the root cause of procurement performance in the context of Tanzanian manufacturing firms, while also considering commitment to buyer–supplier collaboration as a prerequisit for the commendable target.

This study aims to investigate how relational capital derived by the buyer and supplier from the buyer-LSP and supplier-LSP dyads affects buyer-supplier adaptability and their relational performance.

Drawing upon the tenets of Social Capital Theory and Relational View, the authors performed exploratory research using a survey of 350 supply chain triads. Based on these data, the authors used Structural Equation Modeling to estimate the Higher Component Model (HCM) and test the research hypotheses.

The research results indicate that relational capital derived by the supplier from the supplier-LSP dyad has a strong and positive impact on buyer-supplier adaptability. On the other hand, relational capital derived by the buyer from the buyer-LSP dyad has no significant impact on buyer-supplier adaptability. The results also demonstrate that the effect of buyer-supplier adaptability on buyer-supplier relational performance is strong and positive. The obtained findings also suggest that buyer-supplier adaptability acts as a partial mediator between relational capital derived by buyer/supplier from the links with LSP and relational performance.

The study has some limitations that guide directions for future research. First, along with relational capital, it might be worthwhile to also investigate the impact of structural and cognitive capital in supply chain triads to test whether and how these two dimensions of social capital contribute to buyer-supplier adaptability. It could be also interesting to include the LSP’s perception of relational capital in the model to shift the analysis from the organizational to the interorganizational level.

Given the increasing interest in complex structures of supply chains, this study investigates how one dyad affects other dyads in supply chain triads. Specifically, the study develops and empirically tests the construct of relational capital derived from the links with LSPs, and views adaptability as the result of two interacting parties.

Although trust and distrust as distinct phenomena are of increasing interest to operations and supply chain management (OSCM) scholars, they have been inconsistently conceptualized and there is a lack of evidence regarding the distinctiveness of their respective antecedents. This study, therefore, focuses on one of the most widely accepted dimensions of trust, benevolence, to help more fully analyse (supplier) trust and distrust (in a buyer) and explore the effects of relational norms and structural power as specific antecedents.

The study employed a scenario-based role-playing experimental method. The proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.

The results that while relational norms increase supplier trust, power asymmetry can simultaneously generate supplier distrust, support the coexistence of supplier trust and distrust in a buyer–supplier relationship.

This study is one of the first to explore the antecedents of supplier trust and distrust in a buyer. It demonstrates that supplier trust and distrust can coexist when the relationship is characterized by relational norms and asymmetrical power. This opens important questions for future trust–distrust research.

The authors analysed fairness as an antecedent of trust to understand how trust building can be actively managed to facilitate collaboration in buyer–supplier relationships.

A case study was employed to buyer–supplier relationships of five organic food companies from three different sectors. The research was developed with data collected in 2022 through qualitative research interviews and analysed using a structured content analysis. A practitioner workshop served to complement findings and confirm the interpretation of data by discussing interview results from a managerial perspective.

A conceptual model based on organisational trust and justice theory was developed to examine causal relations between fairness and trust. Findings show that perceived distributional, procedural and interactional fairness mutually interact with the perceived trustworthiness of business partners and that both contribute to building personal, organisational and institutional trust. Qualitative data support the conceptual model and show that trust is a valuable relational resource that affects relationship quality and the willingness to collaborate and to take risks in times of uncertainty.

High trust levels developed through positive fairness perceptions can lower risk perceptions whilst increasing the willingness to collaborate in supply chain relationships. This can help deal with market uncertainties.

Through the lens of organisational trust and justice theory, this study extends the literature on collaboration in supply chains by including a comprehensive view on the formation of trust in business-to-business (B2B) relationships.

As buyers and suppliers seek to create value, they face the challenge of creating an environment that promotes coordination and information sharing and discourages opportunism. While the literature suggested dyadic mechanisms to create such an environment, this study focuses on ties beyond the buyer–supplier dyad. Specifically, close connections to one's partner's partners (CPP) are crucial in the realization of benefits for buyers and suppliers.

Drawing from embeddedness theory and governance theory, the authors developed a contingency framework to examine when CPP are beneficial or counterproductive considering two dyadic attributes – relational capital (RC) and partner dependence. Analyses were conducted using data from a dyadic survey complemented with archival data on 106 buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs).

The study reveals that CPP both help and hurt in the realization of benefits. Stark asymmetries exist between the impact of CPP on the buyer and supplier sides. For buyers, CPP exert a direct positive effect on operational and innovation benefits. For suppliers, the effect of CPP on operational and innovation benefits is contingent on buyer dependence and RC – CPP serves as a substitute for buyer dependence and RC. There are no such contingency effects for buyers. Further analysis identifies situations for suppliers when CPP hurt the realization of benefits.

The study highlights the importance of CPP to foster efficiency and innovation within BSRs and illustrates how their impact varies across contingency conditions and across the parties within a dyad.

Research on the “black box” of cognitive capital remains limited in supply chain resilience (SCRES) literature. Drawing from an in-depth single case study of a major consumer electronics multinational facing the COVID-19 disruption, this paper aims to develop a clearer picture of cognitive capital’s elements while contextualizing how they interact with SCRES temporal capabilities to prepare, respond, recover and learn.

Consisting of 40 in-depth interviews collected during a four-month period, this single case revolves around the buyer’s view across 36 multiregional buyer–supplier dyads, spanning 17 product and service categories. Data were processed during the pandemic, while findings discuss pre- and intra-crisis events based on two scenarios: the impact of disruption on category demand, comparing sudden pandemic-driven product and service demand fluctuations (i.e. increase, decrease); and the geographical proximity of the supplier relative to the buying firm.

The case unveils different elements of cognitive capital (e.g. shared goals, assumptions, values, kinesics language, multilingualism, virtual negotiation, prior disruption experience, shared process capabilities) during a major global disruption, suggesting that different cognitive capital elements influence positively and differently SCRES’ temporal capabilities. Overall, buying firms are urged to build on cognitive capital to improve SCRES preparation, response, recovery and learning.

This paper extends the understanding of cognitive capital in buyer–supplier relationships by identifying its elements and offering a theoretical articulation of how they enable episodically the four SCRES temporal capabilities under contingencies of increased and decreased demands, and suppliers’ geographical proximity.

In the pursuit of co-exploration, the strength and brokerage dimensions of dyadic ties create a novelty–action trade-off: tie strength facilitates coordination but constraints novelty, while tie brokerage expands knowledge diversity but aggravates coordination difficulty. This study contributes towards a better understanding of this tension by comparing two dimensions of relational ties and examining their contingent values given different environmental factors and exchange characteristics.

The authors used survey data from 194 matched buyer–supplier dyads in China's high-tech industries and employed hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses.

The authors find that compared with tie strength, tie brokerage has a stronger positive effect on co-exploration. Moreover, guanxi importance amplifies the effect of tie strength while decreasing the value of tie brokerage. As market uncertainty increases, the role of tie brokerage becomes more salient. Additionally, tie strength becomes less effective when buyer centralization is high, whereas tie brokerage exerts a stronger impact on co-exploration when an exchange is highly formalized.

This study contributes to the supply chain literature by adopting a relational perspective to integrate relational ties into the study of buyer–supplier co-exploration and by elaborating on the different implications of tie strength and tie brokerage in resolving the novelty–action trade-off. Furthermore, it provides a more nuanced understanding of when distinct dimensions of relational ties are effective, by clarifying boundary conditions in terms of environmental factors and exchange characteristics.

This study aims to investigate how relationship conflict (RC) hinders green customer integration (GCI) and which strategy could be developed to alleviate the negative effect of RC.

The authors use a sample of 206 Chinese firms to examine hypothesized relationships drawing on social exchange theory and buyer-supplier relationship perspective. Methods including exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are used to assess reliability and validity. Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis. Post hoc analysis is adopted to evaluate the robustness.

The results show that RC negatively relates to GCI. Normative commitment partially mediates the relationship between RC and GCI, while the mediating role of instrumental commitment is insignificant. In addition, coercive influence strategy positively moderates the RC-normative commitment and RC-GCI relationships.

While this study clarifies the mechanism of how RC impedes GCI and how to address RC in buyer-supplier relationships, it could be more meaningful to extend the current research and figure out how to address RC in different supply chain relationships. Besides, it will make sense to conduct longitudinal studies and explore the dynamic nature of RC in supply chain relationships.

In practice, firms find it challenging to achieve GCI owing to the ubiquitous existence of RC. The findings reveal that RC detriments GCI partially through normative commitment, and the use of coercive influence strategy mitigates the detriments of RC. Thus, the authors provide solutions for firms to address RC for achieving GCI.

RC is unavoidable in organizational interactions. Prior studies have not revealed the processes through which RC relates to GCI. The authors bridge the gap by exploring the mediating role of organizational commitment and the moderating role of influence strategy, which offers a better understanding of how RC is associated with GCI, and add knowledge of addressing RC for achieving GCI.