Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritise social responsible mechanisms in apparel supply chains to extend social responsibility from large retailers in developed countries to producers in developing nations.

A framework that consists of supplier qualification and supplier relational mechanisms as two socially responsible mechanisms, with five factors and 18 dimensions is proposed. To prioritise the dimensions, analytic hierarchy process is employed by using a case study methodology of a major Australian retailer sourcing from Bangladesh manufacturers.

Results indicate that at the mechanism level, both retailer and manufacturers perceive qualification of manufacturer as by far the most critical element compared to the relational mechanism. However, substantial differences exist at the factor level; namely, that the social factor is critical for the retailer, whereas the economic factor is critical for the manufacturer. Within the relational mechanism, evaluation helps retailers to enforce social responsibility, while manufacturers believe collaboration helps.

The major limitation of this study is the generalisation of the findings. The results obtained by focusing on a particular context in the Australian retail sector importing from Bangladesh, may not be applicable to other nations.

By highlighting the difference of opinion, this study assists managers in developing guidelines to better understand the socially responsible mechanisms in the retailer-manufacturer dyadic relationship and to propose strategies to address the differences.

This study advances the literature on inter-organisational relationship to retailer-manufacturer dyad for the implementation of social responsibility by including supplier qualification along with supplier relational mechanism.

An efficient supplier management is of central importance for successful supply chain management. It begins with the identification of potential suppliers and leads to the controlling of the supplier‐buyer‐connection. This paper aims to design a new supplier‐rating system that fits the practical needs of supplier rating and supports many other steps of the suppliers management process.

An empirical study on supplier rating among 193 industrial companies revealed that the existing methods for supplier rating do not satisfy the needs in practice. This paper describes a multivariate analysis tool for managing a pool of engaged or future suppliers. A constructed ideal supplier serves as a reference to compare all suppliers by means of multivariate analysis methods. A case study illustrates the application of the tool.

The empirical study found out new needs for supplier‐rating methods such as graphical representation of the suppliers. The designed supplier‐rating system uses principal component analysis to create a classification and ranking of the potential suppliers by means of ellipsoid clusters. If this new supplier‐rating system is applied repeatedly, a dynamic observation of the suppliers is guaranteed, always corresponding to real market conditions.

The new system has to run computerized and can be used for pre‐qualification, selection and controlling of suppliers. It is easy to handle and practicable without using manual criteria‐weighting.

Based on a critical lens, this paper aims to empirically evaluate the adoption of programs to buy from minority suppliers (MS) and their outcomes in Brazil, considering a multi-stakeholder approach (buying companies, suppliers and third parties).

The data were collected via an exploratory survey involving 109 buying companies and two case studies with 21 in-depth interviews.

It was revealed that supplier diversity (SD) in Brazil is still developing, and is more rhetoric than a practice promoting real change. The current traditional procurement mindset, the role of third parties, and the focus on supplier selection, rather than on supplier development prevents a social impact that could reduce inequality between MS and their counterparts.

Previous studies were focused on buying companies' perspective in advanced countries that have clear regulation for SD. By exploring the phenomenon in a country with great economic disparities and no regulation, and using a critical lens, this study highlights the difference between desired and effective implementation of social initiatives that promote inclusiveness.

Supply chain management is an increasingly important organizational concern, and proper management of supplier relationships constitutes one essential element of supply chain success. However, there is little empirical research that has tested the effect of supplier development on performance. The main objective is to analyze the effect of supplier development practices with different levels of implementation complexity on the firm's purchasing performance.

Three supplier development constructs were defined: basic supplier development, moderate supplier development, and advanced supplier development. Three structural models were hypothesized and tested using structural equation modeling through field research on a sample of 306 manufacturing companies in Spain.

Identified important interrelationships among the various supplier development practices, basic, moderate, and advanced. Also indicated that the implementation of supplier development practices significantly contributes to the prediction of purchasing performance.

The use of a single key informant could be seen as a potential limitation of the study. The study was a cross‐sectional and descriptive sample of the manufacturing industry at a given point in time. A more stringent test of the relationships between the different levels of supplier development and performance requires a longitudinal study, or field experiment.

This study focused on supplier development practices and revealed how involving suppliers in supplier development activities is important and may help buyers to increase their purchasing performance. The findings from the structural analysis should provide practicing managers with insights on how these practices and their benefits are related in terms of purchasing performance, thus affecting their ability to make better sourcing decisions.

Fills an important gap in the purchasing literature with respect to the area of supplier development. While there is much written about supplier development based on conceptual and case study research, this study is unique in that it is the first attempt to empirically model the relationships between different levels of supplier development and their impact on purchasing performance using a comprehensive set of practices.

Reverse e‐auctions are increasingly being used in business‐to‐business procurement and have been reported to yield significant price reductions for buyer firms. However, the adoption of online auction formats has raised many concerns among suppliers, often being criticized for damaging supplier‐buyer relationships and for being antithetical to what is currently regarded as good supply chain management. Against this background this paper aims to examine the reverse auction phenomenon in the UK packaging sector.

Data were collected from the direct experiences of one large food‐packaging supplier, using case studies of reverse e‐auctions, and from exploratory interviews with other suppliers in the sector.

While buyers are reaping significant short‐term price reductions, the benefits to suppliers are less obvious. In fact, little reference was detected to the often‐quoted reductions in overall transaction costs for either buyers or suppliers. However, most respondents were not able to specify their transaction costs and associated risks and did not appear to have adequate costing systems to enable such quantification.

Reports the concerns of suppliers, outlines how buyers could embed trust‐building mechanisms into the reverse e‐auction process and proposes a model for testing the findings in future research.

Expands on the existing experience of the impact of reverse e‐auctions on supply chain relationships despite the limited, albeit growing, body of empirical evidence of this.

The purpose is to assess the usefulness of creative vouchers, a specific kind of technology and innovation vouchers (small grants usually given to SMEs to acquire external knowledge) where the knowledge suppliers are creative firms such as design agencies.

A multiple case analysis of four EU-funded pilot voucher schemes was carried out through project reports and semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders.

The authors show that creative vouchers are effective policy instruments despite the limited amount of money involved because they trigger new innovation trajectories often in a serendipitous way. The authors also show that the quality of projects and satisfaction of the beneficiaries increase when both proposals and suppliers are screened.

The authors’ conclusions are based on four pilot projects in a specific region of the world (Western Europe). Though two of them were extended to a much bigger scale, their generalizability may be limited. Moreover, the limited number of cases does not permit an analytical evaluation of all the voucher schemes mechanisms.

The findings of this paper can be very useful to policymakers designing voucher schemes and to the companies involved, whether they are providers or beneficiaries. In particular, the voucher allocation mechanisms may have a strong impact on the success of the program.

The innovation spurred by the collaboration with creative firms is generally neither energy-intensive nor capital intensive, but brain intensive, and this is the best way to leverage on the talent of local creative and make companies create value based on immaterial resources.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of creative vouchers after Bakhsi et al., 2015, and the only one involving several schemes in different countries. It shows the innovation potential of such a little known policy instrument for SMEs. Moreover, it provides insight on how to design a voucher scheme in order to improve its effectiveness.

In the late 1990’s, online B2B auctions were proliferating and were being adopted in a wide variety of circumstances. The reverse auction tool has evolved to take advantage of internet technology, and online auctions have been identified by many large organisations as a tool to achieve procurement savings. As companies adopt this technology, it is important for them to understand the implications of this type of procurement. This paper adopts a case study approach to identify the issues for both buyers and sellers using this type of B2B application. It describes the conduct of a reverse auction, from the preliminary steps all the way to the final awarding of the contract. The case study is viewed through the eyes of a supplier, undertaking a reverse auction for the first time. The main outcomes show that the auction vendor and buyer were major winners – with the supplier expending considerable time and effort to participate in the auction, only to realise that the auction places cost above all other factors in awarding the contract. The importance of cost over service delivery, customer support and buyer‐supplier relationship was the “bitter pill” the supplier had to swallow.

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.

Total cost of ownership is a methodology and philosophy which looks beyond the price of a purchase to include many other purchaserelated costs. This approach has become increasingly important as organizations look for ways to better understand and manage their costs. Examines case studies of 11 firms which use total cost of ownership concepts in purchasing. Based on the case study data and the literature, barriers and benefits associated with the total cost of ownership approach are discussed. The total cost of ownership models used by the case study firms are classified by type as dollar‐based or value‐based, and an example of each is shown. The total cost of ownership models are then further classified by their primary usage: supplier selection or supplier evaluation. This cross classification reveals a strong relationship between model type and model usage. Concludes with a comparison of the models, recommendations for practitioners and a discussion of future research directions.

The study aims to explore information behaviour and its potential impact on buyer‐supplier relationships in electronic reverse auction (e‐RA). In spite of the widely assumed benefits of e‐RAs, recent studies have identified negative effects of e‐RAs on buyer‐supplier relationships.

The research is based on nine interviews with automotive buyers and suppliers who use e‐RAs and 15 interviews with automotive companies who do not use e‐RAs. The interviews were analysed using the method of content analysis. The analysis process was supported relying on the qualitative software package Atlas/ti.

Overall, the results indicate that differences in information behaviour may affect buyer‐supplier relationships. Particularly the inadequate treatment of suppliers and the reduced quality of the communication proved to be the major mediating factors for negative outcomes. Also, the use of e‐RAs is believed not to be as widespread as generally assumed.

Considering the limited scope of this research, further investigation of the above topic is required incorporating several sources of data, e.g. as part of a case study approach. Also, the generalisability of the results might be improved by obtaining responses from more buyers and suppliers through a larger scale survey.

The paper suggests that the adequate consideration of context and the careful preparation of the event including strictly equal treatment of all participants and effective communication are key factors for obtaining benefits from e‐RAs.

Considering the limited evidence on how specific characteristics may affect buyer‐seller relations, this research provides a first step in opening up the e‐RA “black box”.