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The purpose of this paper is to use resource dependence theory to hypothesize that a buyer’s innovation strategy enhances supplier innovation focus and a buyer-supplier relationship that supports product innovation. These in turn positively impact buyer product innovation outcomes and business performance. Moreover, it is argued that the buyer-supplier relationship positively moderates the impact of supplier innovation focus on product innovation.

Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear regression are used to test hypotheses.

The results support all hypotheses and suggest that company (buyer) age and variables related to buyer engagement with international markets directly influence performance. The results also indicate that the buyer-supplier relationship does not moderate the relationship between innovation strategy and innovation performance.

This study demonstrates that how a firm builds the conditions to effectively leverage the complementary resources and capabilities of suppliers directly influence innovation outcomes and business performance.

An important factor in firms achieving their product innovation goals is the selection and management of suppliers that are strategically aligned with regard to innovation. While managers need to develop internal innovation capabilities, partnering with like-minded organizations, and creating conditions for effective cooperation are key drivers of innovation outcomes.

In contrast to prior research that has examined operational issues, this study shows how the strategic alignment of buyers and suppliers with regard to innovation is an antecedent of product innovation outcomes. Moreover, it adds to a limited literature on supply chain management practices in emerging markets.

Supply chain strategy is widely recognized as being a crucial component of a broader corporate strategy. However, the relationships between a firm’s strategic supply chain focus, the tactical orientation of its suppliers, and the firm’s performance, are less well understood. Much of what is known is also based on developed country contexts. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine relationships between a buying firm’s supply chain strategy and operational dimensions of its suppliers in a developing country context.

A structural equation model is developed and tested using empirical data drawn from 296 organizations in India and Pakistan.

The results demonstrate a positive relationship between a firm’s strategic supply chain focus (lean and responsiveness) and key supplier practices (quality, cost effectiveness, delivery, and flexibility), which in turn have a positive impact on firm performance (operational, quality and market, and financial).

The study paper offers supply chain managers in developing markets with insights that can shape effective supplier selection and management and lead to positive performance outcomes.

The results provide insights into supply chain strategy, and empirically validate the importance of the alignment between strategy and the ability of suppliers to execute in a corresponding manner. It also offers evidence of the impact of the buyer-supplier interface in a developing market context.

To develop and test a reliable and valid supplier selection measurement scale that can be applied in different geographic regions, namely, the USA and Europe.

A three‐factor supplier selection measure is developed via extensive literature review and practitioner interviews. Psychometric properties of the survey instrument are evaluated using data from the ISM‐US sample via exploratory factor analysis. Based on the results, the survey instrument is modified and the revised instrument is mailed to a larger sampling group (APICS‐US and APICS‐Europe). Confirmatory factor analysis is used to validate the proposed three‐factor supplier selection construct and to test its validity across national boundaries.

This study demonstrates that underlying the documented supplier selection criteria is the need to assess a supplier's quality and service capabilities as well as its strategic and managerial alignment with the buyer.

Although the research design incorporates extensive literature reviews, it does not capture every aspect of complex supplier selection criteria. Future efforts should establish a valid, reliable instrument for the underlying constructs.

This study provides supply management professionals with guidelines for analysing selection decisions, and also shows that the underlying dimensions of supplier selection are applicable for both US and European firms.

This study contributes to the literature by answering the following two questions: what exactly constitutes effective supplier selection and what are the appropriate measures for selecting key suppliers?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of information sharing capability on buyer‐supplier relationships and firm performance. It is proposed that information sharing capability, the integration of a firm's information/decision systems and business processes with those of supply chain partners, is an antecedent of collaborative buyer‐supplier relationships, defined in terms of supply chain and relationship architecture. Further, it is proposed that these relationships positively impact a firm's market and financial performance.

This research uses multiple linear regression to analyze a set of survey data from the USA, Europe and New Zealand.

Results demonstrate positive relationships between information sharing capability and buyer‐supplier relationships, and between relationships and performance.

Information sharing capability and buyer‐supplier relationships are complex, multi dimensional constructs. While this research highlights their role in driving performance, further study is required to more fully capture their impact and to understand the implications for situational factors such as industry sector and transaction type.

Results from the study provide academics and policymakers with insights into key information sharing constructs related to the development of buyer‐supplier relationships. These provide guidance in developing the infrastructure to support such relationships.

This study adds to the extant literature by examining the dimensions of information sharing related to buyer‐supplier relationships and performance.

This paper aims to explore whether firms that integrate only with partners adjacent to them in the supply chain exhibit different patterns of supply chain practice and performance than those that also integrate with partners more distant in the supply chain.

Cluster analysis of survey data is used to partition firms based on the span of the supply chain involved in their integration efforts.

Firms with a broad span of integration have a greater focus on alignment with suppliers and customers, and have more of a supply chain focus than those with a narrow span. They also demonstrate higher levels of performance attributable to supply chain relationships.

Results highlight the importance to supply chain professionals of taking a broad view of the supply chain rather than focusing only on first tier suppliers and customers. They also suggest the importance of exploring opportunities to facilitate broader participation in supply chain integration efforts.

Past research has identified the importance of supply chain integration without addressing the importance of how much of the supply chain should be involved in such efforts. This study provides empirical support for the need to involve partners across the supply chain.

Faced with increasing pressure to improve responsiveness to rapidly changing market needs, firms must respond to the challenge of how to improve supply reliability and quality, while simultaneously reducing costs. This has led to an increase in outsourcing and the adoption of supplier alliances with key suppliers. While much has been written about when and how to form such alliances and the benefits of doing so, little evidence exists of how alliance adopters differ from non‐adopters in their attitudes towards managing suppliers and their efforts to manage quality in the supply process. This study presents results of a survey of supply management professionals that examines attitudes of adopters and non‐adopters of supplier alliances to supplier and quality management. Results indicate that significant differences in attitudes exist between alliance adopters and non‐adopters, and that differences have a direct and significant impact on key measures of a buying firm's business performance.

The paper seeks to examine the impact of operational quality management practices within the supply chain.

Regression analysis is used to identify relationships between a firm's internal and external (customer and supplier focused) operational quality practices and measures of product quality and customer service.

Not only do both internally and externally focused quality management practices impact performance, but externally focused efforts have a greater impact on performance and are perceived by managers to be of greater importance.

The study does not suggest how specifically quality management practices impact performance, how the efforts of individual supply chain members contribute to overall success, or how performance gains should be shared by the various chain members.

The study provides managers with guidance on how to leverage relationships with suppliers and customers to improve product quality and customer service.

The study provides a supply chain as opposed to a firm‐level perspective on managing a firm's quality.

To analyze the impact of supplier selection and buyer‐supplier engagement on the performance benefits attributable to buyer‐supplier relationships, and the effect of these benefits on broader measures of buyer performance.

Analysis is conducted using a structural equation model using survey data.

Results demonstrate the positive influence of engagement and supplier selection on relationship performance. They also demonstrate that the success of the relationship directly and positively affects buyer performance.

Additional analysis is required to examine whether the results hold for specific industry or purchase scenarios, and to identify other dimensions of the constructs of interest.

Buyers should pay attention to selecting the right suppliers and developing the infrastructure that will enable successful buyer‐supplier relationships.

The paper provides empirical evidence of the impact of cultivating buyer‐supplier relationships on relationship success, and how this directly impacts business performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interface between buyers and suppliers in the context of product innovation in an emerging economy. Specifically, it examines the strategic and tactical initiatives necessary to drive inter-organizational alignment and thus positive innovation outcomes. It also examines the impact of organizational characteristics on product innovation.

Using survey data from 191 organizations in Pakistan, a structural equation model of the relationships between buyers’ and suppliers’ strategic focus on innovation, supplier innovation focus, collaborative innovation, and measures of product innovation and market performance is tested. In addition, hierarchical regression analysis is used to identify the impact of various organizational characteristics on product innovation performance.

The results suggest that a firm's product innovation performance is positively influenced by strategic buyer-supplier alignment with regard to product innovation, and the existence of mechanisms that foster inter-organizational collaboration. This in turn has a positive impact on market performance. Product innovation performance is also influenced by a firm's age, the nature of its ownership, and the extent to which it exports its products.

The study offers new insight into the role of inter-organizational collaboration as a driver of product innovation. Moreover, it adds to a limited literature on supply chain management in emerging economies generally, and on product innovation in the Indian sub-continent specifically.

Over the past ten years, intense global competition has forced many firms to examine their business practices and to evaluate how to meet the challenges economic globalization has presented. Underlying these efforts has been an examination of strategic priorities and in particular recognition of the need to improve product and process quality. While quality improvement has become a pervasive element of business strategy, allowing some companies to respond to increasing competitive pressures, it has not been universally effective. This study uses a survey of over 300 senior quality personnel to identify the challenges businesses face from globalization and how strategic initiatives, and in particular, quality improvement efforts, are used to respond to them.