Access flexibility, trust and performance in achieving competitiveness. An empirical study of Chinese suppliers and distributors
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17544400910934333 |
| Date | 06 February 2009 |
| Pages | 31-46 |
| Published date | 06 February 2009 |
| Author | Song Hua,Samir Ranjan Chatterjee,Yu Kang‐kang |
| Subject Matter | Economics |
Access
flexibility, trust
and performance
31
Journal of Chinese Economic and
Foreign Trade Studies
Vol. 2 No. 1, 2009
pp. 31-46
#Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1754-4408
DOI 10.1108/17544400910934333
Access flexibility, trust and
performance in achieving
competitiveness
An empirical study of Chinese suppliers and
distributors
Song Hua
School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
Samir Ranjan Chatterjee
Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia, and
Yu Kang-kang
School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to advance research in the challenging area of achieving competitiveness
through supply chain flexibility fit and trust development.
Design/methodology/approach – A structured survey questionnaire was administered to a
potential list of 773 participants resulting in 348 valid responses. An empirical study was conducted
on these responses.
Findings – Leveraging of flexibility in supply chain access structures and improving of trust
relationships can ensure significant performance improvement.
Research limitations/implications – The research relies on the use of cross sectional data instead
of longitudinal data, thereby limiting the generalisibility of the findings.
Practical implications – The strong evidence of relationship between improved performance and
capability of supply chain linkages provides Chinese business managers with practical guidelines for
improving competitive edge.
Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in the originality of the data and context-relevant
findings. No previous study of this nature had been undertaken in China.
Keywords Trust, Suppliers, Distributors, Supply chain management, China
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Intensification of economic globalization has impacted upon the enter prises
functioning systems and processes around the world. Chinese enterprises are facing
increasing need to become innovative in the design and development of their business
systems. Supply chain is a critical element in establishing a competitive enterprise and
flexibilities in this system can offer significant advantage to a globally competitive
economic entity. While flexibility is considered as an effective response to uncertainty,
so with the expansion of boundary of enterprise management, the concept of flexibility
is also expanding from single enterprise to the whole supply chain. Therefore , supply
chain flexibility in terms of the capability of quick response to external environment is
becoming a hot point of competition between supply chains. As one of the most
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1754-4408.htm
The authors wish to acknowledge the professional guidance of the Editors of this Jour nal as
well as express their gratitude for thoughtful comments of the two Referees, which helped in
improving the paper considerably.
JCEFTS
2,1
32
important dimensions, access flexibility is catching more and more attentions of
enterprises and researchers.
In the distribution channel, although the positive effect of access flexibility ha s been
certified, the co-alignment between the actual and the expected level of flexibility
(flexibility fit) has not been analysed as one variable to explain the p erformance.
Furthermore, access flexibilities can be distinguished by physical distribution
flexibility and demand management flexibility, which focus on different dimensions of
distributive capabilities. This study emphasises the role of access flexibility, which
includes physical distribution and demand management in enhancing the distributo rs’
overall performance. Moreover, from the supply chain management perspective,
partnership between a supplier and a distributor is created by bilateral and coherent
behaviours rather than individual expectation; perfor mance can only be achieved after
a partnership has been formed. The key objective of this research paper is to identify
the linkages of flexibilities with trust and performance.
2. Literature review and theoritical hypothesis
The work on flexibility has been mainly derived from the viewpoint of a
manufacturing system as a single entity in a supply chain, ignoring the contribution of
channel members on flexibility achievement (Koste and Malhotra, 1999; Vokurka and
O’Leary-Kelly, 2000; Kumar et al., 2006). However, flexibility in the supply chain adds
the requirement of flexibility within and between all partners in the chain (Duclos et al.,
2003), and competitiveness requires consideration of all channels in the supply chain
(Pujawan, 2004). The concept of supply chain flexibility usually denotes flexibilities in
terms of labour, machine, routing or information technology. It has been customary to
measure its flexibility by an economic index. Some resources have included three levels
of constructs, namely types of flexibility, dimensions of flexibility as well as the
measures of flexibility (Wadhwa and R ao, 2002). The hierarchy of flexibility
dimensions as proposed by Koste and Malhotra (1999) provides a tiered perspective of
flexibility beginning at the top with strategic flexibility and moving down through
functional, plant and shop floor flexibility and finally to individual resource flexibility.
Then Sa
´nchez and Pe
´rez (2005) developed three flexibility dimensions (basic flexibility,
system flexibility and aggregate flexibility) that directly impact a firm’s customers and
are the shared responsibility of two or more functions along the supply chain, whether
internal (marketing, manufacturing) or external (suppliers, chann el members) to the
firm. Among these types of flexibility, access flexibility was regarded as an impor tant
factor influencing supply chain flexibility.
2.1 Access flexibility fit
Access flexibility is the ability to provide a widespre ad or intensive distribution
coverage, which is facilitated by the close co-ordination of downstream activ ities in the
supply chain whether perfor med internally or exter nally (Sa
´nchez and Pe
´rez, 2005).
This flexibility captures a company’s proficiency at getting the product ‘‘close to the
customer’’ (Vikery et al., 1999). For example, during testing the effect of flexibility on
export channel performance, Bello and Gilliland (1997) adopted a number of items that
describe the parties’ expected flexibility in response to changing channel
circumstances. Moreover, Day (1994) suggested that any cap abilities including
flexibility can be sorted into insid e out, and outside in capability. Inside out capability
is activated by market requirements, competitive challenges and exter nal
opportunities. On the contrary, outside-in capability is to connect the processes that
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