The role of partnership in supply chain performance
| Published date | 24 April 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570910948632 |
| Date | 24 April 2009 |
| Pages | 496-514 |
| Author | Il Ryu,SoonHu So,Chulmo Koo |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
The role of partnership in supply
chain performance
Il Ryu
School of Business Administration and Trade, Sunchon National University,
Suncheon, South Korea
SoonHu So
Division of Business Administration, Wonkwang University, Iksan,
South Korea, and
Chulmo Koo
College of Business, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea
Abstract
Purpose – Supply chain management emphasizes collaborative relationships between buyers and
suppliers within a supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of
buyer-supplier partnership and to explore its impact on the supply chain performance.
Design/methodology/approach – The proposed research model was tested via structural equation
modeling analysis with survey data collected in October 2007 from 141 buyer-supplier practitioners in
South Korea.
Findings – The results of this study imply that both strategic and operational variables are
perceived as crucial factors affecting the buyer-supplier partnership; thus, this partnership
relationship exerts an impact on supply chain performance.
Research limitations/implications – This study provides researchers and practitioners with a
more comprehensive understanding about the buyer-supplier partnership in a supply chain context.
Future research should focus on developing additional constructs that may capture other aspect of
buyer-supplier partnership.
Originality/value – The present study makes an empirical contribution by investigating an
integrated framework focusing on the antecedents of buyer-supplier partnership and its impact on
supply chain performance.
Keywords Supply chain management, Partnership,Buyers, Suppliers, South Korea
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Trends of supply chain management (SCM) in the 1990s have been extensively studied
in a variety of areas: information technology (IT), product variety, supply-chain costs,
real-time information sharing, coordination, coordinated production planning,
replenishment scheduling, and decision-making among trading partners (Kopczak
and Johnson, 2003; Kulp et al., 2004). At this time, SCM has extended from the focal firm’s
benefit to the entire supply chain members’ benefits, with assistance and support from
major manufacturers or retailers to reduce operational costs, improve customer service,
and result in a comparative advantage for supply chain members (Subramani, 2004;
Wang et al., 2006).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
This paper was supported by Wonkwang University in 2009.
IMDS
109,4
496
Received 27 August 2008
Revised 24 December 2008
Accepted 6 January 2009
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 109 No. 4, 2009
pp. 496-514
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570910948632
Although a few types of relationships such as those between the manufacturer and
supplier(Su et al., 2008), buyer-vendorrelationship(Noordewier et al., 1990), or buyer-seller
relationship(Narayandas and Rangan, 2004) has beenassessed in previous literature, the
majorityof these studies were focusedon the dimensions of relationshipquality, as well as
the antecedents of relationship quality and consequences. Unless seamless information
sharing based on ITbetween supply chain members exists, theirrelationships would not
be able to adequately provide for overall long-term competitiveness. IT-based supply
chain relationships are critically important on the basis of long-range plans with a
strategicapproach (Bernardesand Zsidisin, 2008; Mooreand Manring, 2009), as well as the
operational fit between partner firms (Douma et al., 2000; Koh et al., 2007).
Owing to the ever-increasing pace of technological developments and alignment to
new technologies, both strategic viewpoints with operational coordination should be
fitted sufficiently. Therefore, we have placed our emphasis not only on the
determinants and the reinforcement of the collaborative partnership relationship, but
also identify the manner in which strategic factors and operational factors impact the
partnership at the same time in terms of overall supply chain management effects. As a
matter of fact, when firms elect to utilize outside contractors or partners in a long-term
relationship, their hope is that not only strategic benefits, but also operational benefits,
will be achieved by those relationships (Mukhopadhyay and Kekre, 2002; Subramani,
2004). This is why strategic alliances (Lambert et al., 1999; Morgan and Hunt, 1994;
Niederkofler, 1991) and appropriateness of interreliance (Mohr and Spekman, 1994)
must be considered and can be compelling reasons for cooperation.
On the basis of the above considerations, we have attempted to assess the following
three research questions:
RQ1. What are the essential components of the partnership between buyers and
suppliers within a supply chain?
RQ2. What are the potential antecedents in the buyer-supplier partnership process?
RQ3. What are the effects of the buyer-supplier partnership on supply chain
performance?
In order to answer these questions, we have developed an integrated model consisting
of variables selected from previous study (So, 2004) and tested it empiric ally in the
context of buyer-supplier relationships. In the next section, we provide some
background on partnership as treated in the literature. We then describe our research
model and hypotheses and the empirical analysis and results section. In the conclusion
section, we elaborate our findings.
Theoretical background
When both parties in the supply chain interact, the supply chain relationship can be a
partnership. The process of interaction includes short-term as well as long-term
relationship transactions. In the context of the supply chain, firms tend to maintain
long-term relationship behaviors, in which partners generally believe that they may
strengthenmutual benefits among the supplychain members (Su et al., 2008). Partnersh ip
is a similar long-term orientation concept (Smith and Barclay, 1997). Consequently, to
foster partnership benefits from the context of supply, Fynes et al. (2004) stressed that
uncertaintyfrom the manufacturer-suppliershould be reduced significantly. In “genuine”
The role
of partnership
in SCP
497
To continue reading
Request your trial