Turning responsible purchasing and supply into supply chain responsiveness

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2019-0029
Pages1988-2005
Date21 October 2019
Published date21 October 2019
AuthorJie Yang,Hongming Xie,Guangsheng Yu,Mingyu Liu
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management
Turning responsible
purchasing and supply into
supply chain responsiveness
Jie Yang
University of Houston-Victoria, Katy, Texas, USA
Hongming Xie
Department of Innovation and Strategy, School of Management,
Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Guangsheng Yu
Department of Business Administration, School of Management,
Fudan University, Shanghai, China, and
Mingyu Liu
Department of Industrial Economics, School of Management,
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether responsible purchasing (relational
commitment and supplier evaluation) and responsible supply (supplier firm information sharing and supplier
performance) affect the two factors of supply chain responsiveness including process efficiency and customer
knowledge management capability, which, in turn, affect other three factors of supply chain responsiveness,
such as dyadic quality performance, innovation capability and buyersupplier relationship improvement.
Design/methodology/approach This study used questionna ire survey and statisti cal analytical
methods. Employing path analysis, this study tested hypothesized relationships using data collected
from manufacturers.
Findings The findings of this study support the theorized links. Responsible purchasing and supply enhance
supply chain responsiveness, which is reflected through process efficiency, customer knowledge management
capability, dyadic quality performance, innovation capability and buyersupplier relationship improvement.
Originality/value Grounded in the goal interdependence theory, this study investigates the effects of
responsible purchasing and supply on supply chain responsiveness in the context of Chinese manufacturers.
This study offers managerial implications and theoretical contribution.
Keywords Supply chain, Purchasing, Responsiveness
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
A high level of responsiveness in economic exchanges between a buyer and its key suppliers
offers several advantages to exchange partners in a supply chain. These advantages include
increased flexibility in operations, shortened throughput cycle time, improved speed in
delivery, reduced costs and lead time, improved quality, enhanced product innovativeness
and superior competitive advantages (Gunasekaran et al., 2008; Sardana, 2009;
Holimchayachotikul et al., 2014; Lehoux et al., 2014). Since supply chain partners aim to
find out the best way to respond to rapidly changing markets, supply chain responsiveness
is receiving the attention of practitioners more than ever before. Therefore, companies invest
considerable resources in efforts to make their supply chain operations responsive to market
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 119 No. 9, 2019
pp. 1988-2005
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-01-2019-0029
Received 18 January 2019
Revised 21 March 2019
3 May 2019
27 July 2019
Accepted 6 September 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
This research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71772163, 71673240 and
71572041), ZhejiangProvincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LY17G020024 and LY16G020009),
and Shanghai Pujiang Program.
1988
IMDS
119,9
demands (Fisher, 1997; Randall et al., 2003). Operations and supply chain researchers have
identified a broad set of drivers for achieving a responsive supply chain from various
viewpoints ranging from the utilization of technology to strategy (e.g. Kim et al., 2013;
Williams et al., 2013; Seth and Panigrahi, 2015; Moyano-Fuentes et al., 2016). Although these
efforts are promising, companies generally struggle to identify crucial driving forces of a
responsive supply chain based on the cooperative buyersupplier relationships.
For a responsible supply chain, prior studies focus mainly on social and environmental
responsibilities of a company (Chaabane et al., 2011; Parmigiani et al., 2011; Marshall et al.,
2014; Lulhra et al., 2014; Mohanty and Prakash, 2014). However, few existing studies focus
attention on responsible purchasing and supply, a less explored aspect of responsibility
from the buyer and its key supplier, which brings benefits to buyers and suppliers through
mass customization, build-to-order manufacturing, reduced cost/lead time and continuous
quality improvement (Gunasekaran et al., 2008; Parmigiani et al., 2011). Prior studies also
show the significant role of interactions with customers to get their feedback on their
products (Reichhart and Holweg, 2007; Vachon et al., 2009). Operations and supply chain
management literature considers network of partnering firms (e.g. relational commitment
and supplier evaluation), knowledge management (e.g. supplier operational performance)
and information systems (e.g. supplier firm information sharing) as determinants of the
responsiveness of a supply chain (e.g. Gunasekaran et al., 2008).
Extant empirical research not only provides a good understanding of drivers of
responsiveness, but it also indicates the necessity of figuring out an optimal way for these
drivers to interact to enhance responsiveness. Value can be created by synchronizing supply and
demand through customer service improvement and cost reduction in operations (Rossin, 2007).
Based on goal interdependency theory (Deutsch, 1949), the way goals are related affects the way
a buyer and its key supplier interact, which determines outcomes of their partnership.
A manufacturers goal is tightly related to the goal of its key supplier, which includes financial,
operational and marketing performance through realizing the value of reciprocal
interdependence. Under relational and transactional governance, the dyads have ultimate
mutual interests in synchronizing supply and demand and being responsive to customers
evolving demand. Given highly positively related goals of the buyer and supplier, they tend to
cooperate and promote the success of each other since the goal achievement on one side helps the
other side to reach its goals. Their cooperative interaction embraces the buyers responsibility
and its key suppliers commitment to the partnership because their goal achievement necessitates
mutual interdependence and long-term cooperative orientation (Novicevic et al., 2000).
To reduce the potential uncertainties and risks arising in the economic exchanges
between the dyads and to reap the optimal value of the suppliers knowledge and
capabilities (Barnett, 1986; Novicevic et al., 2000), a responsible buyers practices entail its
relational commitment and performing effective supplier evaluation before making
purchasing decision. However, a suppliers commitment to its partnership with its buyer is
shown through sharing information with its buyer and improving its operational
performance regarding product quality, on-time delivery and responsiveness. In this study,
we categorize relational commitment and supplier evaluation as responsible purchasing and
supplier firm information sharing and supplier performance as responsible supply.
It is suggested in prior studies on the supply chain management that responsiveness can
be enhanced through supply chain configuration (Fisher, 1997; Lee, 2002), manufacturing
technology (Moyano-Fuentes et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2013), supply chain visibility (Williams
et al., 2013) and supply chain strategy (Seth and Panigrahi, 2015), yet knowledge about how
responsiveness is related to responsible purchasing and supply is scarce. The link between
responsible purchasing and supply and responsiveness has been greatly ignored in the
literature on subjects of supply chain management in past decades. Therefore, this paper
aims to address this issue and contributes to the literature of operations and supply chain
1989
Responsible
purchasing
and supply

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