Supplier integration and company performance: A configurational view

Supplier integration is considered a key managerial strategy for improving buyer performance. This study adopts a configurational approach to supplier integration, based on the interaction and complementarity between supply chain management practices. In this perspective, this study explores the impact of supplier integration and measures aimed at creating a fast supply network structure on buyer performance. This research also attempts to ascertain whether these practices can exert a synergic effect. After examining data from a sample of 186 manufacturing plants, we can conclude that while taken singly supplier integration and fast supply network structure practices have a markedly positive effect on the performance goals considered (i.e., efficiency, schedule attainment and flexibility); in addition, they interact to produce an additional synergic effect on efficiency and schedule attainment. The analyses also reveal that investing in FSNS or SI initiatives alone can be risky. On one hand, when companies fail to make any effort to structure their supply network in order to achieve fast lead times, the impact of supplier integration on efficiency and schedule attainment may be hindered and, in extreme cases, supplier integration might even have no impact at all. On the other hand, investing only in fast supply network structure initiatives, without striving to achieve an adequate level of supplier integration might well be useless: indeed, even detrimental to any improvement in performance. These findings provide useful guidelines for managers who must decide how to combine supplier integration and fast supply network structure initiatives in order to improve or maximize performance.     

The impact of inter-organizational information systems-enabled external integration on capabilities of buyer–supplier dyads

Increasingly, firms are adopting two major supply chain management initiatives: to undertake external integration with supply chain partners and to implement inter-organizational information systems (IOSs). However, academic researchers have not adequately investigated effects of these types of initiatives. Using empirical data from 154 buyer–supplier dyads, we examined the direct and indirect effects (through external integration) of IOS usage on capabilities of buyer– supplier dyads. We found that external integration plays a mediating role in the relationship between IOS usage and capabilities of buyer– supplier dyad. This is the first study to investigate the effects of IOS usage and external integration on capabilities of buyer–supplier dyad.     

The impact of manufacturing and supply chain improvement initiatives: A survey comparing make-to-order and make-to-stock firms

Manufacturing firms aim at improving both internal and external processes to improve the competitive advantage. Such initiatives include lean practices as well as supplier rationalization and integration. In this paper, we analyze these improvement initiatives and their impact on business performance. In particular, we explore potential differences between make-to-order (MTO) and make-to-stock (MTS) firms. We use data from 216 Australian manufacturing firms. We find a clear difference of improvement focus between MTO and MTS firms. MTO firms exhibit a significant impact of supplier integration on business performance, but not for lean practices and supplier rationalization. The situation is completely reversed for MTS firms, since they have significant effects for internal lean practices and supplier rationalization, but not for logistics integration with supplier. The results show that the distinction between MTO and MTS firms is important when analyzing manufacturing and supply chain improvement initiatives.     

The Value of Production Schedule Integration in Supply Chains

This study explores the value of integrated production schedules for reducing the negative effects of schedule revisions in supply chains involving buyer and supplier firms. A stochastic cost model is developed to evaluate the total supply chain cost with integrated purchasing and scheduling policies. The model minimizes the costs associated with assembly rate adjustment, safety stock, and schedule changes for all supply chain members. Through experimentation, the paper examines the impact of several environmental factors on the value of schedule integration. This study finds that schedule integration can lead to overall cost savings in a supply chain, but some firms may have to absorb costs in excess of those they would incur with independent scheduling. Environments with high inventory holding costs and long supplier lead times may not find it beneficial to adopt an integrated schedule. Forecast effectiveness plays a critical role in realizing the benefits of schedule integration. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.     

Improving supplier performance using a comprehensive scheme

Improving and coordinating buyer and supplier efforts to increase productivity and competitive advantage in a supply chain is an important issue. Numerous studies have proposed models, principles and criteria for supplier evaluation and selection. Hence, evaluating and improving supplier performance are important when building long-term supply chain competitiveness. This study presents a novel and comprehensive framework that illustrates the linkages between evaluating supplier performance and planning improvements. The proposed framework comprises four parts: building an evaluation model, evaluating supplier performance based on the buyer perspective, evaluating supplier performance based on the supplier perspective and scheduling improvement tasks. This study applies a hybrid genetic algorithm to help suppliers schedule improvement tasks based on the evaluation findings. Finally, evaluation data of a light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturer in Taiwan is used to interpret the procedure and verify model effectiveness.     

Managing Imbalanced Supply Chain Relationships for Sustainability: A Power Perspective

This study adopts a power perspective to investigate sustainable supply chain relationships and specifically uses resource‐dependence theory (RDT) to critically analyze buyer–supplier–supplier relationships. Empirical evidence is provided, extending the RDT model in this context. The concept of power relationships is explored through a qualitative study of a multinational company and agricultural growers in the UK food industry that work together to implement sustainable practices. We look at multiple triadic relationships involving a large buyer and its small suppliers to investigate how relative power affects the implementation of sustainable supply‐management practices. The study highlights that power as dependence is relevant to understanding compliance in sustainable supply chains and to identifying appropriate relationship‐management strategies to build more sustainable supply chains. We show the influences of power on how players manage their relationships and how it affects organizational responses to the implementation of sustainability initiatives. Power notably influences the sharing of sustainability‐related risks and value between supply chain partners. From a managerial perspective, the study contributes to developing a better understanding of how power can become an effective way to achieve sustainability goals. This article offers insights into the way in which a large organization works with small and medium size enterprises to implement sustainable practices and shows how power management—that is, the way in which power is used—can support or hinder effective cooperation around sustainability in the supply chain.     

Supply Disruptions,Heterogeneous Beliefs,and Production Efficiencies

Recent years have witnessed the pervasive supply disruptions and their impacts on supply chain performance. In this study, we investigate the optimal procurement design with supply disruptions and heterogeneous beliefs between the buyer and the supplier. We examine the impact of information asymmetry on the supplier's belief, the control right of the backup production, and the verifiability of supply disruption. The belief heterogeneity creates speculative gains and losses because the buyer and the supplier hold different estimates of the disruption probability. We demonstrate that the buyer's incentive to exploit this belief heterogeneity leads to real production inefficiencies in different scenarios. The production efficiency is not necessarily improved with more transparent information. Moreover, a very pessimistic supplier may have no incentive to invest in improving the reliability even if this is costless, and the supplier may produce more when the expected production cost becomes higher. When the buyer sees some value in using the supplier's estimate to update his own belief, we find that the main results hold unless the buyer completely abandons his belief.     

一种基于期权的供应商能力预订模型

在供应链中,合作企业实现风险共担,利益共享是供应链管理的基本目标。本文通过引入期权机制,提出了制造商预订上游供应商的生产能力的数学模型,使之能以较低的风险获取外部资源,以保证经营目标的实现。同时,也能使供应商通过期权降低自身的经营风险,增强收益的能力,最终实现供应链利益的整体协调。     

Examining the Impact of Interorganizational Systems on Process Efficiency and Sourcing Leverage in Buyer–Supplier Dyads

Manufacturing firms are increasingly seeking cost and other competitive advantages by tightly coupling and managing their relationship with suppliers. Among other mechanisms, interorganizational systems (IOS) that facilitate boundary‐spanning activities of a firm enable them to effectively manage different types of buyer–supplier relationships. This study integrates literature from the operations and information systems fields to create a joint perspective in understanding the linkages between the nature of the IOS, buyer–supplier relationships, and manufacturing performance at the dyadic level. External integration, breadth, and initiation are used to capture IOS functionality, and their effect on process efficiency and sourcing leverage is examined. The study also explores the differences in how manufacturing firms use IOS when operating under varying levels of competitive intensity and product standardization. In order to test the research models and related hypothesis, empirical data on buyer–supplier dyads is collected from manufacturing firms. The results show that only higher levels of external integration that go beyond simple procurement systems, as well as who initiates the IOS, allow manufacturing firms to enhance process efficiency. In contrast, IOS breadth and IOS initiation enable manufacturing firms to enhance sourcing leverage over their suppliers. In addition, firms making standardized products in highly competitive environments tend to achieve higher process efficiencies and have higher levels of external integration. The study shows how specific IOS decisions allow manufacturing firms to better manage their dependence on the supplier for resources and thereby select system functionalities that are consistent with their own operating environments and the desired supply chain design.     

Governance Choice,Sourcing Relationship Characteristics,and Relationship Performance

Past work on exchange relationships has debated the efficacy of partnership versus arm's‐length governance on performance of a buyer–supplier relationship. However, how these governance approaches leverage key supplier specific relationship characteristics has not been examined. In this study, we examine the moderating role of governance choice (arm's‐length versus partnership governance) in leveraging key supplier specific characteristics to achieve superior performance for the buyer in a relationship. Specifically, drawing from residual rights theory, we argue that the governance choice buyers make moderates the impact of supplier flexibility, supplier human capital and relationship dependency on performance. Our findings suggest that, for a buyer, the benefits of supplier flexibility and relationship dependency are better realized in partnership governance as opposed to arm's‐length governance. Further, our findings suggest that although buyers choose a specific governance approach consistent with their outsourcing motivation, the choice of governance is critical to leveraging the impact of supplier characteristics due to the moderation effects studied. We elaborate on these effects and discuss the implications of our findings.     

Supplier–Buyer Negotiation Games: Equilibrium Conditions and Supply Chain Efficiency

In a decentralized supply chain, supplier–buyer negotiations have a dynamic aspect that requires both players to consider the impact of their decisions on future decisions made by their counterpart. The interaction generally couples strongly the price decision of the supplier and the quantity decision of the buyer. We propose a basic model for a repeated supplier–buyer interaction, during several rounds. In each round, the supplier first quotes a price, and the buyer places an order at that price. We find conditions for existence and uniqueness of a well‐behaved subgame‐perfect equilibrium in the dynamic game. When costs are stationary and there are no holding costs, we identify some demand distributions for which these conditions are met, examine the efficiency of the equilibrium, and show that, as the number of rounds increases, the profits of the supply chain increase towards the supply chain optimum. In contrast, when costs vary over time or holding costs are present, the benefit from multi‐period interactions is reduced and after a finite number of time periods, supply chain profits stay constant even when the number of rounds increases.     

Sourcing Strategy,Supplier Relationships and Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation of UK Organizations

This article conceptualizes and empirically examines buyer–supplier relationships in respect of supply sourcing strategies, relationship characteristics and firm performance. Two sourcing strategies available to organizations are examined, critical and leverage, which in turn, influence the approach to managing the supplier relationship (arms‐length or collaborative). We argue that different relationship approaches are appropriate to achieving different performance outcomes. A structural equation model, using a sample of 142 manufacturing firms based in the United Kingdom, is used to test this hypothesized model. The results indicate that a critical sourcing strategy requires collaborative supplier relationships in order to achieve higher relationship and business outcomes, while leverage sourcing strategies have a direct impact on these same performance outcomes. In addition, a leverage strategy was associated with increased levels of supplier power, though this power was found not to have a significant effect on performance. Our study provides support for the importance of aligning sourcing strategies to particular supplier relationship approaches in order to improve firm performance. Managerial implications of these findings and future directions for research are then offered.     

基于供应链视角的并购谈判框架

在基于利润分配的供应链多边谈判环境中,探讨了买方与部分供应商并购的谈判框架.首先,分析了买方与单个供应商并购的情形.结果给出两种框架下各方所获利润,并进一步给出未参与并购的供应商互动下的均衡.其次,分析了买方与多个供应商并购的谈判框架.在买方与多个供应商同时并购和依次并购两种情形下,结果分别给出三种不同框架下各方所获利润.结论表明,并购过程中的供应链网络结构和相关企业互动削弱了并购协同下的买方利润,从而企业应谨慎选取并购战略及其分析框架以实现并购的战略目标.     

Supplier integration,operational capability and firm performance: an investigation in an emerging economy environment

Abstract

The literature on supplier integration’s (SI) impact on firm performance is intertwined with mixed findings in terms of definitional differences, study context, specific integration components, and the types of relationships examined. This study contributes to the supplier integration and firm performance (SI-FP) literature by investigating how and when supplier integration influences firm performance. Drawing on the relational view, the resource-based view, and the Dynamics Capability theories, we suggest that improvements in firm performance from the supplier integration perspective are dependent on gains in operational capabilities. We test this dependency with survey data from firms in Ghana, a developing economy. The results show positive significant relationships between supplier integration and competitive operational capabilities and between supplier integration and firm performance. Our results highlight the importance for managers in developing economies and elsewhere to improve their firms’ operational capabilities and competitiveness by investing in supplier integration. We also discuss implications of these findings for research.     

E-business services and business performance: a study of the telecommunications manufacturing industry

The development of information and communication technologies has significantly changed the business interactions as well as created new approaches for improving business performances. While the benefits from this development have been well documented in the literature, it also poses a significant challenge for companies in tracking or further improving e-business services. This article contributes to this body of knowledge by investigating the impact of e-business service dimensions on business performance in the telecommunications manufacturing industry. Based on 121 usable responses from a questionnaire survey of the UK telecommunication manufacturers, structural equation modelling is employed to identify the main e-business service dimensions which affect business performance significantly. The data analysis reveals that two e-business service dimensions significantly influence suppliers’ performance from the buyer's perspective. It also indicates the significant relationships between suppliers’ performance, buyer-perceived buyer–supplier relationship maintenance and the buyer's competitive advantage. The findings in this research not only help the supplier to understand which practices significantly improve its overall performance (as perceived by the buyer), but also assist the buyer in its supplier development efforts to improve its own business performance.     

“批对批”策略下关于供应商管理库存机制的一个探讨

本文考虑了一个由单供应商和单采购商构成的两级供应链系统,在供应商采取"批对批"策略下,引入VMI后将对供应链系统以及各渠道成员利益带来的影响.我们发现,渠道权力配置对VMI作为供应链企业间合作机制的有效性存在重要影响.在采购商占主导地位的渠道中,当系统参数满足一定条件时,引入VMI后可以同时降低供应商和采购商总成本,从而VMI可以成为供应商和采购商之间的有效合作机制.但在供应商占主导地位的渠道中,引入VMI必将增加供应商的总成本,此时VMI不是供应商和采购商之间的有效合作机制.     

在弹性需求和物品易变质条件下数量折扣定价模型

研究在弹性需求和易变质物品条件下,当供应商和零售商独自决策时,供应商如何确定最优数量折扣问题。基于Stackelberg博奕建立了数学模型,证明了零售商的出售价格随供应商出售价格的降低而降低,从而需求量增大。当供应商给予价格折扣时,零售商的利润是增加的。在此基础上,给出了最优数量折扣的计算方法。对供应商和零售商单独决策时,供应商利用数量折扣对供应链进行协调产生的系统利润与供应商和零售商联合决策时的系统利润做了数值分析和比较。结果表明,供应商采用数量折扣的方法使供应链协调是有效的;价格折扣随价格敏感系数的增大而增大,随变质率的增大而减小。     

Flexibility or Cost Saving? Sourcing Decisions with Two Suppliers

This article studies a decentralized supply chain in which there are two suppliers and a single buyer. One supplier offers the quantity flexibility (QF) contract to the buyer, while the other offers the cheaper price. Under the QF contract, the buyer does not assume full responsibility for the forecast, yet the supplier guarantees the availability of the forecasted quantity with additional buffer inventory. On the other hand, the price‐only contract places full inventory burden on the buyer, but with a cheaper price. We study this problem from the buyer's perspective and solve for the buyer's optimal procurement and forecasting decisions. We identify areas where flexibility and cheaper price have an advantage, one over the other. Our results indicate that the buyer significantly benefits from having multiple sources of supply. We also find that, from the system's standpoint, a multisupplier system may outperform a single‐supplier supply chain under certain conditions. Interestingly, we observe that providing too much flexibility may benefit the low‐price supplier rather than benefiting the QF supplier. We discuss the managerial implications and provide directions for future research opportunities.     

Toward a Typology of Buyer–Supplier Relationships: A Study of the Computer Industry*

Buyer–supplier relationship typologies are useful analytical tools for purchasing managers in managing exchange relationships with suppliers and monitoring their purchasing portfolios. Existing buyer–supplier relationship typologies are mainly focused on either relational contents or power‐dependence and have limited empirical support for their performance implications. In this study, we developed an alternative buyer–supplier relationship typology that integrates both relational content and power‐dependence dimensions, resulting in four generic relationship types: market, power, autonomous‐link, and constrained‐link relationships. We then performed a longitudinal exploratory investigation of eight leading firms in the U.S. computer industry to explore the performance implications of the typology, using a combinatorial qualitative approach that leverages the strengths of case study research, content analysis, and quasi‐experimental design. The results suggest three theoretical propositions. First, the association between the type of buyer–supplier relationships and buyer firm performance varies such that constrained‐link relationships are superior in terms of operational efficiency while autonomous‐link relationships are superior in terms of product innovation. Second, the positive association between buyer–supplier relational contents (i.e., relationalism) and buyer firm operational efficiency is strengthened as the suppliers' dependence on the buyer firm increases. And finally, the positive association between buyer–supplier relationalism and buyer firm product innovation is weakened as the suppliers' dependence on the buyer firm increases.