کیفیت مشارکت خریدار - عرضه کننده و عملکرد زنجیره تامین: نقش تعدیل کننده ریسک و عدم قطعیت محیط

In this paper, we examine the relationship between buyer–supplier partnership quality, and supply chain performance, in the presence of supply and demand side risks and environmental uncertainty. Based on the theoretical underpinnings of resource-based view, relational capital theory, and transaction cost economics, we propose a positive relationship between partnership quality and supply chain performance, which is strengthened in the presence of high demand and supply-side risks, but weakened in the presence of high environmental uncertainty. Empirical evidence, based on the survey data of 127 US firms supports a majority of our arguments. We discuss theoretical and practical ramifications of these findings and offer future avenues of research.

In today’s networked economy most organizations depend on external suppliers for critical resources and complementary capabilities (Holweg et al., 2005 and Johnsen et al., 2008). The supply chain of a firm entails all activities associated with the flow of goods and information from sourcing of raw materials through to the end user. The ‘Supply Chain Performance’ (referred to as SCP hereafter) of a firm refers to the performance of the various processes included within the firm’s supply chain function. Supply chain models have predominantly utilized two different performance measures: cost and a combination of cost and customer responsiveness (Beamon, 1999). Examples of measures specifically used to assess supply chain performance of a firm include supplier performance (Davis, 1993), customer satisfaction (Christopher, 1994), inventory costs, number of on-time deliveries, product availability performance and customer response time (Beamon, 1999). We take a more holistic approach on SCP by adopting a view that SCP includes not only having superior in-bound logistics capabilities, but also superior customer satisfaction. Since effective and efficient collaboration with external entities is crucial in the context of supply chains (Bidault & Salgado, 2001) researchers have examined the role of key partnership components, for example, trust, commitment (Johnston, McCutcheon, Stuart, & Kerwood, 2004), mutual adaptation (Mukherji & Francis, 2008) in models explaining SCP However, with the exception of a few (Fynes et al., 2004 and Fynes et al., 2005), scant attention has been paid to explore how the partnership quality, which refers to the perceived realization of expected outcomes arising out of interorganizational relationship between the focal firm and its supplier ( Lahiri & Kedia, 2012), affects SCP. A good partnership quality between the buyer and its supplier, based on mutual trust, joint problem solving, and fulfillment of pre-specified promises, helps in avoiding complex and lengthy contracts, that are costly to write and difficult to monitor and enforce (Fynes et al., 2004, Fynes et al., 2005 and Zaheer and Venkatraman, 1995). Firms that rely on high quality partnerships with suppliers are better equipped to adapt to unforeseen changes, identify and produce well-crafted solutions to organizational problems, and reduce monitoring costs, all of which help improve the economic outcomes (Ryu, Park, & Min, 2007). Given that firms’ supply chains are often comprised of multiple actors (e.g., Cravens et al., 1996, Harland et al., 2004 and Hult et al., 2004) empirical research exploring the nature of the partnership of the focal firm with its suppliers and the performance effect of such relationship is an important topic that deserves further attention (Cousins and Lawson, 2007 and Stuart, 1997). To address this gap in the literature, we examine how the partnership quality between the focal firms and its supplier affects focal firm SCP. In addition, we also argue that the relationship between partnership quality and SCP may not be the same under all conditions. Some scholars argue that the relationship between various partnership dimensions of the exchange partners and subsequent performance may be contingent on other factors (Carson et al., 2003, Fynes et al., 2005 and Krishnan et al., 2006). For example, Carson et al. (2003) argued that the effect of trust on performance in vertical R&D collaborations strengthens with the clients’ ability to understand the tasks involved. Similarly, Lahiri, Kedia, and Mukherjee (2012) found that higher partnership quality between the buyer and the supplier leads to increased performance benefits when the management capability of the focal firm is also high. Collectively, these studies suggest that the benefits derived from a higher level of partnership quality, or relational governance may increase under certain circumstances and diminish under other conditions. Indeed, as evidenced in the recent call for research (Gaur, Mukherjee, Gaur, & Schmid, 2011) there is a greater need to understand and identify the boundary conditions of relational governance. Consequently, we investigate the contingent effects of supply risk, demand risk, and environmental uncertainty on partnership quality–SCP relationship. In an environment of risk, future events have probable outcomes, i.e., the probability of occurrence of future events is known and is given by some probability distribution (Milliken, 1987). Uncertainty, as compared to risk, is a condition in which it becomes very difficult to predict the likelihood of various future events (Gaur et al., 2011, Milliken, 1987 and Sutcliffe and Zaheer, 1998). It is widely posited that risks and uncertainty are inherent in supply chain relationships (Hult, Christopher, & Ketchen, 2010) Exploring their contingency effects can help us better understand why certain supply chain partnerships result in higher SCP, while others do not. This research contributes to the extant literature in several important ways. First, by integrating resource-based view (RBV) and relational capital view, we emphasize the importance of partnership quality in determining superior SCP for the focal firm. Previous research has analyzed the impact of some relational attributes such as trust, fit, information and risk sharing, commitment, mutual adaptation, etc. on the relational and organizational performance (Mukherji and Francis, 2008 and Su et al., 2008). We add to the previous literature by considering partnership quality as a higher order construct and recognizing it as an important determinant of SCP. Second, we identify supply chain risks, demand risks, and environmental uncertainty as crucial contingencies that may affect the relationship between partnership quality and SCP. In doing this, we answer the call made by researchers to examine the boundary conditions that limit the effectiveness of relational governance (Gaur et al., 2011). Third, we contribute to the existing body of knowledge by untangling the differential moderating impact of risk and uncertainty on the above relationship (Blackhurst et al., 2005 and Craighead et al., 2007). We posit that the presence of risks will accentuate the positive effects of buyer–supplier partnership quality on focal firm SCP. However, an environment fraught with higher levels of uncertainty will weaken the partnership quality–SCP relationship. Our empirical findings, based on a sample of 127 US firms largely support our results. The remainder of the paper is presented as follows. First, we conduct a focused literature review and underscore the importance of pertinent constructs used in this study. We develop specific hypotheses based on the theoretical tenets of RBV, relational capital theory, and TCE literature. Second, we detail the research design and the data analysis process utilized in this study. Thereafter, we report the empirical results and present the theoretical and practical implications of the empirical findings. The final section of our paper spells out the limitations of this study and identifies potential avenues for future scholarly enquiries.

Effective management of supply chain plays an important role in contributing to competitive advantage for firms. To ensure effective management of supply chains, many firms are focusing on exploiting collaborative advantages by closely working with their key suppliers. Such close partnerships often allow focal firms to bypass additional transaction costs associated with ‘arm’s length supplier relationships. However, supply and demand risks inherent in supply chains, and uncertainties characterized by rapidly changing external environment, may enhance or worsen the benefits associated with such closely-knit partnerships. Therefore, the existing literature has identified a greater need to understand the boundary conditions of buyer–supplier relationships characterized by superior partnership quality. In this paper we set out to address this void in the literature. Drawing from RBV-based relational view we augment our understanding of the effect of supply chain partnership quality on SCP. In addition, by integrating TCE with the relational view, we examined the moderating effect of different forms of risks (demand and supply risk) and environmental uncertainty on the partnership quality–SCP relationship. In doing so, we shed light on two interrelated research questions: (1) does higher partnership quality lead to enhanced SCP, (2) how do supply risk, demand risk, and environmental uncertainty moderate the relationship between partnership quality and SCP? Our results demonstrate a positive relationship between partnership quality and SCP. This is in line with earlier findings pertaining to the relational advantage perspective of the firm (Dyer, 1996, Fynes et al., 2004, Lado et al., 2008 and Lee, 2001). Furthermore, evidence of higher demand side risk resulted in a stronger positive relationship between partnership quality and SCP. This corroborates with earlier findings that closely-knit partnerships could lead to better coordination and information sharing among the partners which could mitigate some of the demand side risks and lead to superior SCP (Hsu et al., 2008 and Kannan and Tan, 2006). By including partnership quality in our research as a useful relational resource which firms can develop over time, we have added to the evolving partnership-based studies in the domain of buyer–supplier literature ( Lahiri & Kedia, 2011). In particular, our findings draw attention to the importance of considering the nature of partnership in tandem with supply chain risks and external uncertainty in determining performance. This research has undertaken an endeavor to enrich this growing body of knowledge. We did not find a significant the moderating effect of supply risk on the relationship between partnership quality and SCP. One reason for the insignificant moderating effect of supply risk could be that, unlike demand-side risks, perceived supply-side risks do not affect an already closely-knitted buyer–supplier partnership quality. In other words, if the partnership quality is high, the focal firm may continue relying on its suppliers regardless of the existence of supply-side risks. The finding that existence of demand risks strengthens the partnership quality–SCP relationship indicates that in the presence of risks, exchange partners rely more on each other to help boost performance. As we have generally argued that under higher levels of risks, the performance enhancing effects of high levels of partnership quality are magnified when trust rather than formal governance mechanisms such as contracts are used. With the increase in risks partners need to adapt and require the enhanced flexibility and behavioral confidence of relational exchanges (Cannon et al., 2000 and Palmatier et al., 2007). In addition, we found that the positive relationship between partnership quality and SCP is weakened when environmental uncertainty is higher. This finding cautions us about the unconditional use of relational governance when environmental uncertainty is high. In addition, the differential moderating impact of risk and uncertainty found in this study also adds to the growing body of literature that explores the role of risk and uncertainty in the supply chain context (Blackhurst et al., 2005, Craighead et al., 2007 and Hult et al., 2010). Broadly, our findings uphold the intellectual movement that contends that a firm’s superior performance (competitive advantage) sometimes arises not from the firm itself, but from inter-firm sources of advantage, in this case, the quality of partnership between supply chain partners (Dyer, 1996, Kedia and Mukherjee, 2009, Lado et al., 1997 and Lahiri and Kedia, 2011). Important managerial implications emerge for both the focal firms and their supply chain partners. Top managers from partner organizations need to develop and maintain good quality partnerships since this was shown to have a positive effect on SCP. Ideally, supply chain partners need to move from a formal contractual relationship to a more relational form of governance as our research has shown that reliance on relational governance creates value and superior performance (Kedia & Mukherjee, 2009). The supply chain partners should also understand that uncertainty arising from the business environment may negatively impact the performance of their supply chain partnership. Thus, top managers from both firms need to continuously examine environmental uncertainty and to devise strategies to mitigate the potentially negative impact of these factors on supply chain performance. Appropriate measures should be taken by the managers, such as proactive environmental scanning, or proactive planning to create a more stable environment, since it may be easier for the focal firms to collaborate and coordinate in such an environment leading to enhanced effectiveness of the partnership quality. Managers must also understand that good quality partnerships could be the key to dealing with and mitigating some of the common inherent demand side risks.