Managing supplier involvement in new product development: a portfolio approach

Supplier involvement in new product development projects has become an increasingly popular method for improving project effectiveness (product costs and quality) and project efficiency (development costs and time). One of the key issues in managing this involvement is determining which type of involvement a manufacturer should have with the various suppliers that may be engaged simultaneously in a development project. In this article, a Supplier Involvement Portfolio is introduced to distinguish four types of supplier involvement in development projects. Subsequently, suitable supplier–manufacturer interfaces for the four types of involvement are defined in terms of the direction of information flow, the communication media used, the amount of communication, the topics discussed and the functions involved.     

How socialization tactics affect supplier-buyer co-development performance in exploratory and exploitative projects: The mediating effects of cooperation and collaboration

Drawing on prominent theories of innovation and interorganzational relationship paradigms, this research identifies exploration-exploitation, one of the innovation characteristics of co-development projects, as a boundary condition for the effects of formal and informal socialization tactics on co-development performance. The results suggest that formal socialization tactics enhance co-development performance in exploitative innovation projects, while informal socialization tactics facilitate co-development performance in exploratory innovation projects. Moreover, the research firstly introduces cooperation and collaboration to interpret the mediating mechanisms underlying the relationships above. The findings indicate that cooperation mediates the effect of formal socialization tactics on co-development performance of exploitative projects, whereas the influence of informal socialization tactics on co-development performance of exploratory projects is mediated by collaboration. Based on the results, this research provides practical guidelines for managers who are considering how to employ appropriate socialization tactics to facilitate performance in a setting of co-development.     

Determinants of Supplier Willingness to Invest in Supporting a Manufacturer's Line

Abstract

This study examines the significance of supplier's expectation of continuity of its relationship with a manufacturer, perception of manufacturer's reputation, trust in manufacturer's credibility, trust in manufacturer's benevolence, and dependence on manufacturer as determinants of its willingness to invest in supporting a manufacturer's line. Data collected from Malaysian and Korean auto suppliers indicate that expectation of continuity of relationship, manufacturer reputation, and trust in manufacturer's credibility are significant determinants of supplier willingness to invest, while supplier dependence and trust in manufacturer's benevolence are not.     

Manufacturer marketing initiatives and retailer information sharing

This research examines a retailer’s incentive to share information with its supplier when the supplier can also undertake initiatives to increase retail demand. It is well known that a retailer is averse to sharing market information with a manufacturer due to concern for a manufacturer’s strategic use of such information. This research shows that despite such strategic exploitation of market information, a retailer may want to establish information sharing channels with its supplier. Information sharing essentially shifts power upstream which, in turn, enhances the manufacturer’s incentive to bear costs to boost retail demand: the manufacturer is induced to invest merely by knowing that information is on its way. Hence, the retailer benefits from information sharing ex ante despite the costly ex post exploitation by the manufacturer. This finding is a stark contrast to the most of previous results which consistently point out how bad it is for the manufacturer to have the retailer’s demand information before setting prices. In fact, due to the investment effect, information sharing can lead to gains for the retailer, manufacturer, and consumers alike.     

供应商与制造商间的议价博弈分析

本文以供应商与制造商间的合作关系为研究对象,利用轮流出价的议价博弈模型,分析了供应商与制造商间在谈判中的议价策略,为供应商和制造商在报价竞争中提供可操作的决策支持,确保供应商和制造商双方的利益,从而形成巩固的合作伙伴关系.     

Volatile Environments and Interfirm Governance: Does Trust Matter?

Purpose: Manufacturers in volatile environments should rely on governance mechanisms to reduce the risks inherent in those environments. However, it remains to be determined which governance mechanism a given manufacturer will develop in volatile environments in order to manage the relationship with its supplier. The principal objective of this study is to explain circumstances in which different governance mechanisms function under volatile environmental conditions.

Methodology: The empirical test was conducted with manufacturing companies in the context of manufacturer-supplier relationships. Construct measures were based on existing measures and previous research. Measurement reliability and validity were established using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and an overall measurement model was assessed with structural equation modeling using LISREL 8.54.

Findings: The results of this study showed that manufacturers should consider the level of trust they bestow on their suppliers to select an appropriate governance mechanism to deal with environmental volatility. When a manufacturer does not trust its supplier under conditions of environmental volatility, the manufacturer should consider adopting unilateral governance. If a manufacturer trusts its supplier, it should consider bilateral governance to respond in a timely manner to changes in the resource market.

Contribution: This study introduced trust to explain governance mechanisms in an uncertain environment and showed that interorganizational trust is a condition for influencing a manufacturer's propensity toward a specific governance mechanism.     

基于模糊层次分析和灰色关联分析的供应商评价选择研究

针对传统交易关系的供应商选择评价指标的不足,考虑到在当今动态、合作、竞争以及要求快速反映的环境下制造商与供应商关系的转变,从合作伙伴关系以及协调的角度出发,提出从企业能力、合作程度、服务水平三个层面来研究供应商选择评价问题,并构建了相应的评价指标体系。同时,通过整合模糊AHP与灰关联分析法,建立了一套更具客观性与准确性的供应商评选方法,并对电力设备制造商进行了实例研究。     

Purchasing involvement in product development:: a framework

Both within academia and practice, the involvement of purchasing and suppliers in product development has attracted considerable attention during the last decade. However, most research is limited to the context of single development projects, focusing on possible short-term contributions such as the reduction of development lead-time. Long-term issues like technological alignment between supplier and manufacturer are relatively ignored. Therefore, this article seeks to develop a coherent framework of specific activities across a number of different management areas within purchasing involvement in product development. Such a framework may help to implement, improve and audit this involvement.     

供应商创新能力有利于企业创新能力提升吗？——基于技术距离视角的实证研究

供应商是企业创新的重要来源。然而,供应商创新能力是否差异化影响了企业利用式和探索式创新能力呢？并且上述影响是否随着双方技术距离变化而发生改变呢？基于制造业上市公司数据,文章研究了供应商创新能力和技术距离对于企业不同类型创新能力的影响。结果显示,与创新能力强的供应商合作可以显著提升企业利用式创新能力,但抑制了企业探索式创新能力。企业供应商间技术距离和企业探索式创新能力正相关,和企业利用式创新能力负相关。进一步的研究发现：技术距离负向调节了供应商创新能力和企业利用式创新能力之间的关系。随着技术距离的增加,技术距离将逐渐消弱并最终逆转供应商创新能力对于企业利用式创新能力的正面影响;技术距离正向调节了供应商创新能力和企业探索式创新能力之间的关系。技术距离较大时,供应商创新能力和企业探索式创新能力正相关。技术距离较小时,供应商创新能力和企业探索式创新能力负相关。文章深化了现有理论对供应商知识整合的认识,为企业通过供应商选择提升自身创新能力提供了有益启示。     

Technological turbulence, supplier market orientation, and buyer satisfaction

The channel literature suggests that building a close relationship with key partners is one of the key strategies that channel members use to overcome the challenges of a changing environment. However, such a strategy may be ineffective when high technological turbulence exists in the buyer's market. This study focuses on the buyer's perspective in channel relationships and examines the buyer's satisfaction with outcomes resulting from engaging in relationships with a supplier. The results show that a buyer's performance is enhanced when a buyer develops a close relationship with a supplier whom it perceives to be market oriented but that a close relationship becomes detrimental to performance when technological turbulence increases. These findings suggest that managers need to be aware of the effect of technological turbulence and be alert in managing close relationships even with market-oriented suppliers.     

Driving In-Role and Extra-Role Brand Performance among Retail Frontline Salespeople: Antecedents and the Moderating Role of Customer Orientation

The organizational frontline in retail represents the frontline for an entire supply chain. This channel structure distances the branded supplier from the end consumer and makes the supplier dependent on a retail frontline salesperson that (1) it does not control and (2) also represents competing brands. This study reveals mechanisms that the supplier may use to influence retail frontline salespeople. We demonstrate the importance of consumer marketing programs and supplier representatives in building brand identification between the manufacturer’s brand and the retail frontline employee that translates into increased brand sales, while also revealing the role of rewards programs in stimulating brand-specific extra-role behaviors. Interestingly, retail frontline customer orientation, built by the retailer, diminishes the effect of brand extra-role behaviors toward the focal brand on the focal brand’s sales, providing an informal control mechanism for retailers to protect its objectives. The results of this study have powerful ramifications for both retailers and suppliers in achieving both their mutual, and sometimes differing, objectives related to the retail frontline.     

The Impact of Relational Governance on Relational Exchange Performance: A Case of the Taiwanese Automobile Industry

Relational governance affects manufacturers’ ability to adapt flexibly to uncertainty in manufacturer–supplier relationships. Enhancing manufacturer–supplier relationships requires considering supplier willingness and opinions on the relational governance of their focal manufacturer and the effect of relational governance on relational exchange performance. After reviewing the related literature, I identified the antecedents of relational governance affecting suppliers’ relationships with their focal manufacturers and explored the effect of relational governance on relational exchange performance, taking relationship value and relationship norms as the intervening constructs. Data were collected from 241 usable questionnaires that had been completed by suppliers for all Taiwanese automobile manufacturers. The hypotheses were tested with respondent data by using a structural equation model. The results indicated that relational governance directly and positively relates to relationship value and relationship norms, relationship value and relationship norms directly and positively relate to relational exchange performance, and customer focus and competitive priorities directly and positively relate to relational governance.     

Integrating global and local procurement for superior supplier working relations

Globalization is forcing global organizations to focus on processes that will enable them to more effectively and efficiently integrate and coordinate their activities throughout their worldwide organization. As such, global sourcing is becoming a standard practice in many global organizations. Using a dataset of 1455 observations from the suppliers of a North American-based global manufacturer of high technology products, this research evaluates how a global company can utilize a globally integrated procurement organization to achieve global and local sourcing responsiveness and superior supplier working relations. The study found that if a global procurement organization aspires to achieve exceptional supplier working relations, it should be highly integrated across its geographic regions with knowledgeable global and local procurement personnel who effectively communicate with the firm's suppliers, while working closely together in a coordinated manner to achieve a globally responsive supply chain.     

Factors of determining long-term orientation in interfirm relationships

Marketers have witnessed a paradigm shift in which establishing, maintaining, and forging long-term buyer–seller relationships are considered the core of marketing activities. Accordingly, investigating a long-term orientation (LTO) has become a steady research stream in the marketing literature. Building on this on-going research stream, this study confirms that an essential precursor of a manufacturer's LTO is trust that, in turn, is formed by relational norms and satisfaction with supplier performance. Interestingly, however, the seemingly strong trust–LTO path is moderated by both power asymmetry and environmental uncertainty in buyer–seller relationships. The empirical findings suggest that regardless of emerging relationship marketing where buyer and seller are portrayed as parts of a team, power is still in use to control suppliers. In addition, a manufacturer facing uncertainty is less likely to form LTO toward its supplier for fear of losing flexibility in the time- and quality-based competition.     

Partner or supplier: An examination of client/agency relationships in an IMC context

There is growing evidence from practitioners that the advertising industry is in a state of crisis. As campaigns become more integrated and multi-disciplinary, the relationship between advertising agencies and clients is being tested to its limits and is presently considered to be at an all-time low. Agencies feel less valued and are being excluded from C-suite discussion. Clients feel that agencies do not appreciate the changing landscape and how the customer experience is now key. Both sides recognise the need for more trust and collaboration. This study applies the agency theory and the social power theory to understand the pressures that the relationship is under. It looks for evidence that IMC is creating a movement away from a business alliance relationship by comparing qualitative data collected from both agencies and clients, using NVivo to identify themes. The findings identify four themes which illustrate this shift towards a supplier relationship: the client ownership of the customer journey, the lack of a strategic role of agencies, the challenges of agency collaboration and difficulties of agency specialisation.     

大数据驱动制造企业与物流企业协同发展的实证研究

大数据和大数据技术的快速发展和应用,为制造企业和物流企业的生存和发展带来了新的机遇和挑战,如何运用大数据和大数据技术推动制造企业与物流企业有效协同,成为当前理论界和实业界关注的焦点。为探究大数据驱动制造企业与物流企业协同发展的内在机理,可基于大数据可挖掘性、价值性、真实性、多样性等主要特性,构建大数据驱动制造企业与物流企业协同发展概念模型并提出研究假设,进而运用结构方程模型对研究假设进行验证。研究结果发现,大数据的价值性、真实性、多样性对制造企业发展水平具有显著正向影响,而可挖掘性对其正向影响不显著;大数据的真实性、可挖掘性、多样性对物流企业服务水平具有显著正向影响,而价值性对其正向影响不显著;大数据的可挖掘性、真实性对制造企业与物流企业协同程度具有显著正向影响,而多样性、价值性对其正向影响不显著,不过价值性可以通过影响制造企业发展水平产生间接影响作用。这与目前我国制造企业、物流企业运用新一代信息技术驱动自身转型升级尚处于起步阶段存在很大关系。未来,随着科学技术的进步以及制造企业智能化与高端物流的发展,大数据将在驱动制造企业与物流企业协同方面发挥显著重要作用,最终促使制造企业与物流企业形成长期稳定的协同发展关系。     

Explaining supplier-buyer partnerships: a dynamic game theory approach

Car manufacturers are introducing new purchasing policies in the European automotive industry. Aggregation of parts to form complete prefabricated systems is becoming the prominent way for suppliers to increase their competitiveness. This change implies new organizational arrangements between car manufacturers and suppliers to reflect a new relationship between traditionally adversarial firms. Using a game-theoretic approach, we emphasize, in this paper, that a partnership can only be accomplished, when the present uncertainty between the car manufacturer and the supplier can be drastically reduced. We show through a dynamic game construct and a case study how trust between suppliers and assemblers can be forged.     

INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR ALLIANCES: PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

It is generally acknowledged that information exchange plays an important role in strategic alliances. However, little is known with respect to the perceptions each alliance partner has concerning information exchange as well as how to measure these perceptions. Key managers and executives in the food and health and personal care industries in North America participated in a mail survey to investigate these phenomena. The survey approach used a dyadic research design to identify the key elements of information exchange that impact alliance satisfaction. Based on the alliance partner's channel position as a buyer (manufacturer) or supplier (product or service supplier), the similarities and differences in perspective and subsequent managerial implications are analyzed and discussed.     

Perceived Product Benefits and the Project Management Performance: The Role of the Perceived Supplier Ranking

The aim of this article is to understand customers’ perceptions regarding the project management performance and the perceived benefits if the customers perceived the supplier to be the best or the second-best systems delivery project supplier. This research investigates 2,191 system delivery projects in the facilities management industry. Exploratory factor analysis was employed on the project management variables. The testing of the hypotheses was done with partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS. The findings show a significant relationship between the commissioning and the perceived benefits, independent of whether the company was perceived to be best or second best in the industry. The proposal stage was perceived to be significantly related to perceived benefits provided by the outcome of the project (the product) when the company was the second-best supplier. Inherent structure in systems delivery projects included three phases, consisting of the proposal, installation, and commissioning. Also, the perceived project management performance in the commissioning stage was significantly related to the perceived benefits provided by the outcome of the project (the product) when the supplier was perceived to be the best and the second best in the industry. Contrary to expectations, this was not the case with all project management phases.     

Analyzing the effects of private-label supplier disclosure on retailer image

Private-label retailers' disclosures of dual manufacturing agreements—that is, agreements with manufacturers that produce both their own national brands and private labels—can affect the images associated with the retailers. In this study, an experiment reveals moderating effects on retailer images, according to the images of both the national brand manufacturers and the retailers; and also depending on the brand equity of the private label. A low-image retailer's disclosure that a national brand manufacturer supplies its private label causes consumers to perceive that the retailer has a higher image. However, the positive effects of private label supplier disclosure on the retailer's image are weaker when the private label enjoys high equity.