<p>Purchasing is a function that has developed form a more clerical function to a function of strategic importance over the last 20 years. As a result of this development we have observed that many fi rms engage in supplier development activities as a part of their purchasing strategy.</p><p>This thesis consists of four different essays describing various aspects of supplier development and an essay that summarise and connects the four essays as well as giving a broad introduction to the fi eld of research.</p><p>Small and medium sized firms are of special interest when studying supplier or supply chain since they are important links in their supply chains but have fewer resources and therefore limited possibilities to develop by themselves. In the thesis three of the essays describe different ways in which this can be conducted.</p><p>Positive benefits from supplier and supply chain development reported in the thesis are lower costs, shorter lead times, increased competence and an overall improved competitiveness.</p>

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Purchasing is a function that has developed form a more clerical function to a function of strategic importance over the last 20 years. As a result of this development we have observed that many fi rms engage in supplier development activities as a part of their purchasing strategy. This thesis consists of four different essays describing various aspects of supplier development and an essay that summarise and connects the four essays as well as giving a broad introduction to the fi eld of research. Small and medium sized firms are of special interest when studying supplier or supply chain since they are important links in their supply chains but have fewer resources and therefore limited possibilities to develop by themselves. In the thesis three of the essays describe different ways in which this can be conducted. Positive benefits from supplier and supply chain development reported in the thesis are lower costs, shorter lead times, increased competence and an overall improved competitiveness.

No description available.

Background:  As enterprises focus on their core competence, outsourcing other activities other firms can do better, the necessity of managing supplier relationships and upgrading the inter-firm relationships become evident. Supplier development as a potential attempt, tries to fill the gap between ideal criteria and the particular suppliers’ actual capabilities and performance in the supply chain. The buying firms initiate the supplier development efforts in order to increase their abilities to create and deliver a superior value to their own customers. In this respect, it is essential to investigate the practices and story of what the buyer and the supplier do in relation to supplier development and what factors contribute to the success of the program and benefits of the dyad. Furthermore, acknowledgment of difficulties that might bring failure in the SD should be taken into consideration so as to possibly avoid them. The supplier development is widely neglected a dyadic view in literature review. The importance of this study is adding the supplier’s standpoint to the buyer’s view in order to achieve the dyadic perspective associated with the practices, the success factors and the barriers. Purpose: This research aims to identify and describe the practices of supplier development in buyer-supplier dyads. The success factors of the supplier development program and the barriers to the supplier development programs are also investigated based on the buying and supplying firms’ perspectives. The main goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the supplier development from a dyadic standpoint. Method: This study is conducted from an interpretivism standpoint with the use of a deductive approach and qualitative strategy. A holistic multiple-case study of two plastic manufacturing firms as the buyers and their three main suppliers (three dyads) is applied in Iran. The empirical data is gathered via 6 different semi-structured interviews. The empirical evidence is analyzed by using within-case, cross-case and pattern matching analysis. The study considers the ethical issues; harm to participant, informed consents, invasion privacy and deception. The research quality is based upon trustworthiness and authenticity.   Result, conclusion: Thanks to within-case analysis which generates the dyadic view with respect to practices, success factors and barriers to supplier development, amazing result is achieved that rarely mentioned by the previous research. A number of conflicting views between the buying firm and the supplier is found due to dyadic investigation which demonstrates the gaps between the buyer and supplier’s perceptions in dyadic relationship. The dyads are simultaneously involved in both direct and indirect supplier development practices. Based on the level of buying firm’s involvement in supplier development activities, the dyads partially follow the degree of sequence from low, moderate to high involvement levels. Each dyad can eliminate or keep the lower level of buyer’s involvement activities when they start the moderate and high level of buyer’s involvement practices. However, the specific position cannot be identified for a particular dyad and the supplier development activities are scattered in all three levels. Based on the dyadic standpoint, the factors that contribute to success of the supplier development program in each dyad can be seen as buyer-, supplier-specific and interface success factors. In this regards, this dyadic multiple-case study confirms the reviewed literature associated with success factors and finds supplier’s top management support and previous supplier development experiences as the additional factors in supplier-specific area that contributes to the successful inter-firm relationship and the supplier development that are not pinpointed by the previous studies. Barriers to the supplier development are factors which hinder the success of the supplier development program. According to the literature review, the barriers could be divided into buyer-, supplier- specific as well as buyer-supplier interface barriers. This study partially confirms the previous studies and reveals some surprising results. One of the most useful findings of the research is that only one barrier in buyer-specific category is verified by one of the dyadic cases. However, in addition to identified barriers, lack of supplier’s top management support and supplier’s indolence are seen as the supplementary supplier-specific barriers to the supplier development. Interestingly, there are other types of barriers that cannot be found in the previous research which is categorized as context barriers. This type includes those kinds of barriers that are originated in the context of relationship in a dyad.

­^¤åºK­n The purpose of this research is to study the evaluation and management system of multinational suppliers, which includes the followings. 1. To summary and compile various study and theory of supplier management and evaluation, and to analysis the infrastructure and characteristic of each method. 2. Based on previous study and cases reviewing, this study aims to study how a multinational company well management the suppliers from different countries, and how to elevate the company¡¦s benefit by building up the multinational supplier evaluation and management system. The result of the study of case company shows good effects after the establishment of SEAP system. The analysis on purchasing risk, technical ability, supplier behavior management ability, direction management ability, informatics technology management and performance on strategy, economic and technique, showed better result after the establishment and adoption of SEAP system. The study also indicated that the benefit and advantage derived from the establishment of well supplier evaluation and management system. All multinational companies should not ignore its importance. In addition, this study also suggests several important though in the management of multinational suppliers, which include: a company should well established the relationship with the suppliers with an all-directional though and well, to view the suppliers the partners to share the benefit, to establish a well rewarding system and communication mechanism, and to have a common consensus on quality management. Keyword¡GMultinational suppliers, supply chain, supplier management, supplier evaluation.

Quality Management (QM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) have been considered as two of the most important business strategies. They have become the prerequisite for success and competitive advantage in the global market. Supplier Integration is a subset of supply chain, and supplier relationship is no longer a competition, but competition and cooperation. Integration capabilities between suppliers can be regarded as a competitive advantage. The better supplier integration capabilities, the better supply chain performance. That would further enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. This paper explores the relationship between QM practices and Supplier Integration of supply chains. The entire population of suppliers to aerospace industry in Taiwan was surveyed to measure use of QM practices. QM is modeled as a second-order construct reflected by six QM practices (small group problem solving, top management leadership for quality, information and feedback, process management, customer focus, and supplier involvement). The results showed supplier involvement is the only factor which has statistically significant effect on supplier integration. Our study reflects the underlying fact of the aerospace industry in Taiwan; i.e., it is a manufacturing industry with no design capability. For a manufacturing industry without design capability, supplier involvement is the most important construct for effective supply chain management.

Customers have lately become of increased importance in supplier innovation processesthrough inter-firm relationships. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to study how suppliercustomer relationships affect supplier innovation. By stemming from three main theoreticalconcepts, supplier-customer relationships, trust and commitment, and supplier innovation, a theoretical framework to base the analysis on was formed. The thesis utilized a qualitative casestudy research approach, where data was collected from a conducted pilot study, semistructured interviews, and secondary data sources. A small supplier within the Swedish techindustry was chosen as the unit of observation, where the supplier and two of their customerswere interviewed regarding innovation processes they had partaken in together. The results ofthe study indicate that communication and trust are important enablers of initiating jointinnovation practices. The supplier perceived the most valuable resource to receive fromcustomers in an innovation context to be knowledge about markets and demand. The resultsindicate that such knowledge could be easier for suppliers to obtain if multiple customers areincluded in innovation processes, and future research should therefore focus on comparing thebenefits and risks of single versus multiple customer involvement in supplier innovation.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the activities that nascent firms undertake to improve customer attractiveness and gain collaborative commitment from strategic suppliers. Design/methodology/approach: Data from a grounded theory study consisting of 26 participants from 15 firms and a review of extant literature were used to develop a theoretical model that explains how a nascent firm increases its customer attractiveness to elicit commitment and collaboration from strategic suppliers. Findings: The authors find that social capital, born of close social ties and social history, enhances the effectiveness of a nascent firm's relationship-building practices. This counteracts a supplier's collaborative risk and consequently increases the nascent firm's customer attractiveness, thus enabling it to obtain strategic supplier collaborative commitment. Practical implications: This research helps managers by providing direction on what practices nascent firms pursue to gain strategic supplier resources and collaboration. Given the reality of resource constraints in nascent firms, it is suggested that this insight is essential to obtaining crucial external resources needed to survive and grow. Originality/value: Extant research on buyer–supplier collaboration is mostly confined to the context of mature firms and does not account for the unique inter-organizational relational challenges faced by nascent firms. This research uncovers the idiosyncrasies of supplier management in nascent firms, and elucidates on the actions that nascent firm managers take to gain supplier collaborative commitment.

Research report presented to SBL, Unisa, Midrand. / There is a dearth of literature on how buyer-supplier relationships are organised in industries in developing countries. In this study, we drew on the existing theoretical framework on buyer-supplier relationships to establish the nature of buyer-supplier relationships in the Zimbabwean tobacco industry. Managers may use these findings as a foundation for further research on how these relationships can be improved and to gauge their current position to enable planning for strategic positioning in global competitive markets.