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.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy / Buyer-supplier relationships have been increasingly considered a critical part of contemporary supply chain management. In response to dynamic and unpredictable market changes, buyers and suppliers enter into cooperative relationships to pursue individual goals and joint goals for better economic and non-economic performance of the supply chain. On the other hand, cooperation between channel members is surrounded by uncertainty, which can create a detrimental impact on the performance of a supply chain. Previous research has focused on various aspects of uncertainty that could affect supply chain member behaviour. The present research contends that relationship behavioural factors play an important role in increasing or mitigating channel members’ perceived uncertainty in their supply or purchase decision-making. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of retailer-supplier cooperation and retailer/supplier’s decision-making uncertainty (DMU) on retail supply chain performance from the perspectives of both the retailer and the supplier. A holistic model was developed as the theoretical framework for this conceptualisation. A sample of 202 retailers and 64 suppliers in the sporting goods retail business in Taiwan was used to separately test a number of hypothesised relationships by using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that both cooperation and DMU are the key determinants of retail supply chain performance, including financial performance and non-financial performance (i.e., supply flexibility and customer service). Financial performance is positively affected by retailer-supplier cooperation and negatively affected by DMU in both the retailer model and the supplier model. The five dimensions of retailer-supplier cooperation (i.e. trust, guanxi, dependence, coercive power and non-coercive power) have significant effects on cooperation. However, apart from guanxi with the retailer/supplier, neither other relationship dimensions nor retailer-supplier cooperation have any influence on retailer’s DMU or supplier’s DMU. The results also indicate that differences and similarities exist across retailers and suppliers with respect to the effects of several relationship dimensions on cooperation and uncertainty. 2 The holistic empirical model developed for this research contributes further to understanding the links, which have been lacking in the extant channel relationship literature and supply chain management literature, between buyer-supplier relationships, DMU, and supply chain performance. The findings that a retailer/supplier’s DMU can erode the performance of a supply chain in various aspects highlight the need for improvement in some areas of supply chain efficiency and effectiveness, through cooperation-enhancing actions between the retailer and the supplier. From a managerial perspective, the performance improvement in the supply chain, in turn, will motivate more reciprocal commitment and efforts from the retailer and the supplier to maintain their working relationship. As such, mutual trust and enriched guanxi, dependence and non-coercive power help both the retailer and the supplier to have less uncertainty in their purchase/supply decision-making process. It creates a win-win position for both parties in the supply chain.

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Doctor of Philosophy / Buyer-supplier relationships have been increasingly considered a critical part of contemporary supply chain management. In response to dynamic and unpredictable market changes, buyers and suppliers enter into cooperative relationships to pursue individual goals and joint goals for better economic and non-economic performance of the supply chain. On the other hand, cooperation between channel members is surrounded by uncertainty, which can create a detrimental impact on the performance of a supply chain. Previous research has focused on various aspects of uncertainty that could affect supply chain member behaviour. The present research contends that relationship behavioural factors play an important role in increasing or mitigating channel members’ perceived uncertainty in their supply or purchase decision-making. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of retailer-supplier cooperation and retailer/supplier’s decision-making uncertainty (DMU) on retail supply chain performance from the perspectives of both the retailer and the supplier. A holistic model was developed as the theoretical framework for this conceptualisation. A sample of 202 retailers and 64 suppliers in the sporting goods retail business in Taiwan was used to separately test a number of hypothesised relationships by using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that both cooperation and DMU are the key determinants of retail supply chain performance, including financial performance and non-financial performance (i.e., supply flexibility and customer service). Financial performance is positively affected by retailer-supplier cooperation and negatively affected by DMU in both the retailer model and the supplier model. The five dimensions of retailer-supplier cooperation (i.e. trust, guanxi, dependence, coercive power and non-coercive power) have significant effects on cooperation. However, apart from guanxi with the retailer/supplier, neither other relationship dimensions nor retailer-supplier cooperation have any influence on retailer’s DMU or supplier’s DMU. The results also indicate that differences and similarities exist across retailers and suppliers with respect to the effects of several relationship dimensions on cooperation and uncertainty. 2 The holistic empirical model developed for this research contributes further to understanding the links, which have been lacking in the extant channel relationship literature and supply chain management literature, between buyer-supplier relationships, DMU, and supply chain performance. The findings that a retailer/supplier’s DMU can erode the performance of a supply chain in various aspects highlight the need for improvement in some areas of supply chain efficiency and effectiveness, through cooperation-enhancing actions between the retailer and the supplier. From a managerial perspective, the performance improvement in the supply chain, in turn, will motivate more reciprocal commitment and efforts from the retailer and the supplier to maintain their working relationship. As such, mutual trust and enriched guanxi, dependence and non-coercive power help both the retailer and the supplier to have less uncertainty in their purchase/supply decision-making process. It creates a win-win position for both parties in the supply chain.

To effectively analyze and design a flexible supply chain (FSC), a variety of variables need to be considered. This research presents a framework, an extension of Chan et al. (2009) that identifies a more extensive yet salient set of variables for designing FSCs. This framework provides a basis for using simulation to better understand, and to better design, FSCs. Conceptual simulation models are developed to represent general flexible supply chains in terms of using design and system variables. The proposed conceptual model incorporates many elements from the framework considering a wide variety of variables to demonstrate the approach for building a FSC model. This research provides a general FSC simulation model, built in FlexSim, that implements many variables from the framework and aspects of the conceptual framework. Variability plays an important role in FSC model. Two key supply-chain performance measures are lead time and variability in lead time. One way that has been proposed to improve both measures is to increase supplier flexibility. Through simulation this research provides a means to assess the effects of various manufacturing and logistics flexibility-related variables on lead time and its variability. This research includes effect of several experiments that consider the effect of supplier flexibility level, proportion of process time that is production and transportation time, and level of variability in process time on lead time. The triangular distribution is used often in simulation when process data are not available. Thus, the triangular distribution is used in the FSC simulation model. This research provides a means to effectively consider alternative values of the parameters of the triangular distribution during experimentation. The method facilitates specification of both moment and location parameters.

Despite a general consensus concerning the relevance of supply partnerships to agility, the literature reveals disagreements and contradictions regarding their characteristics and, in particular, their duration. This is, whether partnerships in an agile strategy should be long-term (strategic partnerships) or short-term (agile partnerships). The research joins this debate by investigating the types and characteristics of supply partnerships to achieve agility. The underlying premise of the work is that the type of supply partnership is contingent on the degree of turbulence an agile strategy is designed to face. The research was carried out in the fashion industry, given the relevance of agility in this industry. Specifically, the research focused the supply partnerships developed by the footwear companies in the Macerata-Fermo district, the largest footwear district in Italy. The focus on district companies allow the comparison of several companies sharing a very similar business context, allowing a better control of external variables and increasing the internal validity of the study. The field research consisted of a preliminary survey on agility drivers and agile capabilities in the Macerata-Fermo footwear district, followed by an in-depth investigation on supply partnerships using multiple embedded cases studies. Overall six medium-large footwear companies have been analysed in their supply relationships with respect to five key supply categories. For each supply category, the buyer view of the focal firms has been complemented with a view from the supplier side. In total the fieldwork is built upon 30 interviews with 22 informants from 18 companies for a total of more than 23 hours of interviews. In all cases, except two, the key informant was owner, CEO or general manager of the company, eventually supported by another company manager. In two cases, the interviews data have been strengthened by a longitudinal analysis of purchase orders over eight years. The fieldwork highlights that agility drivers and agile capabilities impact on the footwear companies’ decision of developing agile supply partnerships. Specifically footwear companies that are under the pressure of high-turbulence agility drivers (here represented by a high collection renewal rate) and that have developed strong agile capabilities (here represented by a local supply network and a purchase orders postponement) choose agile supply partnerships with respect to supply categories that are sensitive to the fashion trends and therefore difficult to be sourced in a stable way – season after season – from the same suppliers. The main contribution to theory is related to the characteristics of supply partnerships in an agile strategy and specifically to the apparent paradox of “high-involvement & short- term” relationships (i.e. agile supply partnerships). In spite of the presence of time compression diseconomies in building up partnership and of the loss of relational (non- redeployable) benefits in closing down partnerships, scenarios of high-turbulence can give companies an incentive to look for short-term partnerships. Such finding can support a wider claim that different levels of turbulence call for different agility strategies requiring different capabilities and practices. The main contribution to practice is related to the way agile partnerships are selected, started and ended. Given that many industries are facing an increase in market turbulence, it appears that many companies – even outside the fashion industry – might have to learn how to balance high-involvement supply relationships with respect to a shorter time horizon.

By the end of 20th century many industries including automotive supply industry have undergone significant merger and acquisition activity. Mergers and acquisitions have led to geographical expansions of OEM’s (Origininal Equipment Manufacturer) across country borders and across continents. This tendency can be explained by the pressure to manufacture better equipments and less expensive vehicles which lead to specialization and internationalization of the truck industry. Plus, these consolidation trends are still actual phenomena in truck industry and can bring structural and strategic changes in the supply chain. Apparently. these trends bring a challenge for automotive suppliers, which is how to sustain competitive market position after the merger of important customers. By using the example of Scania and MAN consolidation, this research adopts case-study method with qualitative approach. The intent is to clarify how the buyer–supplier re-lationship is influenced by post-merger sourcing strategy in the automotive industry, with the purpose to investigate and analyze supplier strategic response mechanisms against pos-sible impacts of post-merger sourcing strategy in truck industry. The findings emphasize the importance of sourcing strategy changes in achieving the motives of the merger. We also identify a set of specific supplier selection criteria that appear to cause changes in the sourcing strategy of merged OEMs which, ultimately, influ-ence their purchase decisions.Then it is observed that dimensions like interaction, power-balance, and collaboration in buyer-supplier relationships vary with regards to sourcing strategy changes. Together, the findings contribute to our understanding of the strategic reponse mechanisms like business reengineering and restructuring through which suppliers can improve their market-related performance and better postion themselves in front of the merging customers.

The research presented in this thesis has focussed on exploring buyer- supplier relationships from a human perspective. To date, researchers across the globe have studied buyer-supplier relationships and endeavoured to find means to try to make them better. This has led to many new relationship development programmes initiated by companies and new concepts introduced by academics for the betterment of buyersupplier relationships. The focus of academics has been in trying to study buyersupplier relationships from various factors, viz. power, opportunistic behaviour, unethical behaviour, partnerships, collaborations, etc. All these endeavours have focussed on using technology or business processes in order to streamline operations and create environments, which would foster partnerships or collaborations. One aspect not usually given prominence in these studies has been the presence of humans in the relationship as representatives of the transacting companies. Giving this more focus, the researcher feels that organisational culture plays a very strong role in the way organisations operate, and when two organisations transact with each other the individual culture is bound to play a role in the way the transaction is conducted. The individual culture of the organisation also depends upon the humans in the organisation. Since, the focus of the research was on exploring the buyer-supplier relationships from a human perspective, the research sought this perspective from people working in purchasing or sales functions in different companies. The information was collected by conducting "Phenomenological Interviews" with focus on "critical incidents" affecting the relationship. The information was analysed for themes which led to the need to study buyer-supplier relationships from two perspectives: 1) game-like behaviour, 2) discretion, humans have in the relationship. The presence of game-like behaviour and humans in the relationship led the researcher to study the concepts of "Transactional Analysis" and check for the feasibility to transfer the concepts from a therapeutic setting to buyer- supplier relationships. The research has been successful in exploring issues affecting buyer-supplier relationships. A methodology for aligning supply chains by taking into account human issues has been proposed. The methodology comprises a relationship framework that is used for studying buyer-supplier relationships on a macro- level based on the levels of satisfaction the entities have with each other. Since high levels of dissatisfaction lead to various change- inducing transactions or game-like behaviour between the entities, the framework identifies the status of the relationship, and can be used to gauge what's going to happen to it, once the transaction is over. The concepts of Transactional Analysis and the tools associated with it, viz. Drama Triangle analysis and structural modelling are useful in studying the dynamics of the transactions from the human perspective and also from a psychological perspective.

The interaction among firms in the supply chain is necessary for business process execution and relationship success. One phenomenon of great significance to buyer-supplier relationships is opportunism. Opportunism is defined as behavior that is self-interest seeking with guile. It is manifested in behaviors such as stealing, cheating, dishonesty, and withholding information. Opportunism negatively impacts relational exchange tenets such as trust, commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction. Furthermore, perceptions of opportunism negatively affect firm performance. In lieu of the known negative effects of opportunistic behavior on buyer-supplier relationships, why do agents continue to engage in opportunistic tactics with their exchange partners? A comprehensive examination is necessary in order to understand why sourcing professionals engage in acts of opportunism. Understanding why opportunism occurs will reveal how to deter it, and this remains a gap in the literature. Based on theories in economics, marketing channels, supply chain management, decision science, and psychology, a comprehensive model tested a set of factors hypothesized to drive the use of opportunistic tactics. Factors include buyer-supplier relationship-specific factors, environmental factors, individual personality-related factors, and situational factors. Data was collected via internet survey of sourcing professionals from private industry and government agencies. Common to many studies of ethics, respondents made choices based on two hypothetical vignettes. Two logistic regression models were used to test the hypotheses. Factors found to affect buyer opportunism included buyer power, corporate ethical values, pressure to perform, leadership opportunism, business sector, honesty/integrity, and subjective expected utility. This research contributes to theory by combining several disparate theories to best explain opportunism. A comprehensive evaluation should determine which theory explains the most variance in decision making. The study contributes to practice by identifying those important factors contributing to a sourcing professional's decision to use opportunistic tactics. The ability to manage these factors should improve the probability of relationship success. Additionally, the identification of these factors should help leaders to make more accurate estimates of transaction costs - key knowledge required to make an informed make or buy governance decision.