This research offers novel insights into how supply chain partnerships can be managed through voluntarily adopted non-proprietary based supply chain management (SCM) practices. This research is also timely as reflected by the emergence of these types of practices in recent times, leading to the suggestion that they might be equally effective as (if not more so than) traditional proprietary based ones in managing supply chain partnerships. Previous research has tended to focus on proprietary based SCM practices that are meant to be mandatorily adopted among supply chain firms. It has however tended to focus on the transaction itself, detracting attention from the broader issue of understanding how partnerships are managed as such. The lack of consideration of the relational aspects of partnerships is especially made prominent given that fums these days rarely function as autonomous entities but are in some form of partnership with others. The lack of any established theory therefore suggests a theory-building as opposed to a theory-testing research approach. Through case studies analysing the behaviour of firms in supply chain partnerships upon the introduction of voluntarily adopted non-proprietary SCM practices, insights were revealed into how partnerships were managed as such. This research found that these practices also provided an opportunity for a multitude of behaviours to be exhibited, which might not otherwise be possible in supply chain partnerships managed by mandatorily adopted proprietary based SCM practices. Specifically, it found that firms responded by undertaking various governance and adaptation activities. It also found that these two activities were related to each other. In the broader scheme of things, it is suggested that through these types of practices, firms are able to meet the challenge of managing their supply chain partnerships. The key implications for theory and strategy are: (1) it challenges the predominant view that voluntarily adopted non-proprietary based SCM practices are ill-equipped to manage supply chain partnerships and, (2) the recognition that the behaviour of firms in supply chain partnerships is affected by interdependency effects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:487923 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Ong, Bennett Hong Yang |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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