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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/8590 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Cerruti, Corrado |
| Contributors | Mena, Carlos |
| Publisher | Cranfield University |
| Source Sets | CRANFIELD1 |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or dissertation, Doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | © Cranfield University 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner. |
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