Title: The role of suppliers in establishing buyer-supplier relationship towards better supplier performance

Authors: Keng Lin Soh; K. Jayaraman; Teoh Su Yen; S. Kiumarsi

Addresses: School of Management, University Sains Malaysia, 11800, USM, Malaysia ' Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, USM, Malaysia ' Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, USM, Malaysia ' Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, USM, Malaysia

Abstract: The multinational companies (MNCs) functioning globally have more than hundreds of suppliers and they geometrically grow towards their organisational performance both in terms of financial and non-financial areas. The individual supplier performance is also essential to support MNCs on the holistic supply chain management. Although the significance of the buyer-supplier relationship has long been focused on literature of business and management, little has been studied for its mediating role in supplier engagement, supplier infrastructure, supplier quality and supplier commitment each on supplier performance in an organisation. This study tries to address this gap in the literature by examining the impacts of buyer-supplier relationship in its mediating role to supplier performance instead of firm performance in manufacturing industries. A conceptual research model has been developed to investigate the relationship of these variables and hypotheses are tested for predictive inference. The findings reveal that supplier quality and supplier commitment could influence supplier performance with a help from the mediating role of buyer-supplier relationship.

Keywords: buyer-supplier relationships; BSR; supplier engagement; supplier infrastructure; supplier quality; supplier commitment; supplier performance; multinational corporations; MNCs; supply chain management; SCM; mediating role; manufacturing industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2016.074466

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2016 Vol.17 No.2, pp.183 - 197

Received: 10 Jul 2014
Accepted: 26 Jul 2014
Published online: 31 Jan 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article