Title: Suppliers' corporate ability and consumer evaluations of a manufacturer

Authors: Hyunjin Kang; Bowon Kim; Yun Shin Lee

Addresses: KAIST Business School, Seoul 02455, Korea ' KAIST Business School, Seoul 02455, Korea ' KAIST Business School, Seoul 02455, Korea

Abstract: This study explores consumer perceptions of supply chain partners. In particular, we analyse whether a supplier's corporate ability affects consumer evaluations of a manufacturer. We also examine the moderating effect of a supplier's market position, either the top-dog (strong) or underdog (weak) position. Using a vignette-based experiment, we find that a supplier's high corporate ability does not affect how consumers evaluate the manufacturer. However, a supplier's low corporate ability leads consumers to devalue the manufacturer. We also find that the effect of a supplier's corporate ability is moderated by the supplier's market position: the link between a supplier's low corporate ability and consumers' negative evaluations of a manufacturer becomes stronger when the supplier is perceived as in a top-dog position.

Keywords: behavioural supply management; underdog position; top-dog position; consumer perceptions; supply chain management; SCM; vignette-based experiment; supply chain partners; supplier market position; supplier evaluation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2017.083333

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2017 Vol.27 No.1, pp.19 - 34

Received: 19 Aug 2015
Accepted: 03 Oct 2015
Published online: 24 Mar 2017 *

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